Bowling ball welding table

[willy3486]

I have a question on the bowling ball welding tables I have seen made. These are the ones that has two rotors holding a bowling ball and they grip it when a jack is raised. I am wondering on this instead of a hydraulic jack could one of the newer scissor type jacks that you wind up on newer cars be used? Would it grip it enough? Is there a reason not to use a wind up jack? I am the gathering up stage of making one and hope to weld it up in a few weeks.

 

[Old Man Roger]

They lift a truck so they’re gonna be pretty strong. Get a grippy ball.

 

[LXCam]

I saw the title, read the post and still was like WTF? You talk’n bout Willis

So I looked. Holly heck, that’s badass.

 

[drmarkr]

I have a question on the bowling ball welding tables I have seen made. These are the ones that has two rotors holding a bowling ball and they grip it when a jack is raised. I am wondering on this instead of a hydraulic jack could one of the newer scissor type jacks that you wind up on newer cars be used? Would it grip it enough? Is there a reason not to use a wind up jack? I am the gathering up stage of making one and hope to weld it up in a few weeks.

Googled it. The hydraulic model is fooking badazz. How would you work the scissor with your foot though?!?? I see bottle jacks as cheap as $20 on Amazon....

 

[Murby]

I've been welding for 40 years and the bowling ball welding table seems kind of pointless.. at least to me..

Something far more useful would be a motorized rotator.. something that rotates a pipe or an object while your grinding or welding so you can go full circle without stopping.

 

[willy3486]

For those who are not familiar here is one. I plan to do a different type top.

bowling ball table

The hydraulic model if fooking badazz. How would you work the scissor with your foot though?!??

Instead of using my foot I was wondering if I could just turn the handle with my hand. One issue might be that I would have to bend down more than I want. I have some of these. But after thinking about it I may go ahead and use a hydraulic jack.

 

[KwikFab]

Interesting.

I'll never see the need for one, nor will I ever want one, but interesting nonetheless.

 

[willy3486]

I've been welding for 40 years and the bowling ball welding table seems kind of pointless.. at least to me..

Something far more useful would be a motorized rotator.. something that rotates a pipe or an object while your grinding or welding so you can go full circle without stopping.

I plan on using it for other things than just welding. I will make a post for it when I make it showing how I plan to do it.

 

[willy3486]

Interesting.

I'll never see the need for one, nor will I ever want one, but interesting nonetheless.

One reason I want to make it is to see if I can. I have other ideas for a top instead of a flat piece to weld on.

 

[drmarkr]

One reason I want to make it is to see if I can. I have other ideas for a top instead of a flat piece to weld on.

post pics when you do...

 

[LXCam]

Ya know if someone was into the art’se fart’se stuff I could see this being super handy.

 

[DaveAndStuff]

I've been welding for 40 years and the bowling ball welding table seems kind of pointless.. at least to me..

Something far more useful would be a motorized rotator.. something that rotates a pipe or an object while your grinding or welding so you can go full circle without stopping.

We had a few rotators to weld flanges on rounds and they were pretty handy once you got them dialed in, and rotate them 90 degrees. They have really gotten cheap too.

I think the bowling ball thing would be more useful if it tipped 90 deg,, but it is still pretty small.

 

[iagsxr]

Didn't Royce build one here that was badass?

 

[jblnut]

If I have to sit and weld I’ll end up with splatter in places I don’t want it.

Neat idea though.

 

[whateg01]

I've been welding for 40 years and the bowling ball welding table seems kind of pointless.. at least to me..

Something far more useful would be a motorized rotator.. something that rotates a pipe or an object while your grinding or welding so you can go full circle without stopping.

 

[Old tool guy]

I bet the bowling ball would get pretty badly scarred in 6 months.

 

[Beerhippie]

I think the bowling ball thing would be more useful if it tipped 90 deg,, but it is still pretty small.

You'd have to scale this up a bit





but it will go to 90 degrees.

I suspect the original maker of the BB table got the idea from a photographic tripod ball head. The one in the video locks like a standard Arca-Swiss.

 

[Beerhippie]

I bet the bowling ball would get pretty badly scarred in 6 months.

A few minutes with a flap disk and angle grinder on those disks and some UHMW tape would fix that problem.

 

[whateg01]

Similar to the dog meat vise a few years ago. Neat concept. Would be useful for a bunch of stuff. Would collect dust most of the time.

 

[Beerhippie]

Similar to the dog meat vise a few years ago. Neat concept. Would be useful for a bunch of stuff. Would collect dust most of the time.

I can see that being very useful as a mount for a bench vise. Kind of a giant PowrArm.

 

[DaveAndStuff]

A few minutes with a flap disk and angle grinder on those disks and some UHMW tape would fix that problem.

Spatter burns maybe

 

[DaveAndStuff]

You'd have to scale this up a bit





but it will go to 90 degrees.

I suspect the original maker of the BB table got the idea from a photographic ball head. The one in the video locks like a standard Arca-Swiss.

The last shop worked we had four powered rotator that rotated 90 degrees that would take a 48" round, and a vertical rotator that would take at least a 12 foot.

 

[whateg01]

A few minutes with a flap disk and angle grinder on those disks and some UHMW tape would fix that problem.

Too smooth and the force required to grip it well might go up a bit. But it should also make movement more consistent.

 

[whateg01]

I think the bowling ball thing would be more useful if it tipped 90 deg,, but it is still pretty small.

You'd probably have to have a custom ring cut out, but if the upper has an ID big enough (grips past the +/- 45 Mark but above the equator) it could be easily made to go past 90.

You'd have to scale this up a bit



but it will go to 90 degrees.

That requires somebody to make a spherical bushing to go around the middle of the ball. That's what makes op so attractive is that most people can find an old brake rotor or 2 laying around.

 

[willy3486]

I can see that being very useful as a mount for a bench vise. Kind of a giant PowrArm.

Cha ching! This is what I am looking at doing. Install a vice so I can use it as a vice, make a metal to use as a welding table and also be able to use my tabletop B&D workmate on it. Keep in mind I do little as far as cars but I do woodworking, electronics and some welding. I want it versatile as it can be.

 

[Old Man Roger]

I bet the bowling ball would get pretty badly scarred in 6 months.

It doesn’t have to look pretty and once you release the pressure it should move freely.

 

[Muttly]

I'd use a bottle jack like this before I'd use a scissor jack:



You could mount it upside down so the adjustment was closer to the table and adapt it to accept a wheel handle or socket to use a ratchet to adjust.

The one pictured is from a 2000-2017 f250 or f350, so they are easy to find in junk yards and heavy duty.

 

[aka Larry]

For those who are not familiar here is one. I plan to do a different type top.

bowling ball table



Instead of using my foot I was wondering if I could just turn the handle with my hand. One issue might be that I would have to bend down more than I want. I have some of these. But after thinking about it I may go ahead and use a hydraulic jack.

Neat. Kind of like a giant RAM mount for a phone.

 

[bwringer]

For those who are not familiar here is one. I plan to do a different type top.

bowling ball table



Instead of using my foot I was wondering if I could just turn the handle with my hand. One issue might be that I would have to bend down more than I want. I have some of these. But after thinking about it I may go ahead and use a hydraulic jack.

Thanks for clarifying WTF we're talking about.

I bet the bowling ball would get pretty badly scarred in 6 months.

Same, although chamfering the inside corner of the rotor would help a lot; you'd need to chuck it in a lathe to do a decent job, methinks. Maybe that's already part of this build and we just can't see it.

Also, I'd add a strong spring to the system somewhere; even a small hydraulic jack would easily supply enough force to damage the urethane, but a spring would give margin for error. Some sort of spring-loaded over center mechanism would be workable, but overall it's easier and cheaper if you're sticking this together in the garage to just use a cheap hydraulic jack that's probably already lying around.

Some sort of shielding to keep weld spatter off the plastic would be nice, too.

Some way to create "presets" at specific angles would be neato. I can envision a system of dimples in the ball and spring-loaded ball bearing detents in the clamping system. That would raise the level of complexity a fair bit.

And as mentioned earlier, a geared stepper motor under the platform would make this a very handy rotator for many kinds of welds.