Sphere holder thingy

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I’ve meant to make a holder for a friend’s ball for quite some time. He asked about it recently so I better get it done…this post is just to keep me honest so it happens.

Anywho, he wanted a wooden holder for his fancy tungsten ball. Get your mind outta the gutter.

First up, we’ve got to figure out the size:
Tare the scale with the prototype holder and we get a weight of 3050 grams.

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Luckily we can just ask Claude to figure out the diameter:

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We know the density of tungsten is: 19.25 g/cm³
Volume = 3050 / 19.25 = 158.4 cm³
Diameter = (6V/π)^(1/3) = (6 × 158.4 / π)^(1/3) ≈ 6.71 cm (about 2.64 inches)

Now there’s always a disclaimer with ai so we should double check it’s work:

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Meh, close enough.

Oh I suppose we can check the listing for a similar ball:

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Yep, checks out at ~2.75”

Aaaaand wait. What. This thing is a liability just to have in my house. All the more reason to get it out of here…and charge that friend for the commission. Jesus.

OK, joking aside, let’s make a silly little holder for this absurdly expensive chunk of metal.

He wants a holder similar to the prototype. Looks like it might be a simulated drop of water or something. He likes to do shenanigans like that. Artistic things with real world inspiration, modeled/simulated in…blender :nauseated_face:
So there’s no real numbers to use. I’ll have to model it myself in fusion.

Most important to him is the hoop. The ball should make a line contact around the interior edge of the holder (is that a hoop? I think so :man_shrugging:)

Now that is a neat idea and it would be quick work with a 1/4” ball mill and a chunk of walnut.
I’m going to make that happen just to get something done…but wouldn’t it be cool if there was some kinetics to this thing? I might end up recutting it with some features for a bearing race or some ball transfer units. We’ll see.
For now, I’m off to get a cut going

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Neat!

Yeah, tungsten prices spiked recently, very annoying.

Caused me to place an order for a jar of tungsten powder for use in future projects…

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I have some we use for weights in pinewood derby cars. Maybe I should extract them all and melt them down.

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That’s going to require quite a furnace, melting temp. for tungsten is 6191.6° F

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Yeah I was going to respond “Good luck” :yum:

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Sorry. Have to ask. What are the uses of Tungsten powder?

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Most common use I’ve seen is for adding weight to resins/epoxy :man_shrugging:

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I was kidding of course.

I also have some tungsten putty that we used on the pinewood derby cars. It seemed like a good idea since you could pinch off bits until you achieved the desired weight.

The first time we used it I put the putty in cavities in the bottom of the car. We had to leave it overnight before the race after checkin. The next morning it was had sagged out under its own weight.

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Oooh that’s an interesting way to use it. I’m stealing that one for sure :memo:

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Mostly to add weight.

My plan for it is to use it in making a deadblow mallet — I have a small one made of copper pipe/plumbing fixtures, lead shot, and a short length of oak dowel and making a nicer/heavier one is a project for future me.

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Tyler, I would also add a spot/line/raised area at the very bottom of the bowl for support with that much weight (almost 7 pounds) on the “hoop.”

It would be fun to impress your friend by making the spot/line/raised area a little high and trimming it in the machine by a couple of thousandths until the ball fits it exactly.

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