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Bowling Ball Bearing Sockets
Details of construction of the bearings I'm using (so far) to allow the ball to rotate.
Click for annotated version
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This is the first of the prototypes using a bowling ball. Previous 2 protos were 'pads' the shape of the sphere with embedded rotatable marbles. (I may go back to that for at least part of the suspension system.)
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This is a view of the inside of the socket and the marbles on which the bowling ball is supported.
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Once the first bowling ball proto was done, I started to 'mass produce' the sockets, starting with cutting 16' diameter rings.
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I made a cradle to more securely hold the ball than the piles of metal blocks I used above.
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A ring is attached to the cradle with several layers of well vaselined wax paper between. This will allow the 2 halves of the socket to come apart later. The center part is cut away at slightly less than the diameter of the ball.
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A thin layer of clay is spread over the surface of the ball. This will give a bit of space between the fiberglass and the ball.
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In a seperate operation, I've prepared a bunch of 1" marbles by coating each with wax. When the balls are soon covered with fiberglass, the wax acts as a temporary spacer so that each marble will be able to spin in it's own socket-once the wax is removed.
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Depresions in the clay await wax-covered marbles.
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36 waxy marbles ready for fiberglass.
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This bowl will act as the form for the top half of the socket.
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A LOT of heat can be generated when the fiberglass sets-especially when there is as much of it as in the finished socket. To prevent the wax from being melted off the marbles, each is coated with a very thick mixture of resin and carbosil or other powdery additive to make it stick to the marbles. The red comes from dye added to the resin.
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When all covered with formerly gooey but now hardened resin, the top form is covered thickly with vaseline and placed on top.
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More resin is added, this time with a bunch of chopped glass fibers. The glass adds a lot of strength and reduces the cost of resin.
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When I added just a bit too much catalyst, I'd have to cover the mold with wet towels and get the fans going. I got better at guessing the right amount over time.
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The final product. This was the first one I made (3 so far), and the black regions are ones that got so hot that they burned the red color away.