Anyone have a homemade ball spinner?

[e-tank]

Been looking at ideas for a homemade spinner. If you have one post it up!

[swingset]

I made one out of a yard sale drill press. I'll try to get some pics and post them up. There's a thread on bowlingcommunity in the ball section with a lot of ideas. Also a lot on youtube if you search.

Big thing is having the base solid and secure - it's pretty easy to out-wobble a flimsy mechanism. Also, something to protect your motor from water.

[e-tank]

ill check out that thread on bowling community. Thanks for the tip

[bowl1820]

Depending on the type you want to make (table top or tub mount). Pull a motor from washing machine or a sump pump motor (my innovative tub mount, uses a Dayton sump pump motor.), it should be sealed.
Get About a 1/2" x ???" V belt, 2 pulleys, a sealed flange bearing, piece of shaft preferably with the end threaded,shaft stop collar, steel salad bowl for the ball to sit in, a piece of thick walled tubing to go around the edge of the bowl, electrical cord, plug and switch, assorted nuts bolts washers and a frame to mount it all too. Steel, thick aluminum, a wood box can work for a table top model.

If don't get a sealed motor incase it with a plastic paint bucket or similar thing and silicone sealer.

[Mike White]

Been looking at ideas for a homemade spinner. If you have one post it up!

Consider the parts, labor, and any redesigning you will do because you didn't quite get it right the first time, $250 will seem like a bargain.

A ball scale however isn't worth $1000+. I can do that under $100 using the assumption that everyone has a computer available to do some quick calculations.

[swingset]

Consider the parts, labor, and any redesigning you will do because you didn't quite get it right the first time, $250 will seem like a bargain.

I gave that a lot of thought, but if you start with a drill press for under $50 (which is very possible if you look around or hit the garage sales), you almost CAN'T spend $250 on getting it right...especially if you do your homework. There's really not that much to making one, even if you get fancy. The only way to make it too expensive is to use high end parts (like a brand new 1/3 or HP motor instead of salvaging one or finding it used).

Mine was $30 for the press, $1 for a steel plate, $3 for nuts/bolts, $11 for a sturdy steel mixing bowl, $5 for a plastic tub to mount around the press and $6 for some trunk weatherstripping from NAPA. That's it, not one more dime. Works great, I've refinished 20 or so balls with it so far so it for sure works and holds up.

I could have made my same spinner 4 more times and still been under $250.

Here's some pics of mine. I mounted on the spindle side of the drill press (rather than the chuck side as many people do). It's a little hard to see how I did it cause I have a plastic bin bolted to the top of the drill press, but I highly recommend doing this since it keeps you 100% clean when you wet sand. Also keeps any splashing from reaching the motor.

I dismantled the chuck shaft, and inserted a long bolt up through the spindle shaft to mount the bowl. Every press is a little different I'd guess but for mine it made more sense plus it allowed me to easily change the belt position to jump to a higher speed for polishing and lower for sanding.





This is how I actually mounted to the spindle. It's important to fortify the bowl a bit unless you're mounting it to a large pulley with a lot of surface area. Consider how much weight is on top of the bowl, and the wobble can easily flex the thin metal of a mixing bowl, even a strudy one like I used. So I put a sturdy metal plate between the bowl and the spindle, and mounted 4 equi-distant bolts in addition to the large bolt that secures the bowl. It's very stable now.


The bowl should be at a minimum 8" across 9" ideally.

[bowl1820]

Consider the parts, labor, and any redesigning you will do because you didn't quite get it right the first time, $250 will seem like a bargain..

Like most DIY projects yes you have to weight the time & cost involved.

But if your handy and use to fabricating stuff and scrounge parts it wouldn't get that expensive unless you start getting fancy.

As for the labor it's a write off, it's like any other hobby project, your doing for fun and satisfaction during your leisure time.

[bowl1820]

Excellent DIY Spinner swingset!

I might would add some type of belt guard over your belt/pulley assembly, in case of dropped towels or pads so they don't get caught in it.

That and maybe widen the base alittle to prevent possible tipping. Maybe bolt it something like a 2x4 base or similar.

[swingset]

Excellent DIY Spinner swingset!

I might would add some type of belt guard over your belt/pulley assembly, in case of dropped towels or pads so they don't get caught in it.

That and maybe widen the base alittle to prevent possible tipping. Maybe bolt it something like a 2x4 base or similar.

Yeah, good idea on the guard, I could make a "U" shaped cover to go over the belts easy enough. The base will eventually be mounted on a stand, but I haven't gotten around to building that yet. For now I just sit in a chair and plant a foot on the base and it's pretty stable.

[Mike White]

Like most DIY projects yes you have to weight the time & cost involved.

But if your handy and use to fabricating stuff and scrounge parts it wouldn't get that expensive unless you start getting fancy.

As for the labor it's a write off, it's like any other hobby project, your doing for fun and satisfaction during your leisure time.

My knowledge of motors is close to zero, so I would be more likely to lose a limb before finding something that worked.

However, I'm kicking around a "proof of concept" ball scale. So far $30 in parts for a digital scale. I figure a little bit of lumber to act as a lever, some formulas into a spread sheet and I can use it to find gross, top, side & finger weights.