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Step 3Cut the Balls
We need to stack the bowling balls to make the fountain. Since spherical things are difficult to stack we will need to cut off portions of the balls to make flat surfaces.
The key to working with spheres is making sure they can't roll away. When I began thinking about this project I figured I would deal with this by holding the balls in place as best I could with my hands/feet and swearing a great deal. But I lucked out. The bowling balls I purchased from the thrift store were still in the bags. And inside one of the bags was a handy ball rest. This rest made life much easier.
So the first step to cutting off a portion of your bowling balls is find/make a rest and to put your ball in it. Next you'll need to lay out a cut line. I did this placing a metal can on top of the ball and getting it as close to vertical as I could with the naked eye. Then I traced around the can.
With the cut line drawn I transferred the ball and rest into my dust collection box and used a Dremel with a cut off wheel to make a starter cut. A starter cut will make it much easier to get a good clean cut and to get your saw blade started on the smooth surface of the ball. You'll notice in the pictures I got lazy and didn't take the cut all the way around the lay out line. This was the first cut on the first ball. On all subsequent ball cuts I made the starter cut go the whole way around and had much better results.
Once the starter cut is done take the ball outside and turn it in the rest so the cut is in a vertical orientation. Then strap it to the rest so it won't move during cutting. I didn't have a good strap so I ended up using packing tape. This worked fairly well but the ball did start to roll as I approached the bottom end of the cut. ( I also had to weigh down the rest so it didn't "walk" due to the vibrations from the saw.)
You'll notice in the picutres that when I made the cut with the reciprocating saw it resulted in a fairly ragged looking surface. This is because I was trying to make due with the four inch blade I had on hand. Aside from the ragged cut I ended up with a bent blade. So I went and bought a nine inch blade and the subsequent cuts were much smoother. I corrected this ragged cut the best I could by sanding it down.
You'll want to repeat this process for the other balls. In total if you're making a fountain three balls high you'll need to make five cuts.
The key to working with spheres is making sure they can't roll away. When I began thinking about this project I figured I would deal with this by holding the balls in place as best I could with my hands/feet and swearing a great deal. But I lucked out. The bowling balls I purchased from the thrift store were still in the bags. And inside one of the bags was a handy ball rest. This rest made life much easier.
So the first step to cutting off a portion of your bowling balls is find/make a rest and to put your ball in it. Next you'll need to lay out a cut line. I did this placing a metal can on top of the ball and getting it as close to vertical as I could with the naked eye. Then I traced around the can.
With the cut line drawn I transferred the ball and rest into my dust collection box and used a Dremel with a cut off wheel to make a starter cut. A starter cut will make it much easier to get a good clean cut and to get your saw blade started on the smooth surface of the ball. You'll notice in the pictures I got lazy and didn't take the cut all the way around the lay out line. This was the first cut on the first ball. On all subsequent ball cuts I made the starter cut go the whole way around and had much better results.
Once the starter cut is done take the ball outside and turn it in the rest so the cut is in a vertical orientation. Then strap it to the rest so it won't move during cutting. I didn't have a good strap so I ended up using packing tape. This worked fairly well but the ball did start to roll as I approached the bottom end of the cut. ( I also had to weigh down the rest so it didn't "walk" due to the vibrations from the saw.)
You'll notice in the picutres that when I made the cut with the reciprocating saw it resulted in a fairly ragged looking surface. This is because I was trying to make due with the four inch blade I had on hand. Aside from the ragged cut I ended up with a bent blade. So I went and bought a nine inch blade and the subsequent cuts were much smoother. I corrected this ragged cut the best I could by sanding it down.
You'll want to repeat this process for the other balls. In total if you're making a fountain three balls high you'll need to make five cuts.
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