Made me wonder, has a bowling ball ever been used as a speaker enclosure? Would be a pain to hollow out, but dead as all get out...
Nice looking little spheres. Was about to say cube. But hey. As for the bowling ball... Would be interesting. One is to assume whatever it is made out of would be pretty hard to work with.
These are pretty close to bowling balls...
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=489433#post489433
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=489433#post489433
Nice work there. Presumably the idea is to reduce baffle step effects in a design like this? How is the sound?
Bowling balls are some kind of resin. I expect its extremely tough but perhaps a lathe would be capable of hollowing one out 😕
Bowling balls are some kind of resin. I expect its extremely tough but perhaps a lathe would be capable of hollowing one out 😕
Thanks. They're amazingly easy to make, and look good as well (and cheap!). I think the sound is great. Although the enclosure has a Q of about 1.4. I'm not using any BSC yet, just Zaphs notch filter. I'm crossing them at 120hz LR4. I havn't had distortion issues yet at moderate volumes.
Dr.EM said:
They are hemispherical bowls I came upon at Target. Unfortunantly I cant find them on thier website. I simply chopped the end off to accomodate the driver. For me this was especially easy as I used a CNC mill. To join them, I made a press fit ring out of 1/2" MDF and glued them together. The bowls are only 1/8" polymer. However due to the inherant strength of spheres, the orbs are probably more solid then the 1/2" MDF test boxes I made. They do seem to vibrate less. For wire connection, I deconstucted these inexpensive terminals http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=260-301 for the posts. All that is needed is a pair of holes to be drilled and the posts can be put through and tightened down. My one and only concern is the finish on these bowls is not durable in the least. In the future I may want to sand and paint them. I'll have to see how well they hold up over time. But for $2.99 each i'm not complaining either way 😀
Nice work.
I've had success machining small spheres by using a scrap wood socket and PVA to secure the sphere.
I was making gearstick knobs from pool balls, a bowling ball would be huge but should be ok on low speed. Machine the socket on the lathe, then remove the socket with the drive plate still connected. Glue the ball in and it should be pretty close to centre. Soak in water to remove and make a new socket for the next ball, the soaked socket should not be used a second time, such a heavy spinning mass will have a lot of energy and will be very dangerous if it breaks loose.
I've had success machining small spheres by using a scrap wood socket and PVA to secure the sphere.
I was making gearstick knobs from pool balls, a bowling ball would be huge but should be ok on low speed. Machine the socket on the lathe, then remove the socket with the drive plate still connected. Glue the ball in and it should be pretty close to centre. Soak in water to remove and make a new socket for the next ball, the soaked socket should not be used a second time, such a heavy spinning mass will have a lot of energy and will be very dangerous if it breaks loose.
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