Drilling Ball Bearings Help

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

Hello- My fiancee has demanded that I make her a garter dagger for the wedding. The problem is that she wants a ball bearing pommel. I have one picked out but here is the problem- I can't drill it to thread it!! I tried on another bearing but can only get a dimple. I bought a masonry carbide spade bit, and another metal cutting bit to no avail. I need help here guys. Can they be annealed? If so I'll have to find a heat treater to help me out. I am drilling a 1/8" hole as I tried another piece of the 3/32" CPM154 and a scrap steel and it worked very well (?I believe 20 tap and die?). Unless any of you know where to get a threaded 15/16"- 24mm silver metal balls. I have not cut down the tang of the dagger yet as I want to do this right the first time so the size of the threads is not a definite but that was the size I tried.

Please help as my future marriage depends on this!!!

 

[Keith_H]

Bearing in mind...

I think that you could anneal it with a torch and some kitty litter, wood ash or vermiculite. I have never done it though.

 

[Rody]

Last weekend I annealed some bearing rings in the forge. Heated them up to cherry for about 5 min. and then wrapped them in 4" rockwool insulation. I'm not saying this is the way to do it but I was able to saw through them with a hand-saw without any problems...

Cheers Rody

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

You might want a threaded tooling ball.

http://www.carrlane.com/SiteData/FeatureImages/CL-7-SCB_p.gif

That way you don't have to mess up the heat treat. Keeping it hard will help it keep a nice finish.

 

[Tinbasher]

You will have to anneal before you can drill it but it won`t be shiny any more 24 mm is one heavy ball for a knife its going to pull the garter down if she has a distance to walk with it on and if you get out of line at the wedding she could use it to pound you head.)

 

[SteelSlaver]

You are going to have to softwn up the bearing. I have drilled them by just heating them up until purple. and letting cool. But, I would go to non magnetic and then cool slowly cause you also have to tap that baby, You do realize it will weigh about 3 OZ. I wonder if you could find something similar in aluminium.

 

[richard j]

beer kegs have stainless steel balls for the seal and they are soft i do believe. i'm not sure of the diamater but it might be worth checking out. you dont have to trash the tap to get it apart. if the ball is too small, put it back together so you're not out the money for the keg.

 

[BLADECARVER]

maybe a pinball machine ball would work. they are 1 1/16 diameter. and only a couple bucks. just a thought

 

[Steven Penner]

how about a hollow sterling silver bead / ball ?

lighter weight
sterling silver - a step up from what she expected
you should be able to buy ready made items

i searched a bit but havent got my catalogues at hand - maybe Stacy has an idea?

 

[Bruce Bump]

I have done it before. I annealed them and drilled and tapped them on the lathe. They can be re-hardened and repolished afterward.

 

[bikermikearchery]

Look through second hand and thrift store for costume jewelry. Large old silver beads aren't hard to find. I found a bracelet that I hammered in to a guard and a bead necklace that I used for pommels for a grand total of $6.00. E-bay is also a good place to look for beads that can be reworked.