Source for nylon clad steel balls?

[gomipile]

Hi, this is a weird one, I know. I swear it is related to knife production, even if only tangentially.

I need some magnetic steel balls with a thick Nylon, Teflon, or similar polymer cladding. The only ones I've found so far are of 3xx series alloys that aren't guaranteed to be magnetic, depending on how the steel ball was manufactured. I'd like to have a choice of various sizes, but anything where the steel core is somewhere in the 3/16" to 5/8" range should work for at least part of what I want to do.

Thanks for any information you have to offer.

Oh, and for the curious: I want this for part of a system I'm designing for reconditioning some types of tumbling media. I don't foresee any major results within the next couple years, but if I figure out anything useful, I'll report back here with it.

 

[mete]

The 300 series stainless is austenitic unless it's cold worked.
Buy steel balls of a magnetic stainless. have them coated , magetize them.

 

[gomipile]

have them coated

That part sounds like quite a trick. Do you know an injection molding place that can coat a steel ball and have it still be centered in a fairly thick layer of polymer?

I certainly don't know any shops that do anything remotely like that, and my city is one of the plastics manufacturing capitals of the world.

 

[mete]

I have no idea how it's done though I wondered if it's done like some of the confections where things are coated to produce a chocolate covered ball ?? Any confectioners out there ?

 

[timos-]

ive seen urethane bonded to hex shafts and other steel things. Check out a google search on that stuff.