[Woodcarver] Ball in Cage

[Dick Allen]

Barney Elking wrote:

>
> A while ago one of the magazines had a feature on carving a caracature 
> bust with a golf ball in a cage in its base.  Does anyone know where 
> that appeared and/or what dimensions and drill bit size were used?  As 
> I recall, the cage was carved and the bars were soaked in water to 
> make them supple enough to force the ball in. Any help would be 
> appreciated.
>  
> Barney Elking
> Fortuna, CA
>  

The original cage that Bill Russel worked from for the article was a 
2x2x3 block with a 1.5" hole. The golfball is about 1.67" in diameter.   
I used a 5/8 " bit which was orignally used for cane segments and drill 
6 holes thru the sides in both directions.  After removing the pieces 
left, I then took a Foredom with a fairly large bull nose bit and a thin 
piece of wood to keep the bull nose about 1/4" above the surface.  Using 
this, I would grind the segments so that the post would be about 1/4" 
.   Some of the carvers have been using  2.25  squares which would give 
a little larger post in the corners but the opening should remain about 
1.5 " or less.   Making the block longer, there is more variation that 
can be allowed.

Another one that I did was put a 1 5/8 " cube (basswood or butternut) 
inside a walnut or cherry cage so that the corners of the cube are 
sticking out of the openings in the cage.

Dick Allen
Forest Lake, MN



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