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17mm balls
David Jenkins - 30/3/11 at 09:39 PM

Can anyone suggest a place where I can get 17mm spherical balls? Ideally in a hard plastic, but could be metal.

I want to make a custom mount for my Garmin satnav, and the swivel ball on the mount is 17mm - what's the betting that they picked this size just to be awkward!

I have found stainless steel balls on ebay, but I'm reluctant to pay nearly £7 + P&P for 4 of them...

liam.mccaffrey - 30/3/11 at 10:02 PM

I have a pot of all the ball bearings from all the scrap cv joints I've ever had. Just had a look for it but can't find it
Though I did find a pair of 15.8 which I think are from an Mx5 you're more than welcome to them. I'm sure my volvo 850 ones were between 15 and 20 mm.

I bet some one will have a scrap cv joint with the correct ball bearing if I can't find mine.

907 - 30/3/11 at 11:21 PM

A job for the lathe David.

Cheers,
Paul G

MikeCapon - 31/3/11 at 06:44 AM

Most bearing shops sell bearing balls loose. I've never needed them that big though.

These people have them. Simply Bearings

I'm sure there are others. Easily found by googling ""bearing balls"uk".

ETA As I had nothing elso to do whilst drinking my early morning coffee...

On this forum there is a guy making them. 17mm delrin ball drilled + tapped out ready at £3 each or a fiver for two....

[Edited on 31/3/11 by MikeCapon]

David Jenkins - 31/3/11 at 07:55 AM

quote:
Originally posted by MikeCapon

On this forum there is a guy making them. 17mm delrin ball drilled + tapped out ready at £3 each or a fiver for two....


Mike - I've seen that one previously - check out the dates! Mostly 2006, with a couple of updates in 2010.

Paul - I know I should do it in the lathe - but that means making some tooling, and I can't be bothered! I'd rather buy a plastic ball and drill/tap the end... Lazy? Moi?

Liam - it has to be 17mm exactly (within reasonable tolerance anyway) otherwise the mount won't work.

[Edited on 31/3/11 by David Jenkins]

MikeCapon - 31/3/11 at 08:25 AM

These people might be helpful. They carry stock and claim to have balls up to 8" diameter

Precision Plastic Balls

David Jenkins - 31/3/11 at 09:28 AM

Immaculate timing! I sent them an email not 10 minutes ago!

It's not clear whether they are retail, wholesale or manufacturing, so I asked whether they can sell me 10 or 20.

We'll see how they reply...

David Jenkins - 31/3/11 at 05:01 PM

Hmm - all they've got is 11/16" balls, which is almost equal to 17.5mm.

They've also got a £30 minimum order...

Shan't be buying from them...

stevegough - 31/3/11 at 08:56 PM

Bins behind the Vasectomy clinic?



Sorry David - not at all helpful, am I?

bi22le - 31/3/11 at 09:26 PM

// only a matter of time before an innuendo about the word "balls" comes out!!! //

Biz

David Jenkins - 31/3/11 at 09:43 PM

You ought to try googling anything with 'balls' in the search text!