Cylindrical thumb ring from black pool ball No 8 or Plastic

[orange]

Hi, I will like here to describe 12 steps I use to make a Cylindrical thumb ring from half of black pool ball No 8

Here we discuss making a Chinese like cylindrical thumb ring such as are:



Source: Chinese Thumb Rings: From Battlefield to Jewelry Box

You can also see some in Museum of Anthropology here China Thumb Rings Image Gallery

We are discussing how to use such cylindrical rings here How to use cylindrical thumb ring ?

I will use some experience with using white billiard pool for making lip based thumb rings in past, you can find it here Lip based thumb ring from white billiard ball or Plastic.

The Plan

Because cylindrical thumb rings are near a square in shape, material need to be high enough, we need to cut ball into 2 half, drill in center, cut outside around the hole and make a final shape.

I will material for 2 cylindrical rings, so I will make one mote thick and one more thin.

PS: I will try to use tools you or your friend can have, no big machinery as turning lathe - machine which can make precise cylinders.

Step 1: Get right pool ball

Billiard/pool balls have different sizes, you need to get large enough one

WiKipedia - Billiard ball

I select a black pool ball No 8 American-style pool – 57.2 mm (2+1⁄4 in), I can get it as single ball cheap enough about $3/piece , I have best experience with polyester based balls.

I pickup back color, because it look better and it can more easily polished.

Also number 8 is centric, it will help us mark ball to cut it into 2 equal parts.



Note: Ball is symmetrical, it has 2 white fields with number 8 opposite to each other.

Why again billiard ball as thumb ring material ?

Original billiard and similar balls was made from IVORY Wiki Ivory, but as time go Ivory material start to be too expensive, so it was soon replaced by modern plastic.

Because thumb rings was also often produced from Ivory, balls look like logical choice as source of Ivory supplement.

However there are more possible Ivory supplements, which can be used as material for thumb rings , I will list then in conclusion.

[orange]

Step 2: Make a ball middle marking tool

Tools and Materials for marking tool



Final ball middle line marking tool from piece of flex plastic

[orange]

Step 3: Mark the middle of ball

Tools needed to mark middle of ball



First I mount marking tool into middle of number's 8 on both sides with some strong nail or pin.

(Take care then you really use middle of white circle, because we will use resulted hole as a starting point for drilling later , so I use a measurement unit to check it)



While moving marking tool around ball with help of lip on end scratch middle line with nail or pin




Line is not well visible, we need stronger one for better checking while cutting



To make line more visible you can use special thin marker called Paint Marker, or you can paint more thick line with some goof paint and after scratch again (visible cutting line will be back on while)

Here is a test of 2 good paints which will stick to ball you can easily get in your near store and they can be easily remove after:

- Woman nail color (I use one with metal shine, is better visible)
- While typo on paper print correction liquid



Here is final mark ball with yellow Paint Marker, market cost around $2-$3, so yellow looks like most usable color on most color surfaces and cost sawing option.

(There is a real liquid paint inside this type of markers, shake it very well before usage to get solid line, paint from marker stick well and can be removed only with alcohol)

[Bede]

This doesn't look like a plan for a cylindrical thumb ring to me, but more like one of the Korean ones.

A good cheap material to make rings from is plastic (acrylic) off cuts. They come in various thicknesses and colours. A small off cut could produce several rings. The plastic can be glued together with cyanoacrylic glues and multicoloured rings can be produced. It is easy to cut, polishes to a high gloss and is durable.

[orange]

No, this is purely a cylindrical thread one, I update a first entry with plan and I remove all references to while ball, I make a separate thread which will use proven procedure with 1/3 of ball for lip based thumb rings.

Sure, there are more options to get plastic usable for making a Thumb rings, like you can also contact you local seal producer, there have variety of usable plastic, like Seal Company - Economs with supervised parameters.

Issue with so many plastic today is, we can't guarantee then your material will be same then mine, so is difficult to guide users how to best work with it. Most peoples can get pool ball and it will be very similar in material, so I fell it a good starting point how to start to learn how to work with plastic.

PS: I was making for some time ship models, I will not put on my finger anything glued. Gluing for high pressure need experience which most user will not have. But I never see such colored rings, do you have photos ?

[Bede]

I haven't got any multicoloured ones on hand, but I will see if I can make one and photograph it soon. I was going to make some cylindrical ones on a lathe so I could easily start with a multi coloured one.

[orange]

I use this kind of plastic a lot during my modeling work:

Generally be careful with colored ones, crystal clear Acrylate know also as Plexiglass Plexiglas is really strong and have melting point mote then 100C.

However some colored ones are from more cheap and less strong Acrylate variants with melting point even less then 100C, basically you can test if is your Acrylate good enough by putting peace of it into boiling water which has 100C, if it don't melt is OK to us it.

[osmiu]

after more of the dozen pool ball plastic korean thumb rings broked on my bow , I closed the books on this type of material . maybe pool balls finded in here are cheaper ones ... poor quality ... maybe the bow is too strong for it ... I don't know ... but I will search another type of material from now one .
maybe textolit(phenolic resin with cotton sheet) , or teflon ... I'll see . I like to make thin thumb rings , and plexiglass seems to me too brittle . I didn't try it so far . Horn is hard to find here .

[Daniel]

Funny you should mention that Osmiu:
I have pretty much same experience with mock ivory (polyester really)
Tryed to make tenon type arrow nocks and before I new it snaped clearly off at the bottom of the tenon. Horn, hardwood and bone all work fine.

[Bede]

Here are some pictures of real Qing rings that I was demonstrating in 1998. One is 19th century with a 19th century arrow and the other is earlier and of better quality.

[Jos?Dom]

Bede, could you show a picture of that arrow? I'm interested in the fletchings style.

[orange]

mock ivory (polyester really) called also a syntetic ivory is worth then balls matrials, its mostly not so homogenous, because its made onlyfor feal end look of Elephant Ivory (used for knives or music instrumens), this matreail try to have same gray/while shiny areas which makes it more fragile - less flex plus its made in lines/plates - is its one direction much stronger - oposite to real ivory.

plastic korean thumb rings ... breaks

There is simple rule for all similar plastics with melting point aroung 130C-180C:

You need to be sure to don't overheat plastic during making the ring - especialy when drilling and cutting - overheating make this type of plastic less flexible and more more fragile

From my experience generlay any plastic rings are good for low poundage bows, say to 50lb, if you have stronger bow is beter to get proven matreial like horn or jade. It will take some more time to get matreials and you need to make more cate to build a ring, but result will be probaly better. I am working on make at home jade based rings - but I will need some more time to tune the procedure so its cheap and most peoples can use it..

You can overheat real Elephat ivory too , if you have in your country peoples making knives you can try this material for making your rings:

Tagua Nut - Vegetarian ivory or Some samples of usage (You need to get larger ones of 5cm diameter), I will chat about this material later.

PS: May be you have also an issue with inner shape of this lip based rings, lets discuss this theme here Lip based thumb ring from white billiard ball

[Bede]

I have a ring that is so thin on the sides that I thought that it would break easily but I realised that the pressure in this style of ring was concentrated on the lip and the sides and back were only there to hold it in position.

I have a Perspex ring that I can draw 90 lb bows with so plastic is not inherently weak. However, I cut the hole out with a jeweller's saw rather than drill it out. Perhaps the lack of heat and vibration in manufacture contributes to its strength.

I will photograph the whole arrow and add it to this thread. It is of a type that had very large fletching glue on at 12, 3 and 6 o'clock. Peter Dekker makes and shoots arrows with fletching like this. The big feathers straighten out the arrow's flight really quickly.

[orange]

Bede, can you please send us a photo of your rings from opposite side we don't see when they are Thumb ?

I poll yesterday my contacts in Aircraft Models building community and I get technical Plexi (One I know its parameters) , I get German Plexiglas Plexiglas DE

I get brick 60mm x 80mm x 25mm for $8 (There was 30mm , but not in stock and 40mm, but I was lazy to get it , because it will need additional cutting)

Note: Perspex is another commercial name for Plexiglas

{Todo: Add foto there }

Good on technical plastic is, then have measured by 10 standards values related to mechanical features, this values in table will probably not tell you much (but are good for comparison), so I try to find for you them described verbosely:

Polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA) - ACRYLIC GLASS

Important note:

Don't use any alcohol (spirits) cleaners on Acrylate, it will get while milk color.
If you want clean Acrylate use technical benzine / petroleum based cleaners (or use one from pharmacy used in medicine) .

When I will have time I will like to make a separate thread about technical plastics and their mechanical features measured by this standards, if you are interested, for now if you are curious:

PERSPEX PROPERTIES

Comparison Table for Plastics

PS: I use a economy / budget pool balls from Taiwan, these are from of super strong and durable cast polymers and polyester like PET-P (Yes it can be from recycled pet bottles), which has at least same or better mechanical values then Plexi-PERSPEX.

However professional balls are ofter made often from much more hard, but more fragile materials like Phenolic Resin.

[Bede]

Orange,
I don't understand what you mean by opposite side. Cylindrical rings are symmetrical. They look the same from both sides.