Wooden Trackball

[ceburto2]

Just curious if anyone has put in a stained wooden trackball before? Couldn't find evidence of it through the forum search. Wax it well and it would spin like glass or unwaxed would be very tactile. Thoughts?

ceburto2

[Dervacumen]

I think it wouldn't weigh enough to keep the rollers spinning long enough to get good travel.  If you had one made of ironwood or ebony or some other very dense wood you might have something there. 

[ceburto2]

What do 3" trackball balls weigh? I've been looking at juggling balls as a replacement and they come in varying weights at the same 3" diameter.

[Well Fed Games]

I live a weird life... i have a 3" trackball and a scale on my desk...

12 oz is what i get

[Nephasth]

Skeeball...

[dendawg]

You could always get a wooden ball or two from Michael's, Hobby Lobby, or some similar place, cut it in half and hollow the halves out enough to insert a pinball inside....that should give it enough weight for the rollers.

[mytymaus007]

my balls weigh 2lbs each but i have big balls

[CoryBee]

my balls weigh 2lbs each but i have big balls

[drventure]

I looked into this at one point (I juggle occasionally, and that though had popped in my head).

They're out there, and with a lathe, they aren't terribly hard to make.

You'd definitely want a hardwood. Something that's dense enough would likely wiegh close enough to acrylic to work ok.

One downside, they aren't transparent, or even translucent. I really wanted to backlight mine so that kinda ruined the idea.

OTOH, if you could fashion a translucent "ring" to replace the standard black ring, and light +that+ a wooden trackball could be fantastic.

[paigeoliver]

The Capcom Bowling trackball has a similar look and would be a 1000 times less trouble.

Also, there is the distinct possibility that the rollers would wear down a wooden ball, instead of the ball wearing the rollers down like the plastic ones do.