Interesting Experiment (Trackball Polishing)

[Witchboard]

My father is in to lapidary as a hobby.  He built a sphere machine to make spheres from stone.  He took a 3" trackball I pulled from the garbage and ran it through the machine with polish for a few minutes.  Cleaned up pretty nice.  I also thought about making a stone trackball and installing it in a housing to see how it looked.

If the picture is not self explanatory, before is on the left and after is on the right.  What do you think?

[cholin]

Damn thats pretty good!  Your trackball went from rusty gold to a shiny silver.  Impressed, although it just reminds me of nothing more than a bowling-ball cleaner

[mahuti]

Yes, that is officially polished.

[Witchboard]

The first one we polished was a white 2 1/4" trackball from a Centipede cabinet.  It turned out well, but we didn't take any before shots.  So we tried this one that was much worse than the first.

[Kremmit]

You are going to get a lot of polishing requests from people.  And can your dad's sphere machine make spheres out of other materials?  Trackball polishing and custom trackball balls could finance your next MAME cab!

Also, let us know how the stone sphere works- I was thinking about buying one for just that purpose, but was afraid the weight might make it sluggish.  Also wondered if the hardness might hurt your hand.  I'm SURE it would for Golden Tee ball slammers, but would it bother you in regular play, or when you play for a long time?

[Witchboard]

He can turn any type of stone.

[PaulG]

I wouldn't think the hardness of stone would hurt your hand any worse than the plastic trackball.  It may make a difference if you drop it in a sock and beat somebody over the head with it though. 

Was that an invitation for David Foley to come play with you?

[XtraSmiley]

...so, could you polish a few balls for me?

[M3talhead]

I wouldn't think the hardness of stone would hurt your hand any worse than the plastic trackball.  It may make a difference if you drop it in a sock and beat somebody over the head with it though. 

Was that an invitation for David Foley to come play with you?

ROFL...

[dmsuchy]

A granite track ball would look awesome in a all wood cabinet. Cool idea.

[Wienerdog]

My father is in to lapidary as a hobby.

[Wyluli]

Very nice polish, it even makes the finish on your desk look cleaner.

I was thinking the exact same thing.  Let us know how the balls of stone work out! 

[Quarters]

Ultimarc uses a cue ball in the 2 1/4 " trackball. I don't think some stone balls would be much harder to spin. I think a jade ball would look great.

[Witchboard]

Was that an invitation for David Foley to come play with you?

I plead the 5th. 

...so, could you polish a few balls for me?

Is that code... or something?  If you're serious, after shipping both ways, it would probably be cheaper just to buy a new trackball.

Very nice polish, it even makes the finish on your desk look cleaner.

My father took the pictures.  I think he may not have used the flash on the first one and did on the second.  The reason the desk looks brighter.

The most difficult part of turning a stone sphere for the trackball would be to get it the right size.