Hurricane Balls Redux, the Solder Method, Feat. Science With Bez.

This Ible is a follow to the the first Hurricane Balls Ible I did.

This Ible shows how to join 2 hardened steel balls together with soft solder, It is quite fiddly to do, but gives a very strong bond. this better on ball bearings that cant be drilled and is an easier method to use on smaller sized ball bearings.

This method requires use of a blow torch, soft solder, flux, a dremel tool, a small heat resistant clamp, needle files and of course some ball bearings to join together. other useful items include a stainless steel welding rod. cup washers or small nuts.

I used this method to answer some of the science questions I have been pondering on about Hurricane balls.

Thanks for looking.

This Ible involves the use of fire and therefor involves the possibility of you getting burnt or worse.

Badly made hurricane Balls have the possibility of separating at high speed and causing mayhem. 

In other words be careful and do things properly.

I was wondering what would be the optimum size for a set of Hurricane Balls? 15mm 12mm or 10mm, which would spin fastest and be the easiest to get up to high speed by only lung power.

What would Bez do?   -   Bez would use science.




OK now I stop to explain the in joke for all the UK peeps that remember the Sunday morning show from 90's on the BBC and its regular slot called Science with Bez.  if you don't know who Bez is this may help  Each week Bez would be posed some scientific question usually involving some sort of narcotic substance that he would then use science to get an answer.

I had made some 15mm Hurricane Balls by the drilling and tapping method covered in my other Ible.

I had collected some smaller ball bearings of 12mm and 10mm but these where hardened and could not be drilled and tapped.

I decided that I would try soldering the balls together after Mrballeng posted a pic of how he solder a set of Hurricane balls.

The following method differs slightly from Mrballeng's method it follows the method that my engineering instructors would have made me use to get the strongest join1 available.

This method of soldering evolves tinning both surfaces to be joined with solder first than clamping the pieces in place and reheating the joint so the solder fuses and an extra bead of solder is applied around the joint.

All details for this method is shown in the pics

So what did you find out Bez?

Bez says - "I used science to come to the conclusion that 12mm Hurricane balls are the optimum size."

15mm balls take longer to get up to speed and require a large volume of air at high pressure to reach high speed.

12mm balls easily reach high speed with less volume of air at a lower pressure.

10mm balls reach a high speed very quickly on a low volume of air at low pressure but have so little mass that they are very easily knocked off the jet of air and very tricky to control.

Bez found out that the larger the ball the slower it will spin and require increasingly larger volumes of air at higher pressure it spin the balls.  The smaller the balls the faster the ball will try and spin but the smaller mass requires less and less air at a lower pressure as the balls get smaller and becomes increasingly harder to control with the jet of air.

We also learned that the smaller balls are easier to use on a large flat surface and can be steered around like blow football, so you have the possibility of fighting smaller sets of balls with each other when they hit each other the set that stops last is the winner.


I hope you enjoyed Science with Bez,

Thanks for looking.