Making Plastic Balls; Solid or Hollow

[Ray Layne]

Have you looked into just making to halves injected molded, glued, spin welded, etc...I would be glad to help out on your project. I'm investing into an injection molding machine and have a full team of skilled members and mentors ready to be set in place.

[hhm2r7287]

Hi Geof

To make the balls hollow is quite easy you make the normal injection mold & then when the shot is pushed into the mold a stream of gas is injected at the right time (it is called gas assist) which will give you a very nice part they could also be made from styrene & hard coated

[judleroy]

Maybe you could have them 3d printed and then tumble them. If your worried about gravity causing a non concentric ball roll to the bottom then maybe put a ball bearing or small weight inside. Gravity will keep it on the bottom and should keep the sphere from rolling when you let go.
Judleroy

[langwadt]

http://www.amazon.com/Coin-Oversized-Pool-Table-Billiard/dp/B0060BCUQK/ref=pd_sim_sg_1]Amazon.com: Coin Op Oversized Pool Table Billiard Cue Ball 2 3/8 ": Sports & Outdoors

only 2 3/8 ", but at $6.61 ...

[RomanLini]

You said low initial quantity and you don't have a lot of money, so that really means it would be smart to spend time contacting all the hard ball manufacturers and buying an off the shelf product or getting a quote from them on a specific ball size/colour etc.

Trying to set up yourself to produce the balls seems the wrong way to go for someone with little money and a small initial quantity!

[Geof]

Perhaps nobody noticed the age of this thread.

Unfortunately this project went nowhere. Not because the project itself failed but because one of the companies supporting it went out of business and I did not have the funds to take it over myself.