Gauge Ball Sets

[Glyn DaviesParticipant @glyndavies49417]

I found these gauge ball sets for sale:

They come in metric or imperial and contain pairs of balls up to 1" or 25mm diameter. Can anyone tell me what they are used for in industry? All I can think of is measuring internal cone angles or measuring dovetails.

Thanks

[Glyn DaviesParticipant @glyndavies49417]

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Ball bearings are produced, or should be, to very tight tolerances, so they can be used as masters to check measuring instruments, or as comparators for a dimension on a component.

They could also be used as length standards for machine tools such as jig borers.

As a consumable they could be used for ball broaching to size a bore accurately in a component such as a tube.

Howard

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Seems odd that the set has pairs of each size, presumably in 1 mm increments.

Standard practice used to be three of each size to allow stable set-ups on surface plates or inside bores to measure groove width with the aid of a gauge pin.

Short discussion here :- **LINK**

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general-archive/what-precision-gage-balls-used-96384/

Professional version with more notes on applications here :- **LINK**

Precision Spheres (Balls)

For far more than you ever wanted to know on the subject :- **LINK**

https://www.precisionballs.com/all_ball_gages.php

Clive

[HOWARDTParticipant @howardt]

Can be used to measure tapered holes, measure depth to two different balls and work out angle etc.

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

Nice shiny things to have but I doubt will be used much. In 40 odd years Toolmaking I can't remember the use of ball bearings very often. BTW I use dowel pins for dovetail measurement.

Tony

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