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I do not currently do custom woodturning projects for others. So when a viewer approached me for an advanced Tai Chi ball, I said no. But nothing stops me from showing how it is done. He would have need it about 8″ in diameter.

So I found an oak board about 9″ wide, surfaced it, chopped it up, and glued it all together again into a big block. It’s cold right now in my shop so I brought it inside to cure for a week.

Then on to turning it. No problem here other than it is the largest ball I’ve turned to date. Still the cupped faceplate process worked just fine.

I supplemented the process by marking out and cutting an octagon first. A sphere can be inscribed into an octagon. Once the octagon was ready, I divided each side for a sixteen side block. Then it was a simple matter to round off the remaining points.

Then mount the cup centers and rotate the sphere so that the old equator line runs between centers. Whittle down the ghost image at the top but leave the equator line as much as possible. Then mark a new equator line.

Again rotate the sphere so that the new equator line runs between centers. Again whittle down the ghost image at the top leaving the equator line.

At this point, I evaluate the sphere. Is it round? If not, do another rotation pass and try again.

Once it passes, I start sanding using the same sequence for each grit. For this size of sphere, I power sanded it starting with 80 grit and going to 320 grit.

My Tai Chi ball is finished with bath in walnut oil.

I don’t practice Tai Chi, but I have an advanced ball if I ever start.