Stylish Ball Mount

I liked Chris Borge's Open Ball Vise system, but wanted similar functionality for non-tool use. I also really like featuring non-plastic materials whenever possible in projects. For the project itself there is a ball mount and a wooden base. 

Ball Mount: I created a simple two-sided mold for this. The tolerance for the mating pieces is pretty generous so you will still want to secure the outside seams with painters tape. You will need a ¼" coupling nut for the bottom side of the Ball_mount_thread_layer (aka the top plastic piece). I superglued mine. I also am including a “Coupler_Stopper_Screw” that you can screw into the very bottom of the coupling nut to stop concrete from getting in. Hot glue works too.

The goal is to get the plastic piece to sit dead center in the top of the ball mold. Originally, I had secured a ¼ bolt into the thread and used a complicated rig outside the mold to keep this suspended in that location, but I found that if you pour most of the concrete first, it will rest on top without need of outside support. 

Wooden Base: I am including the 3d model of this if you would rather just print it. If you want to make a wooden version, and you have access to a lazer cutter (or I suppose a CNC) than you would want to use the supplied svg files. I milled walnut wood to ¼" thickness (I am guessing you can find ¼ hardwood for relatively cheap at a box store or on Amazon) and then lazer cut each sketch (“Top_Layer_For_Base”, “Middle_Layer_For_Base”, and “Bottom_Layer_For_Base”). These are each about 6x6" so you would want around 6x20" piece of wood to work with. I would suggest testing these on cheap wood first. I found that Home Depot sells oak ½" dowels that fit nicely in the alignment holes. After the lazer cut, all the exposed ends will look rough and will require a fair amount of sanding. Lastly, I made marking lines on the Top and Middle layer for inner circles that are not meant to be cut out but rather to be sanded/rasped down for an inner chamfer that the ball can move on. 

I used the STEP files from Chris Borge's Open Ball Vise system as models for the ball vise mold and base, but I changed the dimensions (this would not be interoperable with that model). This has just one thread (a ¼" one at the center of the surface). The ball is mostly made out of concrete.