Gazing balls and threaded inserts - tips

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Original poster: FIFTYGUY@xxxxxxx 

Folks-

    Just wanted to pass on my recent experience with gazing balls 
and the threaded inserts.
    I'm putting together a large-ish Marx generator, and I've been 
needing a bunch of metal balls to make the spark gaps and to 
terminate the charger electrodes.
    I bought 12 of the 4" stainless balls and two of the 6" ones 
from Krupps.com. Cheap, and quality to match - the seam is fairly 
obvious, and the pre-drilled single holes they come with have random 
orientation with respect to said seam. But I've been waiting a while 
for such things to become cheap enough that I didn't mind buying them 
- they're much less expensive than the spherical float balls listed 
in McMaster, for example.
    However, unlike industrial floats, the gazing balls don't come 
with threaded inserts. So I took the advice I heard here and ordered 
some threaded inserts. McMaster #95195A143, "Zinc-Plated Steel 
Open-End Knurled Rivet Nuts", to be exact. They have a 1/4"-20 TPI 
internal thread, and are suitable for material thicknesses of 
.027"-.165". Cost $8.32 for a pack of 25.
    Now, I've never used this type of insert before, so here's what 
I found out:
    Dunno why so much commotion here about drilling stainless, even 
the work-hardened stainless these things are made of. Didn't make any 
difference whether the supplied hole went through the seam or not. 
The main headache was simply the fact that they are made out of thin 
sheet metal and the relatively large twist drill tended to pull 
through. In retrospect, I think a step drill ("Unibit") would 
probably have worked better. A suitable pointed burr with a correct 
body diameter equal to the desired final hole diameter might work 
quite well. Grinding would probably be the best. But I did it the 
worst way, with a high-speed steel twist drill bit I sharpened 
myself, and it worked well enough.
    As for holding the thing in place, I simply put it on the ground 
sitting on a leather glove, and held it while wearing the other 
glove. Clean, dry leather on smooth metal has a tremendous amount of 
friction! If you wanted to be safe and sane about it, I suppose you 
could work up a fixture using some sort of mounting adhesive (wax?) 
or a hold-down plate with a circular cut-out (like they use for 
drilling bowling balls).
    I just used a battery drill. If I thought it was worth the 
trouble I could have chucked them up in the lathe, but again it was 
no big deal...
    Doing it quick and dirty, about half the time the holes ended up 
perfect. The other half, where the drill caught and "screwed" itself 
in, the edges were a little wavy. A little careful prying, and a 
little careful tapping with a small hammer, and everything was OK.
    Regarding the hole size, with these particular inserts the 
catalog specs a 25/64" hole. Well, that resulted in a hole that I 
felt was way too sloppy. So I drilled with a 3/8" bit after the first 
one. I was after a bit of a press or "tap it in" fit, so the knurling 
on the insert would catch and help prevent it from rotating during 
installation. But the annoying thing about these inserts is that the 
end that you insert into the drilled hole, is a few thou's *larger* 
than the knurled body by the head! So they still start out loose, no 
matter what. But using a 3/8" drill, followed by slight filing to 
fit, is definitely the way to go. Make sure you remove any ridges or 
chips stuck to the hole edges that would prevent the thing from seating flat.
    I also used red Locktite ("262 High Strength Threadlocker", for 
the purists) on the knurled section of the insert. I found that a 
liberal application that put some Locktite on the top surface of the 
insert against the installation tool helped keep the insert from 
turning, and presented no problems at all with freeing the installation tool.
    Speaking of installation tools, I didn't buy the correct tool, 
nor did I have a drill bushing of the correct size handy (as had been 
suggested here). I *did* use a high-strength 1/4"-20 bolt (a 
black-oxide finished, 1" long socket-head cap screw). It's lasted 
fine for over a dozen inserts with no sign of wear or galling. I 
believe my liberal application of copper-based anti-seize compound on 
the bolt threads helped this tremendously! As for a bushing surface, 
I simply used a single 1/4" Grade 8 flat washer. I clamped a small 
pair of Vise-Grips onto the washer to keep it from spinning, and kept 
my eye on the insert to make sure it didn't turn with the bolt. I 
found even if the insert *did* turn, I could "outpace" it if I worked 
the hex (Allen) wrench carefully. After a coupla turns, the rivet 
body of the insert starts to collapse and things go much easier. The 
insert doesn't grab fully until the last turn, and when it has 
completely "riveted" the abrupt increase in torque is obvious.
    Really is a piece of cake after you've done a couple of them, 
and I'm glad I've learned how to use this type of insert. I can think 
of many applications now where they'd be handy!

-Phil LaBudde