Pretty nice work man. That thing looks like it should get the job done and last a while too!
A friend of mine had/has an old washing machine that the water pump went out on, so he bought a new machine. After letting it sit in the storage building for about a year, we decided to make a spinner out of the thing because the motor still ran well, just the pump was out.
We also used a bowl almost identical to yours, and used small guage rubber hose around the top edge to help keep from scuffing the ball against the metal bowl. We cut the agitator shaft off short enough that, when we installed the bowl on it, you can still close the lid. That put it down far enough to keep the spinning ball from slinging water and polish everywhere during the process.
We took the timer out and directly wired the motor and transmission to toggle switches so that we can use it on a low or a high speed, but that high speed spin was REALLY fast ( so fast it was scary.) Better not try to use an unbalanced ball on high speed or you will be picking it ( and maybe your teeth ) out of the wall somewhere.
Like you, this thing worked great last time we were using it. Haven't used it in a couple of years though. My friend quit bowling ( due to injury of his back ) so I don't do any ball work there anymore.
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I'm really tired of the whining, so, JUST SHUT UP AND
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