Brian
I'm in sync with the no regrets crowd. The ball turner tool has twisted more minds than almost any other tool presented on this forum. It's just darned hard to wrap one's head around how it works until you can see one in action.
This project, like the steam engine you recently built, put you right out in front of the whole world. As you've discovered, its a bit like standing naked in the Macy's Dept Store front window. There is literally no place to hide as everyone watches your efforts. You were doubly exposed in the ball turner thread. Not only were you sharing the build idea, you were letting everybody have a peek inside your head as you worked to make sense of the tool and its function. You basically let us see how your mind works to solve a problem. That is either high courage or craziness beyond the call. I know this because I've also been in the fish bowl, myself.
By letting others watch over your shoulder you managed to remove the mystery and the intimidation factor so that several others took up the tool project, as well. Not to mention the high number of silent observers who learned something too. Nope... regrets are not allowed when the effort was a success.
While I'm at it I'll offer an apology if my comments in the thread were misconstrued. I wanted to see you do the build from the drawings so you could see the tool at work. The alternate tool link was not meant to offer comparison, but to give you a look at the other method so you could decipher it, as well as the one you managed to explain so well. It was a pleasure to watch the light come on between ears other than my own.
I'm not sure where all the tension among the various build threads came from, but I do hope that each builder will realize that someone learned something from each project. That includes Kvom's use of Marv's instructions for cutting a ball without any special tooling at all.
I've built 4 of these intriguing tools, of various differing designs and I still managed to pick up a trick or two from watching these builds. Now that I've got to build another one, some of those tips and tricks will be incorporated into my own design ideas and used to begin a whole new and unique learning experience.
Thanks
Steve