These cage balls make a decoration on their own. If you assemble them from our kits, you can also display them with your choice of object hanging inside.
Original design thing:4722, Licensed CC-by-sa
Your kit contains two sets of parts:
We supply these kits with a tube of liquid superglue (cyanoacrylate). We recommend a fast-acting glue like this. When gluing, it's easiest and neatest to assemble the pieces dry and then to add a drop of glue afterwards. The glue will be pulled into the joint by capillary action. Be careful where that glue is going and don't stick the jig to the cage!
Begin by gluing the hangers into the discs. The raised stops on the sides of the hangers go on what will become the outside of the discs.
Important: Now allow the glue to dry before continuing. You don't want to glue the jig permanently to the decoration!
Place (don't glue!) the jig discs alongside the decoration discs, over the hangers.
The two discs need to sit flush against each other, so put them over the end of the hanger that doesn't have the protruding stops.
Cage ball, first jig frame
Now start assembling the jig. Do not use glue.
One of the three frames is different – its notches are smaller. Place this one over the discs, jig disc on the inside. The jig disc has a notch that the frame must fit into. The small notch in the frame also fits into this notch.
Now repeat with the other disc.
Cage ball, second jig frame
Place the second jig frame into notches in the other side of the discs.
Be careful that the jig frames line up and they aren't 'twisted' relative to each other. This is quite easy with the jig: the first frame is aligned by the notch in the jig disc and the other frames are easy to see. It's harder to see when putting the cage bars in though. We find it easier by starting near to the pre-checked jig frame and working away, slot by slot.
Now add the third jig frame, just like the second.
The three frames should be placed symmetrically and far enough away from each other that the jig can stand up on two of them.
Now start assembling the decoration itself!
Place one of the bars into the slots in the decoration disc.
Again, be careful that the bars aren't 'twisted'.
The discs of the jig locate the bars end-to-end. The small straight lugs on the inside of the bar should sit just outside the discs.
Glue the bar into place. Be very careful to glue the bar only to the outer disc, not to the jig!
Place enough bars to fill half the ball.
Once this many bars are glued in place, you can remove the jig. Don't put too many bars in place, or it becomes hard to remove the discs of the jig.
After removing the jig, you can add the bars where the jig used to be.
If you're planning to hang an ornament within the ball, glue half the bars into the ball, hang the ornament and then glue in the rest of the bars. A half-ball is strong enough to work with and it gives more space to reach into the insides.
We find that the easiest way is to use a loop of soft brass wire (picture hanging wire), which can be joined by twisting it at the ends, rather than knotting it. It's quite hard to tie a knot inside the ball.