Gone Batty - Woodworking Talk

b00kemdano · 10-05-2009, 05:15 PM

No, not a Halloween post! :D

I have a friend whose daughter plays a lot of softball. He and his wife were volunteered to help the team mother put together gift bags for each of the girls on the team. He asked me to turn some souvenir bats for them. Each bat is 18" long and 1 1/8" diameter max.

I used crappy, cheap-o "hardwood" dowels from China (Home Depot) - I think that China has a different idea of what hardwood is than we do! The wood was difficult to turn without chattering, catching and cracking, but with lots of patience, and even more sanding, they came out pretty nice! Kept the job in their price range, and they really liked them.

slatron25 · 10-06-2009, 07:25 PM

It would be really difficult for me to do over 20 of anything. I get bored too easily. Good job and as long as they are happy good deal all around.

jdixon · 10-07-2009, 11:48 PM

Dano, That's great, I'll bet the girls on the team will love them.

John

b00kemdano · 10-08-2009, 10:25 AM

Thanks guys! It was a little bit of a challenge to stay on task for these. They aren't all the same, but my friend and his wife couldn't pick the machine-made sample bat that they had given me out of the pile.

lumber jock · 10-10-2009, 12:18 AM

Did you turn them "free hand" or did you use a duplicator ?

b00kemdano · 10-10-2009, 11:13 PM

I turned each of these bats by hand. I'm still a newbie and I don't have fancy stuff like duplicators!

Some of these bats were better than others, but I'm happy that they all look like bats.

Rob Brown · 10-23-2009, 02:18 AM

I requested a signature from each of my grandsons last year and made bats for them, for Christmas. Freehand from another bat as a pattern. After the bat was complete I traced their signature onto the bat and woodburned it in where a manufacturers seal would be.
They love to play with them and nobody can mistakenly claim it.