Football

Shane Starnes

Member
Messages
81
Location
Krum Texas
Made this for my son and his team to give to the coach. The small town I live in just got a football program this year.

Made of walnut and cypress. The size is very close to a junior high ball.ball 1.JPG

ball2.JPG
 
Wow, I never knew they played school football in Texas.








:rofl:

That's just too cool, Shane. :clap: The proportions looks spot on. :thumb:
 
Shane that is just too cool :thumb:. Your sons coach is all but guaranteed to treaure that as one of his favored trophys of his life :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Tom

PS are you going to have the team sign it?
 
Shane,
That's a great gift to start off the new program! If I were the new Coach, I wouldn't know whether to keep it proudly displayed on my desk, or keep it safely at home on my trophy mantle.

Great job.

Wes
 
Very nice ball!
I'm longing to make one.
In my search of ideas I found out this site (sorry it's in French, but pictures are universal).
http://www.vayssade.fr/ballonsrugby.htm
The rugby ball looks your football one.
It may give you ideas for making new ones!
For the one who can read on the same site there is a step-bystep howto.
This gentleman is also making soccer balls.

Jean-Claude
 
Very nice ball!
I'm longing to make one.
In my search of ideas I found out this site (sorry it's in French, but pictures are universal).
http://www.vayssade.fr/ballonsrugby.htm
The rugby ball looks your football one.
It may give you ideas for making new ones!
For the one who can read on the same site there is a step-bystep howto.
This gentleman is also making soccer balls.

Jean-Claude
Welcome to the forum, Jean-Claude. :wave: There are some very nice pieces on the site you linked to. I like this ball a lot:

http://www.vayssade.fr/boule2.htm

Thanks -
 
Shane, that is really, really nice, I'm sure it will be a big hit :thumb:

Jean-Claude, welcome to the family! :wave:

Vaughn, that is the one that caught my eye too.

Cheers!
 
Thanks to everyone for the kind words. It was a fun project.

Tom,
Yes I plan on having the team sign the base. It will also have a small plaque mounted in front of the ball.

Jean Claude,

Welcome to the forum. That site is really cool. I really like his kicking t's. I may rethink my display!!!

Jon,
As far as a tutorial. Man I knew I should have taken pictures as I went. Really it was not very much too it. I found an example of one way to do it where it is glued up hollow. I decided to go ahead and make mine solid.

http://www.woodcentral.com/shots/shot469.shtml

I don't remember the exact dimensions but best I can remember the ball is 5 3/4 at the mid point. Overall it is 11 1/2. Cant remember the distance between the white stripes but lets call it 7inches. That is where I started. I glued up a solid block of kiln dried walnut about 6x6x8 and trimmed the ends square leaving me 7 inches.

I didn't have any maple on hand so I used cypress for the light wood. If I had to do it over I would have went and bought maple because it was hard to transition from the hard walnut to the soft cypress without cutting too deep in the soft wood.

I first made a test ball out of cypress using cedar for the contrasting wood in order to figure out how thick the stripe should start out. On the test ball I glued in a 1/2 inch block. After turning it the stripe was too narrow. I was shooting for 7/8. So...

After the ends were trimmed I glued on a 5/8 thick square of cypress. I used yellow glue here. After it dried I glued on more walnut 3x3 about 3 inches long keeping the grain parallel to the ways. I used 5 min epoxy and the lathe as a clamp.

Then it was just a matter of knocking the corners off on the band saw, mounting it between centers, measuring everything and parting down to the dimensions. I found out the hard way on the test ball to stay away from the stripes with the roughing gouge. Because the grain was running across the ways it blew out the end grain. I started on the ends roughing it down with a bowl gouge and finished it off with the skew. The bowl gouge cut the end grain nice and clean.

The stitches could have been a little better. I actually forgot to do it but I had planned on making the cross stitches stand proud of the main stitch that runs the length of the ball. Anyway I took a 1 inch wide by 3/4 thick stick of cypress and cut the voids on the router table like cutting box joints. Then I sliced off a thin piece on the band saw that would bend to to ball. I glued it on with yellow glue using tape for a clamp.

For a finish I just sanded to 400 and used general finishes outdoor oil and beall buff.
 
Thanks for your welcome messages!
I read this forum since almost one year now, but this was my first post.
Brief introduction, 56 yo, French (sorry for that!) wood working since ever, done a lot in lutherie, and turning since two years (mainly bowls).
Jean-Claude
 
I'm longing to make one.
In my search of ideas I found out this site (sorry it's in French, but pictures are universal).
http://www.vayssade.fr/ballonsrugby.htm
Jean-Claude

Ok, everybody,

We've got to recruit this guy named Jo. Here's his story:

Né avant la guerre dans le sud de la France et véritable autodidacte (Bac moins 4), j'ai travaillé dans différentes entreprises en mécanique, chaudronnerie, tuyauterie industrielle, charpente métallique et bâtiments travaux publics en région Rhône-Alpes.

En 1965 j'ai créé ma propre entreprise de montage et levage devenue aujourd'hui le groupe"SMMI" et je l'ai gérée jusqu'à mon départ en retraite en 1994.

Depuis cette date, j'assouvis une passion qui évite de "s'enconnarder" devant la télé quand il n'y a pas de sports,
je travaille et façonne le bois au sous-sol de mon habitation.


Yeah, so, in english: He dropped out of high school, did a bunch of odd jobs, finally started his own business, built it up, retired from that in 94, has a shop in his basement, where he works when there's no football playing on the tube. Now he turns hollow forms that open up to hold champagne and glasses to drink it from!

So, yeah... we've *got* to get this guy on board! ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Thanks for your welcome messages!
I read this forum since almost one year now, but this was my first post.
Brief introduction, 56 yo, French (sorry for that!) wood working since ever, done a lot in lutherie, and turning since two years (mainly bowls).
Jean-Claude

Jean Claude,

Bienvenue! Where do you live? (I used to live in Nice).

We have a firm rule that all new members need to post pictures of their shop! ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
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