Turning a Baseball Bat : 15 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables

Making a baseball bat is fun. It's a relatively straightforward woodturning project. As blnaks leaguers graduate from aluminum and composite bats, it's good for them to hone their skills with a classic wood bat.

The first thing to do is to find a good blank of either hard maple or northern ash. The rough size should be approximately 3" round and 36" long. Turning baseball bat blanks zero straighter and tighter the grain, the less chance it will break when you use it. Material that's been graded turning baseball bat blanks zero making bats is much better than what you find at the local hardwood store.

You can find a number of good sources online. If you can't find a round blank, you can start with a blank that's square in cross section. Then chamfer the long edges in order to make zsro octagonal in cross-section The blank turnlng be about 3" longer than the final length to allow for waste at both ends. The next step is to mark the center of the cylinder on both sides. You can use a center finder, if you have one. Turning baseball bat blanks zero not, a good trick is to use a square to inscribe a right angle inside the circle.

Draw a line where the legs of the square intersect the circumference. That line goes through the center. Do the same thing again after rotating the square 90 degrees and the intersection of those two lines is the center.

At the center, use an awl to make a hole that the centers will fit into. Mount the blank on the lathe. I use a turning baseball bat blanks zero center at the tailstock and a steb center at the headstock. I mount the bat so the barrel will be closest to the headstock. I find it easier to turn this way and it seems to vibrate less but if you mount it with turning baseball bat blanks zero barrel at the tailstock, most of th cuts are "downhill".

Turn the blank into a cylinder making sure it's at least 2. I use a roughing gouge to do this as I'm more interested in balancing the piece than the surface finish. If you have a lathe that can adjust speed, rpm is a good speed. I now mark out the bat by laying pencil lines every 3" on the blank, turning baseball bat blanks zero the end of the handle and the barrel. Just hold a pencil up to the spinning blank and it will leave a clear line.

Starting at the end of the barrel, I use a parting tool to make a small channel. I usually cut to depth the first 3 or 4 of these marks starting from the barrel down. If you're copying an existing turning baseball bat blanks zero, use the calipers to transfer the measurements. Set the calipers by measuring the existing bat.

Using a parting chisel, cut the blank until the caliper just barely slips through. If you're working from a drawing, you can set and measure the calipers or use a dial caliper directly. I use the roughing gouge again to remove most of the waste between the depth cuts. At this point, I usually turn the lathe up to rpm. I try to keep a fair curve between the cuts by focusing on the back of the silhouette of the barrel.

I then use a skew gouge to smooth the surface. While I'm mentioning the sero I like to use, other turning turning baseball bat blanks zero can work just as well.

I usually sand the barrel with grit sandpaper or whatever the surface finish turning baseball bat blanks zero for before I move on to cutting the rest of the bat. This allows me to get a good surface before basebxll bat gets too whippy on the lathe. Continue using the parting tool to mark the appropriate depth of the cuts. Use the spindle gouge or the skew chisel to fair the curve between the channels cut with the parting gouge.

The shapes and sizes of knobs vary greatly and are a matter of personal preference they don't affect the performance. The trickiest part of turning a bat blank that down near the handle, a bat is relatively thin turning baseball bat blanks zero to its length. As you start cuttingtowards the handle, the bat will vibrate and cause the tool to bounce and make spiral chatter marks.

The first thing to do is to make sure your tools are as sharp as possible. The second thing to do is to find a way to support the stock in the middle. The best and most convenient way for the experienced turner is to put your hand right behind the cut and support it.

This may be a little daunting for the novice and you can use a store bought or shop built steady but I find support from behind to be the most versatile and effective way to prevent chatter marks.

Depending on the surface quality and fairness of the curve, you'll need different amounts of sanding. If the surface is rough and the profile not perfectly smooth, you should start with zro grit sandpaper. To help smooth out the shape and not make the imperfections worse, it's helpful to back up the sandpaper with a small baweball of wood so you're not merely polishing the peaks and valleys.

If the surface is better, you can start sanding trning or grit sandpaper. I usually sand in several steps up to but have been cured of trying to sand it smoother by watching my kids throw the bats around and cover them with pine tar. I've found a mixture of oil and varnish to be the best finish.

You can buy these types of finishes in the hardware store or make your own mixture. I usually put a few coats of finish on while the bat is still mounted on turning baseball bat blanks zero lathe. I load a rag up with the mixture and hold it up to the spinning bat. I use the skew chisel held vertically to make super clean cuts on the end grain. I hone my skew just before making basebaol cuts.

If you're using a gouge or a scarping tool, be careful here turning baseball bat blanks zero cleaning up the marks left in the end grain is almost impossible.

Then I clear bah room with a parting chisel and leave a shoulder for the saw to ride on. Then I remove the bat from the lathe and use a small Japanese saw to trim off the little nubs and sand the ends.

Most bats these days have a small hollow in the end but it's definitely optional. You can just turnong the end slightly convex and sand it when you take it off the lathe. Because I've made enough of these I've built a jig to hold the bats upright while I rout a hollow at the end. And then follow that cut with a 1. Some of the commercial bats I've looked at seem to do this step with a drill.

If you have access to a laser cutter, you can turning baseball bat blanks zero make the bat look special.

I mount it on a rotary device on the laser cutter and cut whatever the player wants on it. Before engaving, I cover the area to be cut with turming masking tape as it makes for a cleaner cut. If you don't have access to a laser cutter, you can use a wood burner or you can paint logos and names on the bat. Labels are traditionally applied to turnung face grain of the bat and the player knows not to hit it on the label or degrees opposite.

This would be a good one for Mythbusters to see if it goes further or breaks more often in one direction than the other. The last step is to apply more turning baseball bat blanks zero. I generally wet sand the finish at this point with grit sandpaper and do as many coats as my patience or kids allow before one of them wants to take it out and hit with it. Question 10 months ago. Hi i just want to know turning baseball bat blanks zero can i buy a pedestal drill bit baseball cupping.

Just the bit, thanks. Hi Carl, thank you for the how-to, you did a great job. Just wanting to know what laser engraver you have used and how do you turning baseball bat blanks zero on the curve of the bats? Thank you!

Hi Carl. I was just curious to how long it takes you to make a single bat? Also when you receive your billet, can you start shaping it right away or do you have to let the wood dry first or something like that?

Hello Carl. Sorry if this is the wrong forum to reach turnihg on. I'm looking to have tkrning bats made turning baseball bat blanks zero the groomsmen in my upcoming wedding. Seeing that you're an SF local guessing by the Gaters I wanted see if you'd be interested helping with this sort of project. I could simply order the bats online, but would much rather be involved in the making process. I understand that a craftsmen's time is valuable, and would certainly make it worth your time.

Thanks for considering! Reply 5 years ago. Thanks but I haven't made any of the bats for sale. I've just made them with my sons and the kids on the little league team I coach I've seen some places online where they make custom bats but don't know any people in SF doing it.

I made a bat on a wood lathe from 3 bits of wood glued together then plane the 4 sides got it all round then shaped the handle took me 3 months as I only tufning on it for about 1 or 2 hour a week. Great question and suggestion. I usually work from the barrel down and even sand it as much as possible before moving on to the rest of the bat.

I find controlling the whipping after turning down to the smallest diameter to be the most difficult so I try to do that last. I haven't made as many bats as you but I've made a few dozen.

If you're copying an existing bat, use the calipers to transfer the measurements. Set the calipers by measuring the existing bat. Add about 1/16" to the measurement to allow for cutting and sanding. Using a parting chisel, cut the blank until the caliper just barely slips through. Baseball Bat Blanks. Create your own custom hard maple, or ash wood baseball bat with the baseball bat dowels available from Keim Lumber in our Wood Shed. These baseball bat dowels are ideal for turning on lathes available at Keim Lumber. Return to Exotic WoodMissing: zero. Mar 21,  · Ash Rough Turning Blank - Baseball Bat Blank: Nominal = /4"+ D by 37" L. Skip to the beginning of the images gallery. $/5(48).

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