Tiny Baseball Bat and Ball

I really enjoy making tiny things so as soon as I saw this contest I knew I would enter. I currently do school though Vlearn.ca and am 14 years old. Sorry the photos are very blurry.

1. Various files
2. Tape measure
3. Hacksaw
4. Sharpie/pencil
5. 6.35mm (1/4) dowel Buy it here
6. Hand Drill/Drill Press/lathe
7. 150 Grit Sandpaper

Start by getting the dowel, I used a 6.35mm (1/4 inch) size, though it doesn't totally matter since this project isn't very size specific. I then measured 1 inch from the end for how long it would be, you can make it as long as you like, I chose an inch because I was making a short bat, I also marked were I thought the handle would be. Don't get excited and cut it yet, add another 2 or so inches onto it so that you can grip the dowel when you start to mill it. Now to cutting, you can use what ever you have; I went with a hacksaw though you could even just use side cutters since that end will just be in the chuck. Once it is cut you can move onto the next step.

For this step you could use a hand drill, drill press, or lathe. I went with a drill press since I find it the easiest to use. Start by clamping the long end of the dowel in the chuck. This is probably my favorite step, when it starts to take shape. I begun with a flat file to do the bottom which is the top of the bat then I switched to a round file to do the grip. Once this was done I used 150grit sandpaper to do the rest, this grit of sandpaper seemed to work very good, letting me take off plenty off wood but still be precise. You could experiment with different sandpaper.

Supplies:

• Airsoft BBs (any weight)
• Red Sharpie

Color both sides of BB as shown in photo.

Over all, I really enjoyed this project. As I said earlier milling the bat was super enjoyable, and will probably use this method again. Here are some thoughts and tips:

• When parting the bat off from the dowel don't cut all the way through to keep it from flying off randomly, instead cut though most of the way then just snap it off.
• Sand paper surprisingly worked better then the files when milling and made it much easier to do the curves.
• I contemplated painting or staining the bat which I might still do.
• I thought about putting more detail on the the ball like stiches which would still be good to do.
• I wasn't sure if the ball is to big for the size of the bat and might switch to a smaller BB.