Alright folks, today was one of those “why not try it?” kinda days. Ended up messing around with some scrap birch wood thinking I could slap together a decent pad for practicing basketball dribbles at home. Didn’t plan much, just kinda went for it.

Scrounging for Stuff

First thing was digging through the garage pile. Found a bunch of those birch assembly flooring planks left over from when my neighbor, Frank, redid his basement last fall. Good solid stuff. Grabbed maybe eight pieces? They were roughly the same size, thankfully, about a foot wide and maybe three feet long. Didn’t measure too carefully – just eyeballed it. Needed more junk to make it work though.

• The wood: Scuffed-up birch planks – free!
• Padding dreams: Ripped out the old, kinda-squished foam gym mat from under the workbench. Smelled faintly of engine oil.
• Sticking it together: Found half a tube of wood glue that wasn’t totally solid, some chunky screws from a picture frame project gone wrong, and a rusty hammer.
• The “tools”: My trusty busted measuring tape, a blunt pencil, and my cordless drill with that one almost-dead battery.

Wrestling Wood and Glue

Started by dragging everything out onto the driveway. Wiped the worst dirt off the birch with an old rag. Then tried to arrange the planks nice and tight, end-to-end. Wanted a rectangle for the pad. Easier said than done – those tongues and grooves were stubborn! Had to wrestle them into lining up. Puffed glue all over the joining edges – got more on my fingers than the wood. Stuck them together anyway. Felt like holding puzzle pieces glued with honey.

While waiting for the glue to maybe dry (who knows?), turned to the foam. Realized it was wider than my plank setup. Grabbed Frank’s rusty handsaw that lives by my trash cans. Sawed through that foam chunk – messy business, little bits flew everywhere. Trimmed it roughly to fit under the plank rectangle. Sorta fit.

Hammer Time and Wonky Results

Okay, time to attach the wood skeleton to the foam base. Didn’t trust just glue. Started drilling pilot holes through the birch planks into the foam edges. Foam crumbled a bit, wasn’t great. Screwed them together anyway, felt like screwing into cardboard. Then hammered a few extra screws near the corners for good measure – couple went in crooked. Oh well.

Checked the battery – one bar left. Finished screwing just before the drill died. Flipped the whole monstrosity over. Surprise! It had a slight curve. Because of course it did. Stood on it to flatten it out. Seems okay now. The foam bulged a tiny bit around the edges, and the wood surface wasn’t perfectly smooth, but… it was a surface.

Dribble Test (Sorta)

Took my old basketball out. Gave it a few tentative bounces on the new birch pad. Sound was solid – nice loud “thump”. Ball bounced back predictably, even with the slight curve. Didn’t slide around too much on the driveway. Didn’t splinter my ball either, big win! Surface felt grippy but quick enough for shuffles and crossovers. It ain’t pretty, edges are rough, screws poke out a little underneath, and it smells faintly like a garage. But for scraps and an afternoon? Works. Mission accomplished. If it lasts ’til winter, I’ll be amazed.