Starting the Volleyball Project
So I randomly thought last Thursday – what if we made a volleyball from pine timber that doesn’t hurt your arms? Grabbed my sketchbook and drew this terrible volleyball shape with shock-absorbing gaps between wood panels. Looked like a rotten pumpkin but hey, ideas gotta start somewhere.
Collecting Materials
Went down to Hank’s lumberyard and dug through his scrap pile. Found some dried pine planks that were gonna be firewood anyway. Paid him two bucks and threw them in my pickup. At home, these were the tools laying around my messy garage:
- Rusty hand saw
- Grandpa’s wood carving chisels
- That half-empty wood glue tube from last year’s birdhouse
- Stretchy bungee cords
- Sandpaper that feels like gravel
Cutting & Carving Nightmares
First mistake – tried eyeballing the cuts. My “hexagons” came out looking like deformed potatoes. Sanded one piece for 20 minutes straight, got a splinter deep enough to need tweezers. Finally cut 20 uneven panels while cursing at wood dust flying up my nose.
Chiseled grooved edges on each piece thinking that’d help them lock together. Half the panels split like crackers. Started over with thicker chunks this time.
The Shock Absorbing Mess
Glued the first test ball without shock gaps. Whacked it against the garage door – THUNK! Felt like punching concrete. Took it apart angrily and carved U-shaped notches where panels meet.
Stretched those bungee cords through the gaps like spiderwebs. When the glue was halfway dry, I kept poking the cords to test tension. Got superglue all over my favorite pliers. Worth it though – now the ball had some squish!
Final disaster: Tried to sand curved surfaces smooth. Sandpaper caught on bungee cord and snapped it like a slingshot. Nearly took my eye out. Wrapped duct tape around the ball to hold cords in place – looks ugly but whatever.
Testing Like an Idiot
Dragged my neighbor Jim to backyard volleyball court. First serve went CRACK against my forearms – still hurts but less than expected! We played like drunken monkeys for 20 minutes before panels started rattling loose.
Now it sits on my workbench leaking wood dust. Does it work? Kinda. Looks like Frankenstein’s sports equipment. But hey, it’s proof you can make anything absorb shock if you torture wood enough.
