Alright so here’s the thing – I wanted a volleyball that wouldn’t destroy my arms during practice. Saw some fancy expensive ones online with “shock absorption” and thought, heck, I got solid wood scraps and some random bits lying around. Figured I could whip something up myself. Spoiler: It was way less straightforward than I pictured.

Grabbing Stuff From the Pile

First up, raided my workshop. Found:

• A decent chunk of solid maple hardwood – leftover from that wobbly bookshelf project.
• Some thin cork sheets – seriously, why did I even buy these? Perfect timing I guess.
• Rubber offcuts – like those jar opener pads? Yeah, those.
• Basic wood glue, clamps, my trusty coping saw, sandpaper (lots of it), drill.

Looked at the pile. Good enough, let’s get started.

Carving Like a Madman (Slowly)

Plan was simple: carve the maple into a ball shape. Holy crap, shaping solid hardwood by hand into a sphere is like chewing iron. Sweating buckets within minutes.

• Roughed out a very crude sphere with the coping saw. Looked more like a lumpy potato.
• Started the endless sanding. Went through like five grits of sandpaper. Arms were jelly. Took forever to get it even vaguely spherical and smooth. Still not perfect, obviously.

Sticking Spongy Stuff Inside

Okay, “shock absorbing” core time. My big idea: drill a hole? Yeah.

• Measured carefully (for once) and drilled straight through the center – took it slow so I wouldn’t crack the wood.
• Cut the cork sheet into strips. Rolled them up kinda loosely and jammed them into the drilled hole with glue. Ate a sandwich while the glue set.

Looking kinda hopeful at this point.

Rubber Boot for the Ball

Needed some grip and bounce, figured the rubber bits could be like bumpers.

• Cut the rubber offcuts into small, thin strips. Tried not to slice my finger off.
• Used more wood glue to attach these strips around the surface of the wooden ball. Not symmetrical. Not pretty. Clamped the heck out of it overnight. Prayed the glue held.

Reality Check Time

Next morning, unclamped it. Held my creation. It felt… weirdly heavy. Gave it a tentative whack.

• Thud. Not the nice ping of a regular volleyball. More like hitting a dense pillow wrapped in wood and rubber. Weird.
• Tried again, harder. Definitely absorbed the shock – my palm barely felt it! But the bounce was… pathetic. Dropped it from waist height and it barely came back up. Like playing with a slightly bouncy rock.
• Did it work? Sorta. Shock absorption? Yeah, actually. Playable for volleyball? Absolutely not. Weighed a ton, bounced like a soggy tennis ball.

So yeah. Experiment mostly failed. Felt like a jackass wrestling with that solid timber for hours. But hey, learned loads about how not to make a sports ball, and it was a surprisingly good arm workout. Still got it sitting on my bench. Looks bizarre, but reminds me why sometimes buying the fancy thing is smarter.