I had a call Wednesday from a local school shop teacher that wanted 50 3"X3"x36" oak to let students turn on a lathe for baseball bats. I cut them and will be curious to see a bat made out of them. I also wanted to say thanks to Jeff for taking care of our website. www.premiertimber.com. He did an excellent job.....when we finally got him all the needed info! Thanks again Jeff!
Glad to here you helping out the local school shop class.
I have been working with the shop teacher for a few years now, and the other day my youngens and I made up a fun little science project that done back when I was in school. The older boys were able to test their teachers under standing of wood science. The teacher asked if would make up a couple dozen for some in class experiments. I sent a box of then to school the next day.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/17725/nail_in_wood.JPG)
I have heard of ash and maple but never oak for bats. I wonder if hickory would be OK.
I happen to teach woodshop and have a love hate thing with the bats. On the one hand it is a cool easy project,and everyone wants to make one, but on the other it is a weapon and no bat made in my shop is certified to be legal in a game.
To keep the enthusiasm in check, I tell them they can make a bat if they get the proper wood. That keeps it in check, but it was pretty neat a few years ago when a star baseball player, who went on to a full ride in college brought in some maple his dad had milled. He made a great bat that is still talked about to this day.
BAckwoods, I am curios as to just what and how that thing you posted came into existence....
Hey backwoods...what the heck is that...lol ?
Jim..ash or maple would be a better choice for sure....the teacher asked for oak since these were to be for the students to learn to use the lathe on and not actually for use as a bat. Im sure one of the students will want to put his creation to the test. Hickory would for sure be hard enough for use as a bat!
Ain't that a shame.... that baseball bats have assumed the "weapon" status in schools. And, that they can't be home-made (without a lot of rigmarole).
Make shorter versions and call it a fish club no need for certification.
It is a piece of alder with a nail in it. What I sent to school was pine and a hand full of nails for them to put in the wood. No glue or hidden cuts are needed.
The secret to the nail-in-the-wood is to use Chinese nails. They bend real easy. ;D
Are the two pieces on the ends (or at least one of them) cut thinner so the nail can go in there ???
Nope
Think science not wood shop.
Nail trick...Boil, squeeze, drill, insert, boil, wait?
Hammer nail into tree and wait many years. Then mill boards.
Quote from: boman1 on November 19, 2009, 09:25:08 PM
I had a call Wednesday from a local school shop teacher that wanted 50 3"X3"x36" oak to let students turn on a lathe for baseball bats. I cut them and will be curious to see a bat made out of them. ........
What moisture content might the oak be? How about selection for straight grain, or might that be up to the student to determine before turning? Sounds interesting and wonder a bit "why oak". Curious here too. :) :)
Quote from: metalspinner on November 20, 2009, 07:19:47 AM
Hammer nail into tree and wait many years. Then mill boards.
A+
Quote from: wolfram on November 20, 2009, 06:19:36 AM
Nail trick...Boil, squeeze, drill, let dry while sqeezed, insert, boil, wait, ?
A+
Quote from: beenthere on November 20, 2009, 10:00:04 AM
Quote from: boman1 on November 19, 2009, 09:25:08 PM
I had a call Wednesday from a local school shop teacher that wanted 50 3"X3"x36" oak to let students turn on a lathe for baseball bats. I cut them and will be curious to see a bat made out of them. ........
What moisture content might the oak be? How about selection for straight grain, or might that be up to the student to determine before turning? Sounds interesting and wonder a bit "why oak". Curious here too. :) :)
I cut half of it out of some 3"x12"x20' boards I had cut a couple of weeks ago for a customer that ended up not needing as many as he thought. It was a little dry. I cut the rest out of fresh cut white oak log. Not sure why he asked for oak, I will ask him next time I talk with him. Backwoods you need to "splain" that wood with a nail in it better for me....lol So far I have failed the test!
Did you know that once upon a time, Men made their own bats? They used Oak too. Most bats today aren't Oak because it is so heavy and more brittle than Hickory or Ash (which gives a whip)
Pa. (http://www.bwpbats.com/)
Ma. (http://www.barnstablebat.com/)
Ga. and Hanna (http://www.stevetheump.com/bat_history.htm)
cheap (http://www.cheapbats.com/shop/) compare $300+ (newfangled) to $80 (wood)
Too much sueing (http://www.lockergnome.com/forsythe/2009/10/29/manufacturer-of-baseball-bat-loses-lawsuit/)
More'n you might want to know (http://paws.kettering.edu/~drussell/Demos/batvibes.html)
Whether you want to know it or not (http://www.baseball-bats.net/baseball-bats/baseball-bat-history/index.html)
The biggest of all (http://www.sluggermuseum.org/)
The Internet is full of Bat stuff. No, not guano, Baseball bats. You could spend an afternoon reading. :)
Glad to hear you used white oak for at least half of the bat blanks. You didn't mention whether the 20' 3x12s were red or white oak. White oak may not be the best wood for a bat, but it is much better than red oak. Even if the teacher doesn't intend for the bats to be used, I would be surprised if a few of them don't see a workout at some point down the road ;).
haha, i'm in the same boat.....
i usually tell them to make small ones out of scrap and learn to use the tools, THEN they can glue up some wood and try to make a real one.......i tell them never to use it because it's laminated ::)
i've had a couple players over the years make one and they were really proud of it......they like to use the wood burning pencil to put their name, graduation date, etc.....
after it's done, i keep the bat until last period and they can come back and get it to take home...i explain to them how we've made them for years and never had a problem.......and that how a student carrying a baseball bat down the hallway could be perceived, etc.....
for me, on this issue, it's not "how things have changed" but rather i know what kids will do with a new "toy" in english class that everyone wants to see.....that's where most problems would come from.......just something distracting from their teaching......with that said, however, i'm only 35 and we expel students for things we thought were funny just 15 years ago......same school system........so, things certainly have changed.....
Quote from: shinnlinger on November 19, 2009, 10:12:43 PM
I happen to teach woodshop and have a love hate thing with the bats. On the one hand it is a cool easy project,and everyone wants to make one, but on the other it is a weapon and no bat made in my shop is certified to be legal in a game.
To keep the enthusiasm in check, I tell them they can make a bat if they get the proper wood. That keeps it in check, but it was pretty neat a few years ago when a star baseball player, who went on to a full ride in college brought in some maple his dad had milled. He made a great bat that is still talked about to this day.
BAckwoods, I am curios as to just what and how that thing you posted came into existence....
Quote from: shinnlinger on November 19, 2009, 10:12:43 PM
BAckwoods, I am curios as to just what and how that thing you posted came into existence....
My grandfather was a black smith over on east side of the state and I hung out in his shop when I could. One day while he was doing some repair work on some old farm equipment the old farmer Cut out a blank and thru it in the pot of water that was always on the stone out in the shop. A little while latter he pulled it out and put one end in the vice and left it for a bit while he went back to telling stories. When he took it out of the vice the wood stayed in place and he used and old brace and bit to drill a hole in it, slipped a nail into the hole, and put it back into the pan to boil a bit longer, when it came out it had swelled up again.
I had been out in the shop with the kids and decided to make one for each of them. Well the boys thought they could stump there shop teacher and there science teacher with them. It is a small K-12 school so they all have the same teachers. I do some milling each year for the school as well, I set up down by the ag building ,the kids get a chance to get outside, and the shop class gets a stack of wood.
my father-in-law and his dad (wife's grandpa) had all kinds of little tricky things like this nail in the wood......they even had one of the nail in the wood....
they have both passed in the last year and i've been gathering them up to take to my shop class and let the kids check them out....
let me get this right....you cut out the basic pc.......throw it in boiling water........pull it out of the water....drill the hole (wood will be soft and flexible) then you can twist it a little and insert the nail, right?
Close when you pull it out of the water put one end of it in a vice and squeeze it, let it dry for a bit and when it is removed from the vice, it will hold its shape. Now you can drill it and insert the nail, when you place it back into the boiling water make sure the nail dose not slide back and catch on the piece that is expanding.
Quote from: backwoods sawyer on November 22, 2009, 10:10:24 AM
Close when you pull it out of the water put one end of it in a vice and squeeze it, let it dry for a bit and when it is removed from the vice, it will hold its shape. Now you can drill it and insert the nail, when you place it back into the boiling water make sure the nail dose not slide back and catch on the piece that is expanding.
backwoods sawyer,
Does one kind of wood work better than another, or can I do this with pretty much anything?
-- Loren
The softer the wood the better, Pine, alder, cedar, ect.