Turned this last night (PIC)

[Jason Roehl]

My first attempt at turning a bat. It's laminated hickory. 33.5" long and about 38 oz, maybe a little more. Haven't had a chance to hit with it yet, but for a heavy bat, it swings real nice and has good balance (it's for slowpitch softball).

[Lars Thomas]

Jason, your bat looks great. I've made a bunch (handful) of bats. IMO, it's a lot harder then it looks to make a nicely balanced bat that feels good in your hands.

Looks great!!

Now, If I could just figure out what Louisville Slugger means by Flame Tempered???

[Randy Gleckler]

Jason,

Looks very good... Hope you pop your first one out of the park with it...... Then get requests from the other team for a dozen more just like it. :D


Randy

[Don Farr]

Looks great Jason. I can't let my grandson see this or you know what I'll be doing (trying to do).

[Bob Oswin]

My first attempt at turning a bat. It's laminated hickory. 33.5" long and about 38 oz, maybe a little more. Haven't had a chance to hit with it yet, but for a heavy bat, it swings real nice and has good balance (it's for slowpitch softball).

Nice job Jason.
FWIW I made a long rest for jobs like this. (24")
It really helps keep the lines striaght.
How did you manange this length? Also ,what glue did you laminate with?

Bob

[Jason Roehl]

Nice job Jason.
FWIW I made a long rest for jobs like this. (24")
It really helps keep the lines striaght.
How did you manange this length? Also ,what glue did you laminate with?

Bob

Bob, I'm sure that rest would help. I've always thought I've had a good eye for this sort of thing, and this particular undertaking really put that to the test. If I recall correctly, when I measured this morning, there was about 1/16" variance along the barrel, but it's not really noticeable. I think what helped was that the lamination was 2.25" square, and I just turned a section until the flats were just gone, then moved on to the next section.

As for length, my lathe is a Jet 1236--but you don't get 36" between the tailstock point and the spur drive. With the tailstock locking bolt just fully on the ways, you get 34 7/8", so I cut the blank to that and jammed that baby in there. Had I been a little more careful, I might have been able to squeeze 34" out of the bat, but I wanted to stay safe and not catch the spur or point with my parting tool.

Lamination glue was Gorilla Glue. Machined the wood, ran a bead, then used a credit card to scrape an even film onto the wood and clamped all three pieces together. I didn't use water like the GG instructions suggest, mainly because it was somewhere around 200% humidity at the time and the wood has been in my garage since April. My gamble surely paid off, as the squeezeout foamed like mad. 5 hours later the blank was spinning away. I sweat enough that night to practically wet sand it, which was done to 600, then lots of burnishing with chips (I love that sheen with no finish). Right now it is waiting to receive its second and final coat of Minwax Antique Oil.

Guess this got a little long...oh well...

[Von Bickley]

Jason,

Great looking bat. Thanks for letting us see it.

[Joe Tonich]

Jason,

Nice job on the bat. Now you have to let us know how far you crushed the ball at your first at-bat!

Joe

[Kevin Gerstenecker]

Good looking "Ball Beater" Jason! When I played Softball, both Slowpitch and Fastpitch, I always used a wooden bat. I just never did like an Aluminum Bat. Good Luck with it............hit it a MILE for all the Creek-sters! :D

[Doug Jones]

Jason, I'm no expert on turning nor do I claim to no much about baseball. But your bat looks good enough to pound a few homers. A bit of advise though, if you want to keep the integrity of the bat intact, don't loan it to Sosa.

Good job Jason

[Lloyd Frisbee]

Turned this on a mini. :D

[Chris Padilla]

Hey, that is pretty sweet! Nice job, Jason. Hickory, eh? I know a lot of tool handles are made from hickory. I've always heard that ash was used mainly for vibration control...it doesn't sting the crap outa your hands if you hit it wrong.

Toss your GG into the microwave (or put the bottle in a bath of hot water) for a few seconds until it is just warm and it'll flow almost like water and spread real nice and thin.

[Chris Padilla]

Good looking "Ball Beater" Jason! When I played Softball, both Slowpitch and Fastpitch, I always used a wooden bat. I just never did like an Aluminum Bat. Good Luck with it............hit it a MILE for all the Creek-sters! :D

Kevin! Wow...haven't heard from you in a Loooonnngggg time, Fella. I'm dying to know how the casket is going! :D

[Dave Avery]

Hey Jason,

Nice to see you back posting a little bit......

Neat bat - baseball is one of the few things that might get me thinking about doing things that spin. Also, 38 oz!!!!!! Didn't you hear that MLB is about to outlaw steriods..... without 'em, I think I'd need 3 men and a boy to help me swing that thing ;) Dave.

[Kent Cori]

Great work Jason. However, it may be defective in that it will not hit a home run ball every try. If so, let me know and I'll give you my address so you can mail it to me for advanced testing. :D

[Arvin Brown]

Nice bat! Does it have cork in it???

[Jason Roehl]

Hey Jason,

Nice to see you back posting a little bit......

Neat bat - baseball is one of the few things that might get me thinking about doing things that spin. Also, 38 oz!!!!!! Didn't you hear that MLB is about to outlaw steriods..... without 'em, I think I'd need 3 men and a boy to help me swing that thing ;) Dave.

Dave, I never left...I have been pretty busy lately, but have managed a few posts from time to time. Too many irons in the fire and not enough hunks of wood on the lathe. That bat is one I turned last summer...for some reason somebody dug up the thread and replied to it. The bat is quite heavy, but I could tell that I was getting better bat speed with it by the end of the season. It sure would goof up the other team then when I would throw in an at-bat with a much lighter aluminum bat.
:D It's definitely showing some wear, so I think before the next softball season, I'll scuff-sand it and put on some lacquer (I only used Minwax Antique Oil last time). At least the wear is mostly on the ends from hitting the gravel.

[Larry Browning]

Jason,
I used to be an ASA umpire in my past life in Texas and we had a guy bring a bat he had turned to the plate. He got a nice hit, and the other team cryed illegal bat! There was a big brew-ha-ha over it, we stopped the game got the rule book out and we ended up having to throw the guy out of the game for using illegal equipment. The guy was really mad about the whole thing, but it was clearlly stated in the rules that a bat had to be stamped official softball or it was illegal. The softball board voted to make a special exception for anyone wanting to use a homemade bat. It had to be pre-approved by the board for size and weight. Turns ot that ASA has very strict requirements for bats. What a mess. It sounds like you didn't have any issues with it.

[Jason Roehl]

Jason,
I used to be an ASA umpire in my past life in Texas and we had a guy bring a bat he had turned to the plate. He got a nice hit, and the other team cryed illegal bat! There was a big brew-ha-ha over it, we stopped the game got the rule book out and we ended up having to throw the guy out of the game for using illegal equipment. The guy was really mad about the whole thing, but it was clearlly stated in the rules that a bat had to be stamped official softball or it was illegal. The softball board voted to make a special exception for anyone wanting to use a homemade bat. It had to be pre-approved by the board for size and weight. Turns ot that ASA has very strict requirements for bats. What a mess. It sounds like you didn't have any issues with it.

Nah, no trouble...it's a church league. We DID have trouble with a team that was using composite bats (and claimed they weren't told ahead of time they were illegal). Unfortunately, it took an injury on another team for us to convince them to quit using them. (Little guys were hitting homers on their team, guys who had no business hitting one out).

[Clem Wixted]

How do you get the cork into a bat like that? :confused:

Clem