I am planning on turning some baseball bats for my kids coaches this year and want to know if there are any good suppliers out there that I can purchase them from??? We are planning on having all the kids sign the bats...
I am planning on turning some baseball bats for my kids coaches this year and want to know if there are any good suppliers out there that I can purchase them from??? We are planning on having all the kids sign the bats...
By a odd course of events I had the opportunity to tour the Loisville Slugger factory and you can order their blanks (they call them billits I think) from them directly for about $15 a piece. I'm not a baseball fan but am trying to use it as an reason (excuse) to buy a bigger lathe,
CW Miller
Whispering Wood Creations
I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
Winston Churchill
Craft supply carries both ash and hard maple, but they are a lot more expensive than mentioned above.
Retired - when every day is Saturday (unless it's Sunday).
I just learned of this place on the IAP site.
http://www.gonebatty.net/lumber.html
Dave
My money talks to me... It says Good Bye.
Tom the gone batty place is very near my house in the PA Mts, If you need the blanks picked up just let me know! G
I bought some on ebay. I have also seen them at a local supplier.
Are the bats going to be used? Since the kids are going to sign them it does not sound like it.
When my great nephew and I made a bat I just went to my local hardwood dealer and purchased a short of 12/4 ash and I had enough to make 3 bats. Very economical even at the full bd ft price but it was discounted since it was a short.
My neighbor and I are removing 20+ sick ash trees in the next few weeks. some of them are 30" diameter. Too much wood for me. If anyone is interested, I can put aside a few extra logs.
I assume everyone knows this, but just to make sure, you cannot just take any piece of hard ash or maple and make a competition bat out of it. It is unsafe. I don't think youth baseball or club leagues use wood bats anymore anyway, since wood bats are inherently unsafe, but using a billet that does not meet strict criteria for grain structure is asking for dangerous projectiles.
disclaimer: not much of a wood turner but a huge baseball fan.
Somewhere I saw "seconds" of bats that are partially turned but had a flaw in the grain. I will try to find the site.
Good point but since it was going to autographed I doubt that it would be used in competition.
Way off topic but I can not disagree more strongly with the statement of "since wood bats are inherently unsafe". IMO aluminum bats are much more unsafe than wood bats. I wish Fed and the NCAA would return to wood bats. I believe that Mass. high schools have after a pitcher was killed by a hit ball. The bounce that Al bats have and the exit speeds they produce are incredible. No reaction time for fielders, especially pitchers and 3rd. My son was pitching 4 years ago and was hit by a line drive. No time to react. Thankfully it hit him in the thigh and not in the head or chest.
Real sports did a segment on the dangers of the high tech Al. bats a few years ago and I was astounded. One of the main opponents of Al bats used to work for LS and essentially started the bat arms race. The BESR for high schools is basically a joke. Let's go back to the crack of the bat not the ting.
Toney
I've seen some blanks at Rockler and plan on turning a few for my nephews once I get the lathe back together.
This is valid, and my blanket statement about wooden bats being unsafe is correctly not completely accurate. What I should have said is that wooden bats pose different safety concerns than aluminum bats, especially to spectators. Since I don't wish to start a debate, let us agree on a few things:
if using a wooden bat, a bat with proper grain slope is safer than one without
baseball, with various objects (balls, bats, bat fragments, cleats, Kerry Woods' glove) moving at high speeds and in unpredictable trajectories, involves a certain level of risk
"ping" is not the proper sound of a baseball bat