OT - Building a ball and chain

Ok, had to post this anon so hopefully the groom will never find it.

A buddy of mine is getting married, for his bachlor parties we are going to tackle him and shackle a ball and chain to his leg. This way the strippers will have to cut off his pants to get them off.

So, I need to build this thing. I procured a bowling ball, a big eye bolt, some masonry/metal epoxy, and some JB-Weld. I rigged up a coat hanger and rubber band that holds the eye bolt in place in one of the finger holes. And Day by day I have been filling the hole with the epoxy and trying to mix it around the bolt with another piece of coathanger.

Well It is a couple of days in, and the eyebolt is barley stiff in there, and I don't think the epoxy is setting right. And I know there is some empty space in the hole between the bolt where the glue hasn't reached. Part of it could be the fact that I can't really mix the resin and the hardener well around the bolt. The other part of it could be this was a bad idea.

If this dosn't work (it has to be strong as hell) I can pull/cut the bolt out and use either the other finger hole or the thumb hole and try again. So I had a couple of ideas.

Using JB weld or new tubes of epoxy, completely fill the hole with the gunk and mix the resin and the hardener (forget what it is called in the jb weld case), mix the them well in the finger hole, then stick the eyebolt in and hopefully let it set.

or

Find a dowell made of some hard wood that is a good fit for the hole, pound the crap out of it until it fills the hole, then drill a hole in it and try to find a wood-thread eye bolt to screw in there. I don't like this option, because the groom could unscrew the thing.

or

I was planning as a backup, to take a round container, fill it with concrete and stick one of these bolts in there, this seems like the simplest route.

So my questions:

Any other methods of doing this that I have overlooked, I already tried google.

Will the JB weld set in a big puddle of itself in finger hole around a bolt?

What is the best compound to use, liquid nails, epoxy, quickcrete?

Anyone got a line on a shackle? I was planning on using a masterlock for the chain to the bolt, then a masterlock on the chain wrapped around his leg.

Reply to
Bob
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Drill and tap for 1/2"-13 threads and just screw it in. Get the tool at Home Depot or an auto parts store. A washer and jam nut at the top would prevent hand untightening but readily disassemble with tools. Rather important for a safe restraint, you know.

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

Sounds like this is being lots more trouble than it should be. I've had great luck with paste epoxy like PC-7 which you mix up on a piece of cardboard and then scoop into the hole. Very strong, gap-filling, easily workable, and sets on any surface. Should take one application and be set by the next day.

Believe it or not, I've seen some old shackles, leg irons, and even ball-and-chains at antique malls. I'm sure there are lots of "specialty" shops on the web that cater to people looking for shackles, but another place you could look locally would be a tack shop. Lots of weird hardware to be found there.

Reply to
the tree by the river

Use the epoxy. Don't try to mix it in place. That's what is causing your problem. I would suggest taking a little sandpaper and roughing up the inside of one of the finger holes. Then mixing up a batch of epoxy *OUTSIDE* the hole. Then pour/scrape/whatever the epoxy into the hole and then push the eyebolt into the hole. Wipe off the excess epoxy and let it set.

You have plenty of time after you mix the epoxy in which to get it into the hole. With 5-minute epoxy, you have about 5 minutes before it starts to set and with regular epoxy you have about a hour in which to work.

Reply to
John Cochran

"Bob" wrote: (clip) And Day by day I have been filling the hole with the epoxy and trying to mix it around the bolt with another piece of coathanger.(clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^ You are trying to mix the epoxy inside the hole, beside the bolt? That's not a good way. You will never get it properly mixed. Mix it on a flat surface with a spatula--THOROUGHY--and then stuff it into the hole. Best to partially fill the hole, also coat the eyebolt threads with mixed epoxy, and then push the eyebolt into the hole. Be prepared to wipe or scrape off the excess as it flows out of the hole. You might want to put masking tape on the surface around the hole, so after it's cured, it is easy to pick off the overflow.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

A bucket , concrete and chain embedded , the bodies never float to the surface

Reply to
m Ransley

do your buddy a favor and make sure his fiancé is cool with this stuff. If she is, more power to you - have a blast. But I've seen several bachelor parties that caused serious marital strain.

Reply to
JWB

Bondo, or properly mixed epoxy, or you might try melting some sulfur and pouring it in the hole.

Instead of using the finger hole, you might try drilling a new hole just the right size for an eye bolt with a 5" or 6" lag screw.

Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

forget all this epoxy and using the existing holes. just drill a hole in the bowling ball the same size as the shaft of the eye bolt. drill it in a strategic location so you can stuff a couple sticks or rods in the existing finger holes to give you leverage to screw in the eye into the hole you just drilled. use 6" of threads on the eye bolt and he's not gonna unscrew it..

as for a shackle, a visit to the pet store should provide somethign workable.

randy

Reply to
xrongor

You're supposed to mix resin and hardener with each other before applying. You should apply thoroughly mixed epoxy to whatever you are gluing.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

Why not a compression type rubber plug? You may have seen those deals with the cylindrical piece of hard rubber, sandwiched between two washers, with a bolt and nut to draw them together, compressing the rubber and causing its diameter to expand (this is how the handgrips are held on my motorcycle and a lot of boats use this setup as a drain plug). Find, or fashion one, with an eye-bolt and Home Depot parts.

Reply to
Stephen Fels

I've used bondo before, and I doubt it's strong enough for this job. But I believe epoxy is.

I think sulfur can be rather weak and/or brittle, and it is combustible, and produces flammable vapors at some temperatures when melted. Also, some metals may spontaneously ignite in molten sulfur. Not that I think any screws will get burned up, but a mess of burning molten sulfur can be a big problem. Keep in mind that sulfur, like methanol, burns with a dim blue flame that may be invisible in bright light. Sometimes a sulfur flame is visible from brownish sulfur vapors being visible, but don't count on that.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Bob) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

What a colossal waste of time, effort, and epoxy!

Reply to
Wayne

Unfortunately not too original. About 4 months ago a friend of mine called me around 1 am, knowing that I am a night-owl, to ask if he could pop over for a quick emergency shop visit.

He shows up with a 15 lb lead ball chained to his foot. His buddies had taken him out for his bachelor party and had attached it at the strip club.

He was not amused. The guy who had made it had asked that he leg shackle not be destroyed so I just cut through the hinge link to remove it.

They had used a deep sea fish net weight. Basically a lead ball with a steel eye-hook cast in it.

Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

First, in general, don't mix epoxy in place, do it on a sheet of newspaper or in a paper cup (depending how much you need), and if you're going to take more than a couple of minutes to get everything in place, don't use ten-minute stuff...

Secondly, you'd do better to drill a new hole in the ball which you can screw the bolt into; either use a vice to tighten it or put a bit of epoxy down the sides of the hole before screwing the bolt in and it won't be coming out by hand.

Peter

Reply to
Peter Allen

"Ernie Leimkuhler" skrev i en meddelelse news:110720041248162445% snipped-for-privacy@stagesmith.com...

Some weeks ago some guy got killed at his bachelorparty.. He and his friends were paragliding.. They had towed the dude (wearing a parachute ) after a car at an old airstrip here.. Police got involved, but I am not sure if any of the participants were charged....

Sometimes these parties can get out of control.. Esp. if large quantities of alcohol is part of the game..

Be responsible and dont do to others what you dont want done to yourself!

/peter

Reply to
Q

We did this where I used to work. They drilled a separate hole for the eyebolt. Everyone is right on about mixing epoxy by itself if you're dead set. Drill out the old stuff, it will never set. We didn't use a shackle, just looped the chain around the victim's leg and locked the end back to the chain, but needs padding if it's on for very long. Every ball got the names of the couple and several had to be retired due to lack of space. Some had a nice handle so they could keep on working, or go to the bathroom...

Joel. phx

Reply to
Joel Corwith

you got to drill a hole in the ball and make it a little smaller than the threads on the eye bolt.. then push the eye bolt into the hole and turn it until it bottoms out...

Reply to
dbird

This guy can't be your friend. Friends don't do things like this to each other. Over ten years ago in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada the ball and chain thing went too far. It resulted in the loss of the use of one arm, no marriage and a million dollar lawsuit. Randy

Reply to
Randy Zimmerman

I wouldn't trust anything less than epoxy for this, but I would still want a mechanical bond as well, such as with threads or horizontal grooves in the hole or a tapered hole (bottom wider than top).

Whenever epoxy failed to harden for me, it was because I hadn't mixed it thoroughly enough or had mixed the wrong proportions of hardener and resin, the latter especially with quick-setting epoxy, which I've been told is less tolerant of this. Liquid epoxy can be thickened by mixing sand into it, and this is done with commercial applications.

My grandmother had a genuine prison ball and chain, left behind by a prisoner who borrowed from tools from her shed to take it off.

Reply to
Johnny Hageyama

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