OT - Building a ball and chain

This did cross my mind, but I do not have the tools. I might be able to get access to a drill press. Even if I did drill it by hand or not, how difficult is it to tap it? Can you tap the material inside a bowling ball? How deep could I get the threads to go? Is a tap of this kind expensive?

Reply to
Bob
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Would this work just as well with the JB-weld? I did the sandpaper thing. I aslo have a nut with some wierd daisy wheel washers on it to try to anchor it in the glue.

Reply to
Bob

Well, what are friends for. He is young, having a ball and chain around his leg for 2 days won't kill him. Having the real ball and chain for the next 60 years probably will.

Reply to
Bob

Just take it off of him the day after the party.

--=20 John L. Weatherly Nashville, TN

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Reply to
John L. Weatherly

Uh, have you tried the pro shop at the bowling alley? They have some sort of stuff they plug old holes with to redrill used balls. Take in the ball, and the eyebolt with a few nuts and washers small enought to fit in the hole, and see how much they would charge to flow it full of the stuff they use. I don't know how strong the stuff is against getting pulled out, but it seems to hold up against the G-loads of getting dropped repeatedly pretty well.

Failing that, I'd try what the other guy suggested about a compression plug. Basically a jam nut and washer on bottom end of bolt, some thick rubber washers, and another jam nut and washer on visible end. Hard part will be getting a wrench on the visible end, around the shaft of the eye bolt, if it is below surface of ball. Know anybody with a set of crow-foot wrenches? You'll want to rough up the inside of the hole so the rubber can get traction.

aem sends....

Reply to
ameijers

Until you get tired of your friends and run down the street carrying the ball, slip and fall through a plate glass window. If you put a restricitve device on someone you are responsible for the safety of that individual. Being young is no excuse for being stupid. I guess maybe I am a party pooper and off topic but I have seen too many of these problems happen because no one thought about possibilities only the immediate moment. Randy

Reply to
Randy Zimmerman

Reply to
Steve

First off, I'm with Randy Z. on this one. But if you want to help accelerate Darwinism, here goes:

Did you try the instructions on the JB weld?

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They say to mix first, and that you have about 25 min. to set.

Those daisy wheel washers are probably some sort of lock washers. They probably will do squat for anchorage. Just use a bolt and nut, where the nut is ~1/8" smaller than the hole, or so.

Reply to
Rich Jones

I don't get it. Guy wants to marry but wants to participate in a stripper act? As part of the celebratory events surrounding the marriage?

Looks like the guy should just forget the marriage idea and stay single.

David Todtman

Reply to
David Todtman

You can this with a hand power drill to drill, and a tap handle and tap by hand. Plastic is easy to drill and tap. I would go 1-1/2 or 2 inches deep. The Hanson brand (decent quality) tap/drill pair in 1/2-13 at Home Depot is about $10.

Also suggest Bondo for filling in the finger holes. Lots cheaper than epoxy and much easier to work, paintable.

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

Wow...lot of work. Get a cheap basketball, cut a hole in it, fill it with cement, put the chain in (make sure it's linked to a small bar or anchor) let sit. Cut away the B-Ball material...

Reply to
gman99

"Randy Zimmerman" wrote: Until you get tired of your friends and run down the street carrying the ball, slip and fall through a plate glass window. If you put a restricitve device on someone you are responsible for the safety of that individual.(clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I doesn't look like they are going to call off this "stunt," regardless of the meanness and the hazards. I suggest that someone stash a bolt cutter nearby, just in case something does happen.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

It's easy. They make eye-bolts with wood threads, just bore a 1/4 inch hole and twist it in. I have one i used to chain to my dog's harness to keep her from jumping my 10 foot fence when i lived in a city. She could drag it around the yard just fine (big dog) but the six foot chain kept her down. The balls are usually made of wood with plastic coatings, or all plastic

Reply to
Paul Calman

You do have a good point about safety here, but ths guy is pretty level headed, and I have seen him level headed after ~50 beers, he just talks more. Thank you for you warning and I will keep safety in mind at all times.

Reply to
Bob

That shackle was probably expensive.

This would save me a lot of time, might look for one, unfortunatly I am landlocked.

Reply to
Bob

So you just drilled into a bowling ball and did not tap it for threads? Just drill it tight and screw it in?

Reply to
Bob

He dosn't know about it yet.

Reply to
Bob

Thank you all for your advice and saftey warnings.

It sounds like some of you have had success with just drilling a hole and screwing the bolt in. I will try this next, if it is loose, will try will mixed epoxy on the threads.

I will start with a smaller test bolt to see how this goes. Would wood screw type threads be better than regular machine threads for this? I don't even know if I could find an eye bolt with wood threads.

I will have to yank the old eye bolt out, shouldn't be that hard, and I will have to remove the gunk in that hole as best I can. When I started doing it this way I thought it would work, damn. Never worked with epoxy before.

While I am at home depot I will look for some kind of way to do the compression ring thing, but as someone said I couldn't turn the top nut past the visible end. I could use a jamb nut and washer setup on the back end and turn the eye bolt, but this would move the bolt further out of the hole, aesthetically this is not what I want.

The bowling pro shop was one of the best ideas I heard, but I would rather do it myself, and I don't thikn they would be keen on the idea of making restraints for people.

If the drilling fails and fails odviously because of tapping problems, I might try to drill than tap. If that fails I am going JB weld in the other fingerhole all at once. I was doing it a day at a time before because I didn't think the stuff would set in a big puddle of itself, I thought it had to be thin layers.

Reply to
Bob

Yes, they are called "lag screws" instead of wood threads when they get that big. I think a long lag-screw eye bolt screwed into a hard rubber bowling ball will be hard enough to unscrew you don't have to worry about it. Try backing it out yourself, and if you can unscrew it, lube the threads with just about any kind of glue when you put it back.

You could also drill an oversized hole and put in a lead shield for the lag bolt.

I think the hard part will be drilling a 1/2" or 5/8" hole in the ball.

Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

"Bob" wrote: So you just drilled into a bowling ball and did not tap it for threads? Just drill it tight and screw it in? ^^^^^^^^^^^ Bob, you just gave me another idea which I think would work fine, and would also provide an escape, in case of emergencies. Drill a hole to fit one of those threaded inserts that's used to anchor bolts in comcrete. You drop a little cone into the bottom of the hole, and then hammer the insert down. The cone spreads it, locking it in. You then screw in an eyebolt.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

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