You ever try cutting a tennis ball???? KNARLEY. The outer "fabric" catches and tears and winds up in the cutter. Anything HOT slices through it without catching. Anything with teeth will catch and tear
Yes, I have cut tennis balls. Did you watch the youtube video? It looks like it produced a reasonably clean hole with little effort. Sure, cleaning the bit after a few holes may be necessary.
Better yet, drill a small hole to put the pointed tip of the knife in.
Yes, that's a power tool and I said they were bad ideas, but not this one.
I don't remember seeing that suggestino. If a forstner bit is what I think, an excellent choice.
I must have missed the video also.
Spend a few bucks and get leg caps. Last longer, look better, don't fall off as much, blah, blah.
Depending on how much your time is worth, you may want to purchase pre-cut tennis balls:
Seems like you could engineer the perfect tool with some heavy duty box cutter blades. Like an egg slicer (though egg slicer uses wires to cut), but you'll need more force.
Would drilling a hole through the ball first do any good? Then use some sort of a dowel to hold the ball while cutting. My other thought was to use a couple pieces of angle iron to make a channel to roll the balls down and you'd have guides to make the cut in the balls' centers.
Someone else, besides me, mentioned drilling a hole. What about using a step drill bit?
I can't read the OP's mind but I think he wants to cut
an X so it fits over a square / rectangular chair leg < ? >
not a hole ...
I'd try heavy shop snips / tin snips - be surprised if it was anything but easy ... draw the X with a marker ; snip a spot in the centre ; snip 4 3/4 " cuts out from the center ; repeat. 96 times. John T.
Why not just buy those sticky felt pads for the chair legs? Available at any hardware store in various sizes. Using half tennis balls sounds a bit silly to me. Never seen that done in any classroom or house with hardwood floors.
I'm assuming you've never used those sticky pads before or on furniture which isn't moved very often. Applying those pads on furniture legs with kids that move the furniture on a daily basis will give them about a two week live span if that. It's not a formal environment, I think tennis balls are good ideas.
Never thought of that square leg thing. Maybe drill an oversize hole, then secure the ball to the chair leg with some sort of epoxy. Something semi permanent like silicon might be better.
Wow ! I never expected so many responses :-)
After reading all of them, and considering we don't have access to the school's shop during summer, and it's too hot in my garage, I wanted a method I could use at my desk in air-conditioned room.
That method is using a very sharp Xacto-type knife to make the X cut. I plan on doing about 10 a day over the next few weeks.
Re the outfit that made a business of selling pre-holed balls, nice source if you can handle the $1+ per ball cost. We got ours free, and my labor is free. Our school is tight with money for things like this.
The drill press & Forstner bit method would have been neat if we had access.
Also, as Hawk posted, the stick-on type felt pads don't last. That's what we are replacing, as many others schools have done.
Again, thanks to all, Retired Grampa
because the felt pads don't stay on.
Don't skimp on the blades. You can get 100 #11 blades from Amazon for about $10. I get Techni-Edge and they are as good as the X-Acto blades for a buck apiece in those 5 blade blister packs.
That's the way to go for sure! And cheap too... pdk
Thanks for the tip.. Right now using this Stanley model because we have a handful of them that were donated to the class by Stanley. It does appear that this exact model may be discontinued as we could not find it at any local retailer. Blades yes, handles no, but we should not need any handles for awhile. There is a very similar metal version.
Another option is the carpet knife and blade. You get 4 surfaces per blade (end for end and flip it over to use the back side) and they are made for cutting stuff like this with a more ergonomic handle. That idea of making a jig to hold them using a 2x4 with a hole drilled in it (snug fit on the ball) is going to save a finger. Maybe nail that to a bigger piece of wood for stability and drill a smaller hole through that in the center so you can poke the ball out. That should go pretty fast.
And the kids will have a ball (pun intended) taking them off the chairs and throwing them. Yehaaaa!
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