NFL time - Hollow Football. lessons learned.

[preprius]

Hi all,

I wanted to try to make a football using the scrollsaw bowl technique. 

I chose cheap wood to make the first attempt. Poplar is a poor wood to start with due to finishing blemeshes.  Also called blotchiness.

During this experiment my friend decided to retire.  So the clock was ticking. Less than a week to add clear coats and laces and team logo. 

I wanted to add laces.  Like glue shoe laces to the wood.  But I did not want to mess up the ball. I did some gluing experiments on other wooden rings. But nothing really worked. So no laces.  I wanted to try to print a sticker for the team he likes. But again if it didn't work then I would have nothing for a gift.

I also added a bottle stopper Helmet. This made of really pretty wood called brown mallee burl.

First pic shows rings from a failed attempt in front. But it shows how the method of stacking rings will make a football.

The 2nd pic shows both the footballs the real one, wooden one, and the bottle stopper.

3rd pic shows the bottle stopper is a football helmet outline.

 

Lessons learned:

1) start with a wood you don't need to stain.  like Lacewood from Oochee. It has patterns that look like football texture.

2) Poplar staining needs pre stain conditioner.  I need to pay attention to water based vs oil based to match the stain type. Or shelac with no wax. 

3) Stain color.  The stain stores have wood boards that show colors on different woods. These look good but will not be what you get on poplar.  Pine should have been close.  But not.  I bought 3 colors for just in case.  And yep the 3rd lighter color was closest.

4) cutting angles.... the more the angle the harder to hold the boards when blade catches cross grain.  Poplar seems to have some really hard spots. So 4 spots as you go through each ring. 

The end piece calculated angle was greater than 45 deg.  Another post in Q&A have me this best answer. Think beyond the scrollsaw and use sanders to get the end pieces to look better than mine.

Also make sure you don't skip an angle.  The football requires every ring to have different angle. My first attempt i accidently skipped an angle.   I had to start over.

The first angle is like 6 degrees. This only leaves 0.1 inch for wall thickness.  Which is used to glue the two halfs together.  

Drilling 45 angles... The drill bits for smaller blades are not long enough to drill 1.41 times the thickness of 0.75. So i had to use longer drill bits. This leaves bigger notches to sand down.

Start with thick pieces to make sure the last angles do not go beyond 45.   I used 0.75 in thick.   My next football will be 1inch thick and maybe some 0.75  inch .

-.-.-.-.-.

So I claim success only because I learned these lessons.

The overall project looks Ok. But was not suppose to be a gift. Or have a timeline.

In the big picture it is really easy cuts.  6 rings x2 , glue sand and finish.

 

Still to do.... figure out a good way to add team logos and laces. 

I will try Aleens tacky glue next.  CA glue (cyan acrylic) did not do well on the laces.  the cotton just soaked it up and made the whole piece stiff.

2 part epoxy did not stick well to the raw wood.  

This is Not a bragging post project. More of a teaching and learning posting.

[lawson56]

Well I did learn a few things reading your post, your football does look Great. Hope to see the finished piece.

[preprius]

this is the finished piece.  i have to deliver it today.

 

[Roberta Moreton]

It’s cool!  I think he’ll like it.