Sunday, April 6, 2014

Baseball Bat Hammer Handle

You might not remember this picture from my first post, but it is now relevant.  The ball peen hammer with half the handle missing was called to my attention when a friend suggested making a hammer handle from a baseball bat.  I figured this would be an excellent opportunity to make a new handle for it and to utilize my newly acquired wood turning abilities.
Ball peen hammer with half the handle missing.
From raiding garage sales and thrift stores, I found a couple of small bats that will fit the bill.
Two small baseball bats and the hammer.

The first thing I did was cut off the unneeded portion (for use in a later project).  I center punched the handle end to fit in the lathe like this, chucking on the outer diameter of the cut end.
Baseball bat handle in the lathe, first opperation.
I did this so I could get a nice flat surface with the parting tool.  Since it was held in the lathe with a center, it wasn't possible to cut all the way to the middle, so I broke it off once it got close enough.
Smooth parted surface.
This allowed me to accurately find the center.  I punched 3 centers in this end to do some eccentric turning, to make it oval shaped, a technique I learned from this video.
Three center punch marks for eccentric turning.
Now using the wood turning center, I put it in and took a skim cut to reduce the diameter on the end.
Turning the baseball bat handle.
Then, moving the live center to the other centers, I took the eccentric cuts.  I then sanded it smooth and stripped the original finish.
Live center positioning for eccentric turning.
Since the center punches were a bit close to the edge, it caused it to split a little.  After turning, I cut an inch off to get rid of the cracked portion and to remove the unsightly center marks.
Oval shaped handle after eccentric turning.
Then, much wood filing to make the end fit into the hammer head.
Filing the handle to fit into hammer head.
All assembled with the wedge knocked in, fortunately the whole thing didn't split in half like I expected.
Hammer with wedge inserted.
Lastly, I sprayed the handle with some clear coat for protection and gloss.
Baseball bat hammer handle with clear coat.

5 comments:

  1. The primary thing I did was removed the unneeded bit (for use in a later venture). I focus punched the handle end to fit in the machine this way, throwing on the external measurement of the cut end.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such an amazing woodwork. I wish to get into carpentry myself

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wish i could do that. Good job

    ReplyDelete

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