Hollow balls

[Matt Mattingley]

I wanted to make up a game that used hollow balls filled with different amounts of lead weight. There's a game out there called washers. I want to build a game similar to that that used plywood hollow balls. I wanted the balls to be perfectly round and exactly the same as each other for all six in diameter inside and out. I made up my own tools from A2 tool-steel . Heat treated them to 60 Rockwell made a little steel Jig to hold them in lathe . And off to work I went. A buddy of mine was quite interested so he videotaped, edited and posted this to YouTube. I hope you enjoy.

[Matt Mattingley]

Here are my 1/2" thick tool bits before I started shaping and after and the heat treating process.

[Matt Mattingley]

Then I filled 2 of the hollow balls with 100 grams of lead, another 2 with 200 g of lead and the final 2 with 300 g of lead. Then I laminated the two Halfs together sanded.

[Matt Mattingley]

Then I started making up the seven sided bunt pan shaped box that look very similar to a sombrero.

[Matt Mattingley]

The game is similar to horse shoes. You get three balls to throw at each end. The boxes are 25' apart. You get 1pt. If you get it with in 1 ball or less of outside of the box. You get 2pts. if you get a ball in outer ring of box and 3pts. if you sink it in the middle. Points are counted by each team and the difference goes to the higher pt. end. When 21 pts. Is achived this declares the winning team. Winning team must win by 2 or more points. Points are not counted till end is finished. Well these are my rules of the wooden bean bag game. Oh ya, Higher point team always leads in every end with alternating throws. In a tie previously leading team still leads.

[Matt Mattingley]

And here is finished. The two boxes close and lock on top of each other trapping the balls for carrying. There is a 25 foot rope that is also put inside the box for constant span setting. It is a neat little portable horseshoe pit that gets hours and hours of fun. I hope you guys enjoyed my game build.

[Grant Wilkinson]

Great project, Matt.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

WOW! Awesome! That looks so great I'd have a hard time throwing them around!

But, washers are WAY cheap...... LOL

[Matt Mattingley]

Thanks Grant & Kyle.

[Ryan Mooney]

Neat, that came out really nice. Excellent walkthrough on all the details.