DIY Medicine balls

This is taking forever.. the moist sand keeps clumping together and I have to stop every 30 seconds to beat the damn sand down the funnel. I may get this done by the end of summer break if I'm lucky.

 

put the sand in the oven to dry it out?

 

I just built 2 of them. I used play sand and xheap, heavy duty rubber basketballs.

I jammed the cut off top of a 20oz. Water bottle in the hole and poured the sand in. Hole was a bit bigger but I think it'll be fine. Put two tire patch kit things in there and put a little duct tape around it. Probably breal off quickly but screw it I had extra from making a sand bag.

Weighs around 25lbs.

Then I made a 'tornado' ball as I've seen it called by tying it into a basketball net and making a handle out of the long loops (seen on ross' homemmade site)

Now I have a pair of 25lbs. Medicine balls/kettle bell looking things.

Seemed to hold up well in my initial slam session.

 

Go to home depot and buy a bag of sand for 5 bucks. Or you could spend a long time drying it out with a propane torch.

 

I had a b**** of a time to get the sand through my funnel, too, even after siftin' the "bigger" "rocks" out of it, just because of the size of the funnel I could fit in the hole I drilled... It did take me all last summer.

 

I was gonna try the basketball idea but the thought of making a funnel with tiny neck and hours pouring sand turned me away. Anyone tried making a big hole and plugging it up with better sealant, like some kind of epoxy?

 

Read post 23.

 

I did. Not quite what I was looking for. Tire puncture kits only work for small holes. That was why they want to make it small in the first place. I suspect the duct tape can only stay on for so long after all the slamming - duct tape is only durable if you wrap it around itself. Screw it, I'll try epoxy.

 

Um, you answered your own question. When I made mine, I cut a square, leaving one side attached, then I wrapped the ball in duct tape. It's holding up so far.

 

Yeah, I too wrapped the ball a few times in 'bands', if you will, of tape. All of the bands wrap over where the hole is.

If two square tire repair patches, one inside (that was a real bitch to get done, btw) and one outside with plenty of adhesive won't hold up then ill just go freaking buy ome because I lack the patience to do the tiny hole and funnel thing.

Hopefully when/if it explodes the shrapnel doesn't kill me.

 

25.6 pounds of Greatness

The funnel that worked the best

The chaos and tools used

The patch kit.

Some lessons learned.
The finer and dryer the sand the quicker the process. I opted for the inexpensive regular old play sand that has all kinds of small rocks in it as well, and it was wet since it rained the night before. I used two different funnels before finding the easiest and quickest way with the cut off mountain dew bottle. Basically I cut a cross in the ball much like a + sign and rammed the nozzle in the hole. The sand was still clumping when using the bottle so I just poured a hole cup in at a time and packed it down in there with the handle of the rachet. I was looking for a long broom handle but I ran across that first. I found this to be the quickest way. Once I got to this point it took be about 30 minutes to fill the rest of the ball (i was at about halfway). I then clean of the area around the hole and poured a bunch of that rubber cement on there from the patch kit. I used two patches because I messed up the first one or it would have covered the entire slit.

Wally World B ball $4.86
.5 cubic ft Play Sand $2.89
Patch Kit $1.89
Endless hell that is core work Priceless

 

lol, I must be psychic that you guys did wrap it that way. Doesn't sound too bad.