Making a ball

originally written Apr 9, 2017

Ever needed to embed electronics in a ball but don’t have much money or time? For my capstone project I need a ball that young children can hit and throw but that can be pulled apart by an adult to access the electronics. Below are the steps I followed when making a ball for my project.

Tools and Materials

• Styrofoam ball
• Knife
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Spoon
• GladWrap (cling wrap)
• Baking paper
• Craft Smart Brush on Rubber Latex
• Scissors
• Sewing needle
• Thread
• An empty bottle for pouring the rubber latex from
• Food colouring
• Face mask
• Gloves
• Balloon

Tools and Materials

Step 1: Cut the ball in half

• Locate the balls halfway line. It should protrude slightly from the ball.
• Use a sharp knife to stab into the ball.
• Saw away until the two halves separate.

Cut the Styrofoam ball in half

Step 2: Make the dome hollow

• Use a ruler and pencil to mark the desired thickness of the dome.
• Carve out the centre using both a knife and spoon.

Step 3: Place a mat for catching drippings

We are going to hang the dome and pour liquid latex on it so we want to protect our surfaces. Find a location in your home/work-space that you can
hang the dome up.

• Cut a large piece of glad wrap and place it on the counter.
• Cut a piece of baking paper the same size as the glad wrap and place it on top of the glad wrap.

Cover the counter with glad wrap and baking paper to catch any run off liquid rubber latex

Step 4: Hang the ball up

• Thread the needle
• Pull the needle and thread through the top of the dome, make sure it is slightly off the centre point.
• Pull the needle and thread back through the ball until you have two pieces of thread coming out of the top of the ball (refer photos)
• Remove the needle from the thread
• Tie the thread to the door handle
  The amount of thread that you use will depend on how high the handle is.

Pass the thread through the dome using a sewing needle

The two ends of the thread should come out the top of the dome

Hang the dome

Step 5: Colour the liquid rubber latex

• Get a empty squeezable bottle and add a dash of food colouring.
  I suggest using a little of the rubber latex on the baking paper and mixing the colour into that to determine your desired colour. You may want to leave it to dry for 15 minutes as the colour changes as the plastic solidifies.
• Add the liquid rubber latex to the bottle.
  Make sure you put on the face mask and gloves first!
• Shake well until colour is mixed through

Add colouring

Add liquid rubber latex

Shake well

Step 6: Coat the ball in plastic

• Slowly pour the coloured liquid rubber latex over the dome. Make sure it is entirely covered, especially between the thread.
• Leave to dry. This may take several hours depending on how thick the application is. I left it overnight but you could probably get away with ~3 hours.
• Cut the thread.
• Throw the dome at a wall or allow it to drop to the ground and notice the wonderful bounce! :)

Cover the dome then leave to dry

The dry dome should look similar to this

Step 7: Repeat

• Repeat steps 2 to 6 with the other half of the ball.

Step 8: Connect the two halves

Cut the tail off of the balloon. Place the two halves together and wrap the balloon around them to hold them together.

Step 9: Have fun playing with the ball!