So, I got this idea to make some mini MLB bats. You know, the little ones, maybe for display or for a kid. My nephew is obsessed with baseball, and I saw some in a store – ridiculously priced, I tell ya. For a tiny piece of wood with some paint? I figured, I’ve got some tools, I’ve got some time, why not give it a shot myself? Save a few bucks, make something with my own hands. That’s usually how these projects start with me.
Getting My Act Together (Sort Of)
First thing was figuring out the wood. I didn’t want anything too soft that would just dent if you looked at it wrong, but also nothing so hard it’d be a nightmare to shape. I poked around my workshop, found some leftover maple dowels from an old project. Perfect. Or so I thought. They were a bit thicker than I ideally wanted, but hey, more material to remove, right? Classic me, making things harder from the get-go.
Then I needed a plan. I wasn’t about to freehand these things and end up with a bunch of lopsided clubs. I searched online for some decent pictures of actual MLB bat profiles. Printed a few out, scaled them down to about 6 inches. That seemed like a good mini size. Easy to hold, not too fiddly to make. At least, that was the theory.
The Actual Work Bit – Dust Everywhere
Okay, so shaping these. I don’t have a fancy lathe. I wish I did, would’ve made this a whole lot quicker. Nope, it was me, a Dremel, and a whole lot of patience. I clamped the first dowel down good and tight. Started by marking out the basic taper, from the thicker barrel down to the handle and the knob at the end.
I put on my safety glasses and a mask – learned that lesson the hard way years ago. Wood dust gets everywhere. I started roughing out the shape with a coarse sanding drum on the Dremel. It was slow going. You take off too much, you’re done. Start over. I kept checking it against my little paper template. Spin the dowel, sand a bit, check again. My hand started to cramp up after the first one. This wasn’t the quick weekend project I’d envisioned.
After what felt like an eternity, I got the first one looking something like a bat. It was still rough, real rough. Then came the sanding. Oh, the sanding. I started with a medium grit sandpaper, then fine, then extra fine. By hand. For each bat. I wanted them smooth, you know? Like a real bat. This is the part where you put on some music or a podcast and just zone out. Otherwise, you’d go nuts.
I decided to make a set of three. Why three? Seemed like a good number. Not too few, not so many that I’d abandon the project halfway through. The second and third ones went a bit faster. I sort of got into a rhythm. Still a mess, though. My workbench looked like a tiny lumber mill exploded.
Making Them Look the Part
Once they were shaped and smoother than a baby’s bottom, it was painting time. This was the fun part, relatively speaking. I wanted to do a few different team colors. I grabbed some acrylic paints I had lying around. Small brushes were key here. Trying to paint tiny logos or even just clean stripes on a curved surface? Let’s just say my respect for people who do miniature painting went up a few notches.
I taped off some sections for stripes, did a couple of coats for each color. Waited for it to dry, which is always the hardest part for me. I’m not a patient man when I’m close to the finish line. I tried to do a little wood burn for a “brand” mark on one, but my wood-burning tool decided to be temperamental, so I skipped that for the others. You pick your battles.
Finally, a couple of coats of clear gloss varnish to protect the paint and give them that nice sheen. That really brought them to life. They actually looked like proper mini bats!
The End Result – Not Too Shabby
So, after all that faffing about, cutting, sanding, painting, I had three pretty decent-looking mini MLB bats. Are they perfect? Heck no. If you look close, you can see the little imperfections, the slight wobbles where my hand wasn’t perfectly steady with the Dremel. But they’re handmade. They’ve got character, as they say.
My nephew? He loved them. Didn’t even notice the tiny flaws. That’s the best part, really. Way better than just buying something. Plus, I saved myself some cash, even if I probably spent more in terms of my time. But hey, it kept me out of trouble for a weekend. And now I know, if I ever need more mini bats, I can make ’em. Though I might invest in a small lathe first if I do it again. My hands would thank me.
