Recycled Bowling Balls

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bruce119

bruce119

Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
2,979
Location
Franklin, NC, USA.
I found a use for all those bowling balls every last little bit.

Well I have been working on this for quite a wile now. As you can see that is only a few of the bowling balls I have in my yard. There are 12 different bowling balls in the pens. I casted them with polyester resin and a pearl pigment with glitter. It gives a nice pearly transparent to show all the colors. The photo doesn't give it Justus you have to see it in the day light it just shimmers. I painted the inside of the tubes white other colors would give different affects. They turn great and polish up to a superior shine. It was a lot of work but I think it was worth it.

As always opinions suggestions and comments welcome.

BowlingBallPens.jpg


BallsYard.jpg


Thanks
Bruce
 
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I like the center one the most. Try casting them in clear and using black paint on the tubes. May look good.

You try straightening out the bowling ball blanks? There's a tutorial on here on how to create a straight blank from a piece of that material. Not easy, but makes neat looking blanks.
 
Originally posted by Skye

I like the center one the most. Try casting them in clear and using black paint on the tubes. May look good.

You try straightening out the bowling ball blanks? There's a tutorial on here on how to create a straight blank from a piece of that material. Not easy, but makes neat looking blanks.
Click to expand...

Thanks Skye
The center one is a baron. I will have to try one with black. There are many possibilities with the color to paint the tubes.

I have over 20 bowling balls at the moment and getting more. Yes I have read Alice's tutorial and have done it all. I would guess with my experience about 1 out of 5 balls are actually useable. Most aren't even thick enough to use then when you get one thick enough most will crack when you straighten it. I have found a way to use 100% of the bowling balls well the shell anyway. It is a lot of work with several different processes.

Thanks
Bruce
 
Yeah, I got screwed the same way. I owned one bowling ball I won somewhere, never even got it drilled. Sat in the attic so I decided to cut it open. Had the same thin walls you're talking about. I decided to straighten it a little, then roughed the face and glued it to another piece. Squished them together with a vise. Turned it and you'd never know it was two pieces because the coloration was so erratic it hid the seam.

Just something else to try since you've got so much material :D
 
I just wanted to say Thanks everyone for the kind coments.

A good way to go green with a lot of color in a pen and keep an old bowling ball out of the landfill.

Thanks
Bruce
 
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