LF someone with a lathe, or a wooden bat with no paint/stain/engravings/finishing

[PlayerOne]

i want to make a bat for my little brother this xmas, i have been searching around, but not much luck, cuz i want to personalize this bat for him, like paint his name then put a clear finishing over it, because i know he likes wooden bats

can someone please help me out

thx

[woof]

I suppose you could buy a bat and sand the existing finish off it. Lot of work though.

[CheapScotsman]

I suppose you could buy a bat and sand the existing finish off it. Lot of work though.

Thats a good idea and sanding it won't be tough if you use a belt sander .... you can probably rent one from Home Depot or a tool rental place. This would be easier and probably cheaper than a lathe.

[stevethewheel]

If he is really going to use this bat to play ball you are probably better off with buying one and then sanding/modding it. A good solid bat isn't easy to make even with a lathe because you have to have a nice piece of wood to start off with. Get the wrong piece of wood and he'll crack it in no time.

[PlayerOne]

ok, thanks for the advice guys, another question though, when wood is stained, will standing it take away the stain color? cuz the bats that i see in stores are usually stained

any more tips and advice on what i should do? or what finishing i should use and how i should do it? thanks

[woof]

The stain probably doesn't penetrate very far into the wood but it does mean extra sanding since it will have to be removed. In all honesty since you don't have experience in wood finishing I'm doubtful about this whole idea. Re-staining/finishing the bat can take days depending on what finishes are chosen, how many coats are put on and how long it takes each to dry. The end result may look awful if there's any uneveness or running of the finishes, if dust gets on the surface before it's dry, etc. This close to Christmas there's no much time for to get all this done especially if you run into problems.

Perhaps an even better solution would be to look for a nice high quality finished bat and then look for some way of personalizing it without touching the finish. Maybe silkscreening (expensive) a message on it somewhere. This would probably wear off with time, but you could consider silkscreening and then applying a spray coat of hard polyurethane (clear coat) over top to protect it. Lot of questions though though on whether a new top coat would be compatible with the existing finish, and it would have to be applied very carefully in a very light coat to prevent runs.

Lightly burning a message onto the bat surface is also a possibility, and would be more permanent. It would have to be done professionally to look good.

[RichieTheHammer]

Seems like an interesting gift.

I found a few links that might be relative. (I do not endorse any of these links)

http://www.bluerosegifts.com/bats.htm



http://www.xbats.com/products.asp?cat=10
The perfect gift tailored for your sports fan, coach, player, graduating senior or the baseball or softball player who has everything. Our beautiful gift bats are available in 24 custom colors. You can combine any two of our custom stains to match your favorite team, college or school colors. We will engrave the bat with up to three lines of text on either a baseball bat or softball bat. These bats make the perfect unique personalized corporate gift for clients or top producers to display in their office.

eBay unfinished baseball bats (3) (http://cgi.ebay.com/3-Unfinished-Maple-Baseball-Bats-32_W0QQitemZ7205560613QQcategoryZ47261QQssPageName ZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

unfinnished bat on eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-RAWLINGS-NATURAL-UNFINISHED-34-WOOD-BASEBALL-BAT_W0QQitemZ7204463756QQcategoryZ47261QQssPageNam eZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

Good luck with the gift.

The Hammer

[woof]

Some good sites from Richie. Unfortunately these all look like USA - your chance of getting anything delivered before Xmas is nil although you might find something suitable in a local specialty sports store.