Turning a baseball bat

[John Torchick]

I was in Louisville, KY for an archery tournament. My wife and I decided to play tourist and see some things even though we lived there for three years. We got in town early and went to the Louisville Slugger plant. Due to the privacy for employees, we weren't allowed to take photos in the plant. As we exited, there was a fellow turning a bat the way they were turned in the good ol' days. Manual turning was about 45 minutes, if my memory serves me. Now a rough turned bat takes 48 seconds due to the entire operation is CNC. Staining and painting are done by hand dipping. The fellow at the lathe was interesting as he had a sample bat with marks to show the diameter of various points on the bat. Video is not the best but if I get back there next year, I'll take a better one.
Have a still photo that highlights this better. I had the opportunity to ask what tools he used- Sorby but he had a Carter roughing gouge that we was trying. He used a roughing gouge for the operation- don't recall any other tool. Again, will get this next year.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COnvBCCXIoo

 

[Paul M. Kaplowitz]

My, then, 11 year old asked me to make him a bat. I had no idea how to make a bat or even what type of wood to use. At age 11 he thought I was a god and I wanted to extend that illusion for a few more years. I got on the phone( this was BC. Before computers) and found the mill in PA that supplied Louisville Slugger with #1 Ash. I bought a lathe, took lessons and made him many bats. He still has the first one.

 

[egsiegel]

My son asked me to make him a bat to use in Little League.
I finally got around to it and gave it to him last year...he's 29 now.

 

[R Henrickson]

When we cleared out my parents' house a few years ago, I found the bats I had used in the early 60s -- Little League Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris models! I measured them and turned a slightly reduced length version of the Mantle bat for my grandson who plays baseball (now 12).

 

[John Torchick]

The video at the beginning of the tour stated that LS has their own "forest" in NE PA that supplies maple and ash. Cruisers pick out the trees to cut and then goes through the process of becoming a bat. Interesting but only about 2% of wood billets is accepted for pro players.
Trivia- if a pro player has his name in script, he is under contract to play LS bats exclusively. If it is in block letters, the player uses LS bats and other brands. BTW, the tour guide said there are 37 bat manufacturers in the US. LS also has aluminum bats but are made in South Korea, if my memory serves me, to very strict quality standards. If you are ever in Louisville, KY, it is worth the time to take the tour. Lived in KY for about 8 years and never went there. Had to become a tourist to see it.

 

[hockenbery]

We saw A bat turner and exhibition many times outside the Orioles baseball games.
I think it was Rawlings. It was a semi trailer with stairs at either end. You walked through the exhibits and at one end a guy would turn bats in about 10 minutes with sanding while a small group watched.

It would be there for a series and be open to the public for about 90 minutes before each game.
During the day they would work with the players who used their bats & gloves etc, and try to sign other players.

One year I got an offer to work for concession at Camden Yards that sold mostly small scale bats. The job was to turn regulation size bats fast enough to interest the passerby’s but not so quickly as to use up too many blanks.
I thanked them for thinking of me and declined.

 

[Brian Horais]

I recently purchased one of the Maple baseball blanks when it was on sale at Woodcraft and decided to make my 9 year old grandson Alva a bat. He let me know that they use aluminum bats, but said a wooden bat wood be cool to have.
Here's the short YouTube video I made. The guiding grooves were cut to the measured diameters with a parting tool.

View: https://youtu.be/r_NTsBzGDuk

 

[Richard Coers]

Not a good time comparison between that hand demo and a CNC. If a production hand turner in the day took 45 minutes to turn a bat, he would have been fired after the first bat. In this video they say it took 10-15 minutes to perform all the operations when they were hand turned.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7XbuwUWLLI

 

[hockenbery]

they say it took 10-15 minutes to perform all the operations when they were hand turned.

That is right in line with what the they guy did in the exhibition trucks outside Memorial Stadium and Camden Yards.

 

[Doug Rasmussen]

Here's a video of a Mattison lathe turning bats.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVRtcBvTO7g


This machine is being hand fed. Usually in high production the blanks are automatically loaded with a controlled infeed. No operator needed and much faster than shown in the video.

The large, rotating, full length cutter head doing the cutting takes awhile to setup and is not easy to change the bat design. This is not CNC.

 

[Richard Coers]

Here's a video of a Mattison lathe turning bats.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVRtcBvTO7g


The large, rotating, full length cutter head doing the cutting takes awhile to setup and is not easy to change the bat design. This is not CNC.

That's the reason a production shop using Mattison lathes would have 20 machines in one room!

 

[John Torchick]

Keep in mind the company started turning bats in the late 1890s. Click to the link and go to History. I could be wrong about the time...and so early in the month. Again, I highly recommend the tour. Will be back in May for the eastern archery tournament. Plan on going to the LS museum and plant again. Will take a better video next time.
https://www.sluggermuseum.com/

 

[john lucas]

I guess I got my dimensions wrong.

 

[Brian Horais]

That's more than a bat John, it's a total home security system!

 

[hockenbery]

@john lucas where is you batting glove?
your whimsical bat made me think of Mark Sfirri’s wonderful “rejects from the bat factory” series.

Google it and get many of Mark’s creations like these

 

[john lucas]

I love Mark's bats. This one was turned the last time the symposium was in Louisville. It was going to have a some surgical tubing and a needle since that was during some.of the baseball drug shenanigans

 

[John Torchick]

Evan Gattis didn't use a batting glove.

 

[Mike Brazeau]

I have a video archived on my PVR of the Louisville process from wood harvesting to production. They used to rive the blanks but now use a hydraulic tube saw that cuts a cylinder from the log section. They are stacked on pallets and banded, air dired for a while and then into kilns. I wonder what they are going to do for ash blanks after the Emerald Ash destruction? Maple has replaced a substantial portion following Sambats introduction of them a couple of decades ago. We visited during the '06 Symposium in Louisville. Was a fun evening.

 

[R Henrickson]

I wonder what they are going to do for ash blanks after the Emerald Ash destruction? Maple has replaced a substantial portion following Sambats introduction of them a couple of decased ago. We visited during the '06 Symposium in Louisville. Was a fun evening.

When I did the tour a couple years ago, I asked. At that time, they said they had a large forest area of ash which was not yet infected (in Pennsylvania?). The guide said that maple was problematic since it really is not well adapted to the stresses produced by hitting a ball -- witness all those pictures of splintered and 'exploded' bats. Ash is ideal. Apparently they were looking into other woods, such as hickory(?). One impetus for the visit was my son-in-law, who played catcher for Cal Tech, and my grandson who is playing Little League or some equivalent.

Really discouraging prospects for ash in Kentucky -- no prospects. The ash borer arrived in central KY not too many years ago, but in talk during a recent trip to a local sawmill, the owner said that there are essentially NO healthy, or even partially living ash trees left. Almost any standing ash tree is dead, or dying.

 

[Peter Vines]

I made a couple of maple bats 20 years ago, having no idea what I was doing. They ended up being too short and too heavy, but my son used one of them for a bit and enjoyed the novelty of a homemade bat.
The lathe was at high speed when I first started the unbalanced blank; I’ll never forget it flying across the garage.

 

[John Torchick]

Need to research but keep thinking that minor leagues were not using ash as it broke more frequently than maple. My grandson might have the answer.
If you are ever in the Louisville, KY area, the tour of the Louisville Slugger facility is well worth the time and admission. It's west of the downtown area. We were told at the KY welcome center to order a bat before the tour. The bat will be ready when the tour is over and you won't have to wait.

 

[robo hippy]

Not a good time comparison between that hand demo and a CNC. If a production hand turner in the day took 45 minutes to turn a bat, he would have been fired after the first bat. In this video they say it took 10-15 minutes to perform all the operations when they were hand turned.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7XbuwUWLLI

Interesting in this one the treatment of the bat by burnishing, or that looks like what they are doing when the put it between the rollers, and heat treating. I remember hearing about 'boning' the bats. The old timers would take a cow leg bone and burnish the sweet spot on the bat for a harder surface.

robo hippy

 

[John Torchick]

The billets are carefully inspected and actually the label is put opposite what would be considered the "weak" spot. When I was a kid, we always cautioned each other about the label. The entire production is now CNC with a bat done in seconds. There is a demonstrator who turns the old fashioned way. Had a short video plus some photos. He had a sample bat with marks on it. Calipers would be used to check the model against the pattern. Hoping to get back there this spring but the archery tournament this May was cancelled. BTW, he said he used Sorby tools but showed me a Carter tool he wanted to try.

 

[Mike Johnson]

I just received a box of end cuts from a bat manufacturer to turn a large set of chess pieces with.

 

[John Torchick]

Got some, too. Should make some good pen blanks- dye, stain, natural.

 

[Kevin Weir]

I make bats also for a league of senior ball players who prefer the weight and feel of a wood bat to that of an aluminum bats. Usually 32 to 34 inches in length. Some players prefer a slightly larger sweet spot. Seems there’s plenty of ash available these days because of the emerald ash borer.

 

[Jerry Bochenek]

I just finished a bat for my grandson for his first birthday. It's a 32" full size maple bat. I have made a bat for each of my 3 grandsons for their first birthday. Obviously a keep sake now, but hopefully they'll put it to use in the future.