Golf Ball Adapter

 Hi

 

This post follows on from my previous one on Yarra cleanup

 

In recent years, golf balls have been identified as a source of water (sea, ocean, river) pollution, and lots of them have ended up in the water where they rot and do damage to the environment. Alex Weber has highlighted this pollution in the USA where several prestigious courses including Pebble Beach are right next to the sea.

1: Golf courses upstream from Dights Falls

 

Locally in Melbourne, the Birrarung  / Yarra Cleanup Mob have also noticed golf ball pollution, and in cleanup days have removed hundreds from the river bank near Dights Falls. They've scheduled a "Golf Ball Pollution Art Day" for tomorrow, and I will be there with a contribution. 

2:  Tetrahedron from golf balls

 

That contribution is a 3d printable adapter which turns 12.7mm diameter rod (ie from timber or steel) and golf balls into a Geomag style construction kit. Note that a screw hole needs to be drilled wherever an adapter attaches to a ball! 

* Here is the thingiverse link

* Visit this site to see just what can be made with Geomag, and I have posted a few pics below.

3. Geomag Bridge.

4. Geomag Eifell tower.

5. Geomag football stadium.

6. Geomag helicopter

Geomag Sphere

 After making the adapter, I recalled that I had a similar (node-and-stick) construction toy called Makit Toy as a child. A bit of research revealed this to be similar to Tinkertoy, but Makit Toy is what I remember. The kit might still be at my parent's house.

7: Makit Toy Parts.

8. Makit Toy Parts and box

9. Tinkertoy

Anyway I remembered some of the Makit Toy construction methods (such as

* Brown rods have sawn ends to let them fit and spring tight in node holes (see 7)

* Red rods slide through node holes and can rotate in them (7 and 8) . If they need to be secured in a node hole, a steel bushing (see 8) can be added)

and started using them in construction. If you drill a 12.5mm hole in the golf ball, the adapter can be done away with!

10. Makit Toy type tricks: Reduced diameter bar (red squares) allows the rod to rotate, slit in rod end allows rod to be inserted and holds rod in place.

11. Pivoting rod

12. Larger holes in golf ball allow 12.7mm rod to fit in directly.

Update 18/2/2023

Done and dusted, here are my pictures from the Golf Ball Art event. We just wrote or made what we wanted from Golf balls that had been rotting near the river and it was fun. I gave a brief demo of my "tech". Danella called it wizardy and I am very flattered!

Oh, and I almost forgot - there was lots of bending to do this stuff and I got a really sore back by writing stuff with Golf balls for only one hour! This contrasts with riding my recumbent for about 8 hours to cover 150k last week - there was no pain at all, just tiredness.