Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Step 3Last preparations & Closing the ball
After your basketball is filled, make sure it's really packed so that the contents don't settle much once it's sealed.
If using a funnel, tap the ball on a table or floor and attempt to fill more.
If you cut a hole in the ball, you can just compress the contents with your thumbs through the opening.
Make sure that there are no soft spots around the outside of the ball, as these indicate air pockets.
Just push your thumbs around the sides of the soft spot until it fills in,
then settle the contents of your ball and add more if possible.
If you used the funnel method, congratulations! You have much more patience than I do!
And you don't have to wrap your ball in anything to keep it stable or give it grip.
You can fill the hole by following the directions on the back of the radial tire patch kit I had suggested earlier. I haven't actually done this method of sealing, so I'll leave the instructions up to the packaging.
If you used my method, now it's time to seal back the flap on the ball. I glued the flap down with Gorilla Glue, but the glue was probably unnecessary due to the possibly excessive amount of duct tape that I covered the ball with next. I taped three layers of duct tape, gray-black-gray, using the color difference to tell if my taping pattern had indeed covered the ball entirely.
I started at one point on the ball, and taped around the ball, ending at the same spot.
I then taped perpendicular to my first strip of tape in the same fashion, starting from the opposite side of the ball.
Fill in all the surface area using this method, and you're almost guaranteed not to end up with any thick or thin spots of tape on the ball. It should theoretically be rather uniform in shape still.
The taping probably didn't need to be so meticulous, but I go big on details.
If using a funnel, tap the ball on a table or floor and attempt to fill more.
If you cut a hole in the ball, you can just compress the contents with your thumbs through the opening.
Make sure that there are no soft spots around the outside of the ball, as these indicate air pockets.
Just push your thumbs around the sides of the soft spot until it fills in,
then settle the contents of your ball and add more if possible.
If you used the funnel method, congratulations! You have much more patience than I do!
And you don't have to wrap your ball in anything to keep it stable or give it grip.
You can fill the hole by following the directions on the back of the radial tire patch kit I had suggested earlier. I haven't actually done this method of sealing, so I'll leave the instructions up to the packaging.
If you used my method, now it's time to seal back the flap on the ball. I glued the flap down with Gorilla Glue, but the glue was probably unnecessary due to the possibly excessive amount of duct tape that I covered the ball with next. I taped three layers of duct tape, gray-black-gray, using the color difference to tell if my taping pattern had indeed covered the ball entirely.
I started at one point on the ball, and taped around the ball, ending at the same spot.
I then taped perpendicular to my first strip of tape in the same fashion, starting from the opposite side of the ball.
Fill in all the surface area using this method, and you're almost guaranteed not to end up with any thick or thin spots of tape on the ball. It should theoretically be rather uniform in shape still.
The taping probably didn't need to be so meticulous, but I go big on details.
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
 |
Add Comment
|
