How to Make a Juggling Club With Pallet Woods : 9 Steps (with Pictures)

Juggling Clubs can be made with Pallet woods gluing those together. These are cheap and lightweight. Juggling clubs are not found in many poor countries. A juggling club made with regular wood can be heavy sometimes more than 500 grams. The standard weight of a juggling club should be around 225-250 grams.

So, I made this juggling club with Pallet woods. It is lighter than regular woods. I recycled the woods and get those ready for joining using a planer machine from a wood shop.

You can make A juggling club with a few dollars by following the techniques I used for making my clubs.

Supplies

Pallets with dimension ( 18 inches x 3 inches ) With a thickness of about 1/2 Inch, The thicker the wood, the better.
Drawings
Carbon Paper
Pencil
Wood Glue (Synthetic Resin Adhesive)
Clamps or 4" nails
Calipers to measure the diameter of the clubs
Lathe machine
Safety Googles and gloves
Sanding paper
Varnish
White spray paint.
leather for the Handles

Step 1: Prepare the Woods

Pallets come in form of boxes. There are lots of nails in those. You must remove all the nails carefully to prevent any damage to your tools. Take the woods with fewer knots and cracks. These knots are very hard and can break the tip of your chisels.

The size of the club I designed is 18" long and 3" in diameter. To make this, you need pallets of roughly 20"x 3.5" dimension. Take the wood to a nearer woodshop to prepare the tops to join those together with the help of a jointer machine. The woods I used here is made 1/2 Inches thick.

Step 2: Design Your Juggling Club

Juggling Clubs are rotating toys that have a Handle and a weight on the top that helps the club to rotate smoothly. The center of gravity for the clubs lies closer to the heavy top from the center of the club. So, the handles are required to be long enough.

Following this rule, you can design your own club in the shape you want.

Draw it on paper with measurements done from the center of the cylindrical shape that will be the central axis of the club. The handle will be 8" in length and 3cm in diameter. Then there will be a conical slope of 4.5". Then the curve will be 3". and then the club finishes at 2.5" after that having a diameter of 4cm.

I have provided my drawings and printable files. You can use them to make the same club I made for myself. Print the files on A4 paper.

Juggling Club A4 print.pdf
Download

Step 3: Gluing the Woods

After getting the wood from the planer machine, you need to stack the wood together with glue.

First, take a piece and apply glue on one side smoothly. I used synthetic resin adhesive glue. Then add another piece and gradually add 6/7 pieces to make three 3.2" x 3.2" blocks. Now clamp those together with a few clamps. If you don't have that many clamps you can join them with 4" nails as I did. But you have to remove the nails after the glue's dried up.

Then keep these blocks in a corner for a day to let the glue dry.

Step 4: Preparing the Wood for Turning

After the glue dries, prepare the wood for turning. There is an easy step you can follow if you are new to wood-turning. Trace the printed copies of the clubs on two sides of the block. Then remove the extra parts using a scroll saw. It will make it easier to turn the wood around.

Make sure the edges of the blocks are plain before attaching those on the lathe.

Step 5: Turning

Now, Time for turning!

Always use safety glasses and gloves. Attach the wood on the lathe. Mark the positions for the handle, the slope, the curved surface, and lastly the ending slope. The diameter of the handles is kept at 3 cm. The inclined slope will be 4.5" long meeting the curved surface at a diameter of 6 cm. Then the curved surface is 3 inches long. See the measurements in the plan provided above. The widest part of the club is 3" in diameter.

Then the top will be 4cm in diameter forming an inclined slope with the round portion.

Remove small portions of the wooden block gradually. Then the wood will not split.

The woods are weak and can split if you try to remove a large portion quickly. And the broken parts can strike your face or eyes. Wear proper safety equipment.

Use sanding paper to make the surface smooth.

Step 6:

Step 7: Finishing

After turning, remove the extra woods from the top and bottom with a saw and clean the edges.

Since it's made of wood, I've colored it with wood colors. Apply any color you like. Spray the rest with white color to look like a standard juggling club. While spraying make sure the rest of the club is covered with some paper to prevent color from spreading. The contrasting colors give a better look to the clubs.

Add rappings to the handles for better grip. and lastly, add rubber pads to the top and bottom of the clubs.

Now, your clubs is are ready for juggling!

Have fun!