How to Patch a Punctured Playground Ball

Our playground ball found its way between the teeth of a small dog at the park one afternoon, ruining our afternoon kickball plans. I looked online to try to figure out how to fix it. Injecting some Ball Doctor was recommended, but Ball doctor costs more than the ball and it just doesn't seem practical when we only own one ball.

So, I did a bit of research. I learned that the inside bladder of the ball is made from the kind of rubber you have in a bike tire inner tube. This instructable will show you how I successfully patched the ball.

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

You will need:

1 punctured ball
some gritty sandpaper
some fine sandpaper
small, pointy scissors
a bicycle inner tube patch kit (adhesive and patch)
a pump
some hot pink Duc tape (not pictured)

Step 2: Expose the Inner Bladder of the Ball Around the Hole

Using the rough sandpaper, sand away some of the outer rubber around the hole. You need to expose enough of the black inner bladder around the hole to hold the patch on.

Eventually, you will be able to pull the outer skin apart from the bladder and use the small scissors to cut it away.

Step 3: Apply the Patch

Use the fine sandpaper to sand the exposed bladder, apply the adhesive, wait till it's dry, then put the patch on. You hve to hold it down for a minute, like normal.

The patch will not stick to the outer skin of the ball, and the edges will be wont to come peeling off, so you should trim as much excess patch as you can and then cover the patch with Duc tape to protect it and keep it flat.

Voilà! You may now pump that baby up and get back to your game.