How To Make a Rubber Band Ball

A rubber band ball is really fun to make and a great stress reliever. What's nice is that you can put it together bit by bit when you have the spare time, or you can attack this project all at once. Not only will you be able to throw it and bounce it, but this is one project that's never completed, because you can just keep on adding more and more rubber bands! These can be a lot of fun in your spare time! Here's how to get started on your very own rubber band ball.

1. Start the ball.There are many ways to start a rubber band ball. Some of the ways are by:

Step 1  

• Wrapping a single rubber band around a small marble until the band is tightly stuck around the marble.
• Using a small pencil to start the ball by wrapping the rubber band around it. Then try sliding the rubber band off the end of the pencil.
• Instead of the pencil, you could use a small piece of paper or aluminum foil, and crumple it up many times so that it is a firm and very small sphere.
• Rolling three or four rubber bands in your hands until they are slightly compressed.

2. Wrap rubber bands around. You can wrap as many rubber bands as you want.

Tips

• Once the ball gets too big to fit a single rubber band around it, tie two or more rubber bands together.
• Another way to start the ball is by making a small wad out of paper. Take a small rubber band, and hold it in one hand, the paper in the other hand, as if you were going to tie the end of a braid. Keep turning and twisting the rubber band over and over again, covering the paper completely. When you end up with no rubber band in your hand, then you did it correctly. Take another rubber band and do the same thing, but this time, do it over the rubber band that covered the small paper. Keep doing this over and over again, using a larger rubber band when the ball gets larger.This is exactly how you start and continue making the rubber band ball.
• You can also start with a small or large high-bounce ball as your core.
• A "true" rubber band baller would call the above two ways of starting a rubber band ball "cheating." You might instead want to start by tying a knot in one rubber band, or tying two rubber bands together.
• Keep saving rubber bands wherever you find them.
• Keep a special box just for rubber bands.
• You can also buy packages of rubber bands, but make sure that they are not the very small ones. Size 64 is a good size to make a decent sized rubber band ball.
• Ask your friends to save rubber bands and give them to you.
• The more rubber bands you wrap, the bigger the ball becomes. So keep wrapping.
• If starting the rubber band ball is causing you trouble, try starting with a nickel, dime, or a quarter.
• If you want to have a rubber band ball, but don't have time to make it, office supply stores such as Office Depot or Staples often have pre-made ones. Sometimes, OfficeMax will give them away for free, call them up and ask if they have any left. Again, purists will balk at this approach. You can also buy a tennis ball and wrap around that.
• Making the rubberbands really tight to the ball helps keep the bands in place
• Don't group too many in the same place, change rubberbands to more open spaces
  
  • Colorful rubber bands will make the rubber band ball more exciting and different, but note that colors can fade with time, whereas a 'natural' color will remain forever.
• A rubber band ball, when it becomes the size of a tennis ball, can be a great bouncing ball. The tighter the ball, the higher it bounces.
• Try to use rubber bands that are almost too small to wrap around the ball at the very beginning (10cm - 50cm) for a very solid core for your bigger ball. You can double up on bigger rubber bands (wrap it around, pull it out and twist 90°, and wrap it around again) during this stage if a very tight ball is what you desire.
• When your ball is old, and the rubber bands are falling off of it, preserve it. Wrap a fresh layer all around it to cover the old bands and then thread some mono-filament through the ball. Then dip the entire ball into polyurethane using the string to hold it. Use a toothpick or skewer to pop the bubbles that form on the surface in between the rubber bands, and then dip it back into the polyurethane and close the lid. Come back in a few days, and pull it out and let it dry. Done! Preserved for all eternity. Date and sign it, and put it on your mantle.
• When a band snaps, replace it with another rubber band.
• Sometimes the rubber bands can get old and dry out, causing them to crack.
• You can also keep the rubber band ball in the refrigerator, as this will help the rubber bands last longer.
• For a neat gift idea, why not put a 'secret' message on the paper you used to start your ball with? Don't make the ball too big unless you want to annoy the person you give it to!
• This can be a great way to clean up a pile of rubber bands that you have laying around and put them all together in a nice compact place.
• If you are finding tying bands to your ball difficult then try sliding a band under one already on the ball
• Another tip is you can also buy a pack of rubber bands and it will come in a bundle. you can wrap the rubber bands around that! I find that easier.
• Try not to use thin rubberbands as the base. It's easier to use thicker ones and its faster.
• If your rubber band ball gets really big (>1') then you may have to tie bands together to get them around the ball. A good way to do this is to start with a big band that actually will fit around the ball, and tie smaller bands to it in a chain. Loop one side of the smaller band through the bigger one, and back through its own other end. Pull on it, and it will stay tied.
• If you are tying bands together to loop around the ball, it may help to use two or more bands at a time when tying. This is especially helpful when you have many very small rubber bands to tie together.
• The bigger the rubberband, the easier it is to get too many lumps on your ball. To prevent this, stretch your big rubberbands more to tighten the lumps down. This will help maintain a more spherical shape.

Warnings

• Be careful, as rubber bands can snap back and hit you.
• As the ball gets larger, it will pack an increasingly powerful punch, so be sure to be careful where, and how fast, you throw it.
• Your fingertips can get quite sore if you try making a rubber band ball in one go.
• Once your rubber band ball is more than a foot in diameter, it is probably not a good idea to bring it into the office anymore.

Things You'll Need

• Rubber bands, bought and saved
• Lots of time
• Cash for boxes of rubber bands
• A small marble, bouncy ball, or a ball of paper will do fine as well
• A good sense of humour