Project Information
A few months ago I built a TARDIS nightlight for my son who is a fan of Dr. Who (see projects). My daughter, knowing her birthday was coming up, asked for a soccer ball nightlight. I laughed and told her that would be almost impossible to build (knowing that I had seen some balls built on Lumberjocks). Well, I undertook the challenge and I can say it was very difficult. I chose quaking aspen both because it is soft and easy to work and because it is very white. I decided to leave the pentagons out so as to allow the light to shine through. The light is a LED that has a remote which lets you control the brightness, color, or patterns of color change.
I basically started with a ring of hexagons at the bottom. The tough thing is you don't know how accurate your cut is until you try to put together five of them in a ring. It took me three attempts before I got the angles to a precise enough degree to let it go together without custom cutting one of them. I found the best technique was to print a hexagon on paper, tape it to the wood with double sided tape, then scribe the hex with a knife and straight edge. I would then cut the hex out on the chop saw. I then cut the bevel of each edge on the table saw. After lots and lots of fussing, the ball came together nicely until the very top when I had to custom cut two of the last hexes to make it all fit together. I then sanded, painted the black rings, and finished with some poly. She gets it in ten days.
I basically started with a ring of hexagons at the bottom. The tough thing is you don't know how accurate your cut is until you try to put together five of them in a ring. It took me three attempts before I got the angles to a precise enough degree to let it go together without custom cutting one of them. I found the best technique was to print a hexagon on paper, tape it to the wood with double sided tape, then scribe the hex with a knife and straight edge. I would then cut the hex out on the chop saw. I then cut the bevel of each edge on the table saw. After lots and lots of fussing, the ball came together nicely until the very top when I had to custom cut two of the last hexes to make it all fit together. I then sanded, painted the black rings, and finished with some poly. She gets it in ten days.