# Lombardi Trophy - How would you make a football?



## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

In the spirit of football season and my addiction to fantasy football i want to make a replica of the Lombardi Trophy (given tho the super bowl winner every year).

The circumfrance of a football at its highest point is 28" and at the smallest point 21" (the tapered ends).
Diameter is 8.86" (or whatever that translates to in fractions). Length is 11 1/4".

I have a band saw but it has only 6" of cut capability. No lathe either. Plenty of bench planes, spoke shaves, and drawknives all though.

How would you guys go about making a football shaped object?


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## Cosmicsniper (Oct 2, 2009)

I wouldn't try it without a lathe. However, if you could work it in halves, you could utilize your bandsaw some way. The seams in the football lend themselves to that. How you get matching halves would be a nice trick. I'll leave you to figure that out!


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## Finn (May 26, 2010)

I have made one of those, smaller though. I used a lathe but the hardest part was making the 3 sided base. Cutting those angles on my table saw that only goes to 45 degrees.


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## usnret (Jul 14, 2011)

Make the football in quarters on the bandsaw by rough cutting the shape. Just start with 4 sqaure pieces that would glue together. Take the 4 pieces and rough cut the shape on the bandsaw then glue together and shape with spokesahve and sanding.


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## Cosmicsniper (Oct 2, 2009)

I'm very impressed Bentlyj…I'm not skilled enough to figure that one out.

One method i just thought of is to chuck it in a drill press. Rough cut much of the wood by other means since a drill press can't handle too much lateral pressure. But I'd say if you could put facets into the shape to get it close, perhaps also utilizing your drawknives, then you could go the rest of the way with the drill press. You may have to do the original shaping in halves because of your band saw capacity. But then you could glue it up and spin it.

Another way, if you have a large hand-held drill, is to make your own lathe using a jig…perhaps with a solid rod going through the football stock and held in the chuck. The jig could be like a rotisserie for your grill. I know that Grizzly sells something similar for your hand drill.

Of course, perhaps we are over thinking it too much…Craigslist is typically filled with old, very cheap lathes that will get the job done.


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## 489tad (Feb 26, 2010)

My first thought was a router and jig like Bentlyj describes. You could also make a jig and use a sander or freehand it. With the hand tools cut a template of the ball and use that as a guide. That will be a fun project to make. Be sure to post it.


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

With the list of tools you have mentioned, rough it with a hatchet, jump on it with a draw knife and finish up with the spoke shaves.


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

Well ive got to say fellas you've got my wheels turning for sure. Bently .. thats a pretty ingenious idea, i may run with that, especially since Irene did me a favor of dropping plently of trees in my yard, and for you to pump that out in a few hours, im impressed.

Cosmic, I thought about quartering it but like you mentioned making all 4 pieces the same is gonna be tricky.

Topo, I may start out with just the drawknife and spokeshave route to get my feet wet at my first spherical object, if it comes out like hell ill make a phone call to another LJ experienced with a lathe and maybe i could try my hand at turning.

Thanks everyone.


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## steviep (Feb 25, 2011)

Since you are there suffering with me through the Chiefs season, if you want I can CNC you a nameplate of the winning team. just let me know


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## jerkylips (May 13, 2011)

if you have a tree in your yard, you could do this….. 










If you're curious where I am, I turned 180 degrees & took this one..


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

Stevie, i appreciate the offer and ill keep you up to date on it. 
Jerkylips .. pretty impressive looks like it was done with a chainsaw mostly.

I havent gotten to work on this yet but hope to in the next coming weeks. Im going to try my hand at it with drawknives and spoke shaves first. Then, if that fails miserably, im going to give Bentleys router jig a whirl. The way i look at it ive got every Sunday during a chiefs loss to finish this lol.


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## Northwest29 (Aug 1, 2011)

Chrisstrf - I would like to know where the photo/website is for the wood trophy you posted at the beginning of your thread.

Jerkylips - What city/town is this located in? Did you do the carving?

Looks like a great project that I would like to attempt myself.

Thank you folks.

Ron
Oregon


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## jerkylips (May 13, 2011)

Northwest -

That trophy is in / I live in Green Bay. The pictures didn't come through very big, but if you look closely it's Lambeau Field in the background of the second pic. I didn't do the carving, just drive by it on the way to work.


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

Ron, it came from the ultimate trophy . com i believe. I googled fantasy football trophy, clicked on images, and it was one of the first few to pop up.

I havent started this project yet, but i am tuning up the drawknife and spokeshaves in anticipation.


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

Thats an interesting idea there Anji never thought about thin strips .. ive got plenty of options now. Making the formo on the bandsaw would propbably yiled more accurate dimensions. Hmmm ….


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

Well last night i got the project rolling along. I grabbed a green piece of firewood (red oak), shaved off the bark and widdled it down close to a circle using a drawknife. I like the results so far but the hard part is coming … making a shape lol. Wish me luck.


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