How to Make an Aluminum Baseball Bat

A wooden bat is the only kind of hitting tool permitted throughout professional baseball. At the school level and in little leagues, softball leagues and pick-up games, the aluminum bat that is king. More than 90 percent of all bats used in the U.S. are made from aluminum. While woodworking hobbyists with the proper hand and power tools easily can craft a wooden bat out in the garage or woodshed for their children and grandchildren, delivering the aluminum version is not considered a do-it-yourself project. The process and the liability issues involving these bats have figuratively stamped a "Do Not Try This At Home" label right on the barrel. This article, however, will provide a list supplies you would need and procedures you would have to follow should a home version of an aluminum bat become possible.

Things You'll Need

• Sheet or tube of aluminum or other composite material
• Tapered spindle
• Manufacturing and finishing equipment (includes machinery, dies, heating/cooling processes, aging furnace, water tanks, lubricants, cleaning solutions, adhesives, silk-screening process)
• Capping to close the top and bottom open ends (made from aluminum or rubber)
• Rubber/leather/synthetic material for the handle grip

Instructions

Creating The Bat

1. Slide a sheet or tube of the metal over a tapered spindle. Hydraulics will force the metal through a die (a device for cutting or forming material in a press, stamping or forging machine) specifically designed to shape an aluminum bat. This process maintains a constant outside diameter but varies the diameter inside the tube. The process also monitors the barrel's outer thickness, which is reduced for the handle.

2. Soften the tube so it is easy to work with during succeeding steps. The metal is heated and then gradually cooled to prevent internal stress.

3. Rotary-swag the bat. Two opposite dies are rotated around the tube at high speed to reduce the bat's diameter. This continues until the desired barrel and handle shapes are created. This step has an unwanted side affect (reducing the bat diameter and adding thickness to the bat wall), but at least one bat maker has developed a process to prevent this from occurring.

4. Clean to remove the lubricants that were needed during previous steps.

5. Heat the aluminum for about 20 minutes at extremely high temperature to harden it. Then, cool the metal quickly in a water tank to prepare for the aging process.

6. Heat the bat in an aging furnace for about half a day at several hundred degrees Fahrenheit to create a stronger bat. Some bats receive 36 hours of aging.

Finishing Steps

1. Close each open end. As the bat barrel and handle were formed, each end had remained open. One closing process uses additional heating and a spinning process to seal the two openings. Another option is to close the openings with end caps tailored to fit and seal.

2. Polish the bat as it rotates. A finishing process (peening) continues to strengthen the metal and gives it a decorative look.

3. Print the desired design on the bat with a silk-screen process.

4. Clean the handle and weld the knob to the handle. Adhere the grip (rubber, leather, or synthetic material) with an adhesive.

Tips & Warnings

• Manufacturers are now able to add another wall to the barrel; carbon fiber, graphite and titanium are used to decrease bat weight and increase strength; increasingly, cryogenic (low temperature) manufacturing has been introduced.

• Schools and other leagues are investigating the use of aluminum bats, because balls hit with aluminum are jumping off the bats at increased speed and force to cause serious injuries. Some already have gone back to wood bats.

Resources

• All about bats
• Learn about making wood bats