To make up for some lacking athletic ability, [Shane Wighton] of [Stuff Made Here] created a custom baseball bat with an explosive sweet spot, that almost guarantees a home run. Inside a custom machined bat, he added a piston mechanism, powered by blank cartridges intended for powder actuated nailers, that can hit a ball with impressive force.
Up to three rimfire blank cartridges are placed in the stationary side of the piston mechanism, and are fired by three firing pins on the back of the piston when a ball hits the front of the piston. The expanding gasses then drive the piston out at high velocity, hitting the ball, before it is stopped from flying out completely by a crossbar. The gasses are exhausted through the side of the sleeve, into a “muffler” machined into the front of the bat. The first time [Shane] fired the mechanism with two cartridges, it almost sheared off the stopping bar, and damaged all the other components and blew the bat apart. This led to a complete redesign, including a crossbar with urethane dampers and an aluminum muffler.
The results with the “upgrades” are pretty impressive, and a little scary. Batting distance was around 350 feet with two cartridges, hitting the ball off a tee to avoid putting a pitcher in the firing line. [Shane] did a lab test with three cartridges, which put a hole in the ball and looked like it would break the bat. He expects that three cartridges would allow him to break the home run record, but would require another redesign and will be left for a future video
We admit to being rather envious of [Shane]’s workshop, and the projects that come out of it. We’ve seen him create an all-in-one golf club, a robotic barber, and a robotic basketball hoop, to name a few.
Cool. That’s pretty much in line with my sporting skills. I wonder if you can get 30-06 or 50AE blanks?
I’d still have problems with it – I would first need to get the bat to connect with the ball.
I’m in the same boat,.
I think that is your first problem…
Maybe someone could work on an explosive oar.
Which could also be automated as well.
Kinda sorta williamson floating chamber – but in reverse ;)
Could you make the sweet spot much bigger if you had a metal plate that was hinged about 8 inches from the end of the bat and that went over the mechanism?
His test setup showed that the arm the ball was mounted on bent, that’s when the force was applied directly to the ball. Given that: I suspect the metal plate would be single use.
Sweet! Boom Stick!
The exhaust from the bat makes me wonder if he’s going to build Kylo Ren’s lightsabre next.
How much cork will be used?
The Unnatural.
Nice use of the Super Smash Bros. Bat sound
Anyone else reminded of the Super Sledge from Fallout?
Now do this with a solid billet aluminum bat, custom made for crushing grand slams- and use 10 cartridges because the metal will stand it- and send balls into orbit above Earth.
I really love this concept. Explosives used for sporting purposes are always a winning combo
Make it a semi-automatic aluminium baseball bat as well.