How To Make Juggling Balls By Noah ! In this book, you will learn how to make your own juggling balls out of rope! You will build your own tool out of wood to help you! Remember, you will have to make at least three balls to juggle correctly, so keep at it!
! A while ago I wanted to learn some cool knots. I looked through all the shelves in our house to try to find the knot book that I knew we had. Finally I found it, way in the back of a shelf. ! I looked through it, quickly learning all the knots I could for lashing, fishing, and sailing. Then I got to the decorative section! I made a knot that looked like a fancy rug. I came across the Monkey’s Fist Knot. ! I tried to make one but it just looked like a blob of rope. I tried and tried again until I got it right.
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! I had learned to juggle before all this so I immediately saw potential for juggling balls. These Monkey’s Fists only had three wraps instead of five so I tried it with five wraps to make it bigger. But there was a problem. My hand was too small! I tried it on my mother’s hand and it worked (it’s a real pain to do that, so later I made a tool)! I just cut off the ends and burned them in. I tried them out and they were awesome!
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! First, you must gather materials. Any rope is good that is 1/4 inch wide. At first, I used just plain white rope. Later, I got the idea to use glow in the dark rope. I bought 50 feet of it at Home Depot. You can probably find some at other hardware stores but I know from experience, that the rope from Home Depot glows really well. ! Next you will need a nail. I will leave it a mystery as to why. You will find out when you are finished with your first juggling ball.
! Another thing you will need is a 1 inch steel ball. You can probably find them online but again, you might find them at local hardware stores. The ball will add the weight you need to juggle correctly. ! The last thing you need you will have to make yourself. If you are not comfortable using saws and drills, get an adult to help you. I just took a block of wood and cut two slits, one inch apart, down the long side of it. They get more narrow the closer they get to the hole you are about to drill. By accident at first, I made it get closer but then realized that it helped. I took a one inch drill bit and drilled a hole at the end of the slits. Look at the picture to help you and try not to cut yourself!
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! Next, take your rope. You’ll need about twenty-five feet if you’re going to make three juggling balls. Cut a piece of rope eight feet in length for each of the three balls. I cut about an extra inch, just in case.
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! Now take both ends of the rope you just cut and burn the ends. You can use a lighter or matches. “Owwww! That hurt.” Don’t burn yourself! Don’t burn it too far or it’ll get all messy. Just burn enough so it doesn’t unravel.
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! Take the very end of the rope and put it right next to the place where you drilled a hole. Start wrapping it around the tool you made. When I first started making these juggling balls, I wrapped the rope around my mother’s hand. Don't try it, it doesn't work well.
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! Wrap it around the wood five times. Wrap it as tight as you can. “The tighter, the better,� like the famous saying, that I just made up, goes.
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! Now you need to insert the metal ball. Slide it in so it is in the center of the five wraps of rope. Look at the picture to guide you. In the beginning, I told you to make the slits in the wood narrower at the end. This will stop the metal ball from sliding too far.
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! Wrap the rope around your first five wraps perpendicularly. Feed the rope through the place where you drilled your one inch hole. I had to play around with this to get it right the first time I made a juggling ball. Remember, try to make it as tight as you can!
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! Wrap this five times as tight as you can. It is tricky to fit all five wraps in the one inch confinements but I know from experience that you can’t do only four wraps. It doesn’t work.
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! Okay. This is the hard part. You need to pull the whole thing, metal ball and all, off the tool that you made. Do it slowly and make sure you keep the loose ends from falling apart. Make sure that the metal ball stays in the same spot. You don’t want it to slide. BEWARE! I had to try this many times before I got it right.
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! Start feeding it through the hole in the rope. Remember to wrap it as tight as you can! This is REALLY important! When I first made a juggling ball I didn’t pay attention to how tight I was wrapping it. At the end of the process, it was all jiggly and did not work as a juggling ball AT ALL!
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! I bet you can guess what to do next! Yup, you’re right again! Wrap it five times as tight as you can. Remember the saying: “The tighter the better!” ! Can you see the pattern? You wrap it five times one way, five times a second way, and five times a third way!
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! Okay. Now for the tightening. You can see where the rope needs tightening so choose a loop of rope on either side. Tug one side gently. If the rope on the edge of the other side moves, keep tugging. If a different rope moves, tug in the other direction. Then flip it over and do that again. Work your way down the line of loose ropes, pulling them tight. Flip it over each time. It’s a bit tricky but you’ll figure it out in a bit. It took me a LONG time too.
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! Great! You’re basically done! Pick the ball up and cut the ends of rope as close as you can to the juggling ball without cutting it. You want them close because you’re going to tuck them in at the end.
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! The last step is to tuck in the ends. I had to play around with this. At first I was just burning the ends. It worked fine but I thought it would look better if I tucked them in. That’s why you got the nail in the beginning! Tuck the ends in as far as they can go with the nail. Don’t tuck them too far or else they will come out the other side.
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! You’re finished! But can you see the problem? You can’t juggle with just one juggling ball! You’re not going to like this, but you have to make at least two more! It will be quicker to make them because you will have the routine down. Good luck!
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