Using more material from the lumber I took for my thermometer stand, I wanted to build a display for the golf balls you can see above, which I purchased on ebay for next to nothing. I had seen the Interlake golf ball for sometime and was tempted, but passed. Once I saw the Acme ball, the display popped into my head and I bought both. I looked at some displays online to get ideas and saw they were very simple.
I enlisted the help of my colleague Mike to assist as he has a full shop of proper wood working tools (I do not). I recommended something as simple as the photo above, just a workpiece with a couple partial holes and a decorative edge made with his router table. Instead, he built a box for me with some simple but elegant joinery, and laid a piece of lumber inside which created a recessed top plane. This was used to hold a piece of green polyester (which simulates turf). Two holes are drilled to take golf tees and you are done!
But this gave me more ideas still. So I went to Home Depot to purchase some ‘real’ artificial turf. They have 12′ rolls which they will cut to length but they also had 4′ x 4″ samples for free. I opted for the samples. This would of course show a ‘seam’ in the middle (the box is about 5″ wide) but I figured I could make it work. Turns out, I could not. So I purchased an 8″ x 8″ from Home Depot online.
However I found that the holes he drilled were a little small. I used a drill gauge to measure a tee and found it 11/64ths was just about perfect, not too loose, not too tight. So I re-drilled the holes to this new size and also to a measured depth of 30mm. Then I experimented with the tee length, I used a coping saw and my belt sander to get them to the right length.
A few days later I had the turf – I cut it to size and dropped it in. Voila! A real tribute to the companies of the past, using salvaged lumber from the electrical shop.
6 replies on “Golf Ball Display”
Super unique! You did a great job making sure the turf didn’t obscure the golf balls!
Stupidly I cut the tees to length before I even had the turf – so I lucked out! Thanks so much for commenting!
Hi!
Beautiful job! Does anyone have an idea of where I can get an Acme Steel golf ball? My dad and grandpa worked there for so many years and we’d love to buy one for him. Thanks
I explained that in the post- I got it on eBay. Happy hunting!
The Turf looks even better (much better) than the polyester felt I was thinking. Excellent!
The polyester was a good idea, I was ready to roll with that when it gave me new inspiration. That turf was not easy to work with, it threatened to disintegrate and was expensive considering it’s size. But it worked out in the end!