Ken & Mely Yancey on tue 11 mar 03
Lately I have been experimenting with hardiboard as throwing bats. So
far I have been more than impressed. It is absorbent like plaster, yet
thin, lightweight, will not warp or swell. the down side is it is
brittle, but that has not been a problem for me. I use bats for throwing
plates, otherwise I throw directly off the wheel head.
It is a compressed cement/crystalline product, used as siding or backing
for tile.
Here is their web site www.jameshardie.com click on backerboard.
I have found their products at both Home Depot and Lowes.
I have no affiliation with this company. So far I think it beats plaster
bats, hands down.
Sandy Cryer on wed 12 mar 03
How do you finish the edges so they are not rough?
Sandy Cryer
Dick Crichlow on wed 12 mar 03
How do you cut them? Are they round or square? I am building a house and I'm
going to use HardiShingles for siding. Everything I read says that the
material is really tough on saw blades.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken & Mely Yancey"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 4:16 AM
Subject: Hardiboard as throwing bats
> Lately I have been experimenting with hardiboard as throwing bats. So
> far I have been more than impressed. It is absorbent like plaster, yet
> thin, lightweight, will not warp or swell. the down side is it is
> brittle, but that has not been a problem for me. I use bats for throwing
> plates, otherwise I throw directly off the wheel head.
>
> It is a compressed cement/crystalline product, used as siding or backing
> for tile.
>
> Here is their web site www.jameshardie.com click on backerboard.
>
> I have found their products at both Home Depot and Lowes.
>
> I have no affiliation with this company. So far I think it beats plaster
> bats, hands down.
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________
__
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
Ken & Mely Yancey on wed 12 mar 03
The web site at www.jameshardie.com explains how to cut them using a
carbon tipped score tool. For straight lines it is real easy.
I cut the backer board square, then drill the holes for the pins using
an old bat as a template, then draw the circle to cut while the wheel is
spinning. I then use a saber saw with a carbon tipped blade. I have also
used a carbon tipped score tool also, but I prefer the saber saw. Then I
smooth the rough edge with a sure form tool, then sandpaper.
I found the carbon tipped saw blades in the tile section of Lowe's and
Home depot. I did not see them in the usual tool area where all the
other small tools are located.
Hope this helps. Ken
Dick Crichlow wrote:
> How do you cut them? Are they round or square? I am building a house and I'm
> going to use HardiShingles for siding. Everything I read says that the
> material is really tough on saw blades.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ken & Mely Yancey"
> To:
> Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 4:16 AM
> Subject: Hardiboard as throwing bats
>
>
>
>>Lately I have been experimenting with hardiboard as throwing bats. So
>>far I have been more than impressed. It is absorbent like plaster, yet
>>thin, lightweight, will not warp or swell. the down side is it is
>>brittle, but that has not been a problem for me. I use bats for throwing
>> plates, otherwise I throw directly off the wheel head.
>>
>>It is a compressed cement/crystalline product, used as siding or backing
>>for tile.
>>
>>Here is their web site www.jameshardie.com click on backerboard.
>>
>>I have found their products at both Home Depot and Lowes.
>>
>>I have no affiliation with this company. So far I think it beats plaster
>>bats, hands down.
>>
>>
>
> ____________________________________________________________________________
> __
>
>>Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>>
>>You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
>>settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>>
>>Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
>
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
>
Roger Graham on thu 13 mar 03
Been following the posts on bats... plastic, hardiboard, plaster, plywood or
whatever material. For what it's worth, here's my experience with a bad
material, and a good one.
Hardiboard first. Here in Australia it's called "fibro" or "fibro cement".
Off-white, made of cellulose fibre and cement, flat sheets, hard as the hobs
of hell. Years ago (1987) I made several dozen bats from this stuff, various
sizes, two holes to match pins on the wheel head. Cut them approximately to
a circular shape using a "fibro cutter", a kind of hand-operated guillotine
sold expressly for this job. Then trimmed each bat to a true circle using an
abrasive disk mounted in a saw bench. They were tough and they worked well,
BUT...
But what? Well, the stuff is porous, rather like plaster but much harder.
Unless the bat is saturated wet before you start to throw, it sucks water
out of the clay in contact with it. And if you throw a pot such as a
casserole on a fibro bat, the clay in the middle of the base will be a
little bit more dry than the clay around the edges. You won't notice this
when you cut it off, but later when the pot dries the bottom bulges down a
little (the "oilcan effect" we called it) and the pot becomes a spinner.
This has to happen if the outer edges shrink more than the centre, so the
centre has to bulge out. Sort of opposite from an S-crack. Requires an extra
step in turning the underside to make it flat again later, and of course
the base is now thinner in the middle.
It took me a year of frustration to work out why this effect happened
sometimes (the bat was dry) and not at other times (the bat was wet). Aha!
The bat out of hell! What I really needed was a non-porous material.
What's available? Timber merchants here sell a kind of thick dark compressed
wood-fibre board under the trade name "Weathertex". It looks and smells
exactly like the stuff sold as "Masonite", the colour of dark chocolate, but
it's nearly 10 millimetres thick. Coated on one side with white primer,
smooth and flat. Totally waterproof. You can soak it in water for ever and
it doesn't swell up or disintegrate. Stays flat, always. For making bats,
five-star excellent. Ten out of ten.
Sold here in small sheets (900 x 600 mm) for use by signwriters. And in big
sheets (2400 x 1200 mm) for the building trade. Every year when the local
tech college students have need of bats for whatever they're up to, they
send an order for another few dozen. So by now I've cut up lots of big
sheets to make many hundreds of bats, and worked out how to get them truly
circular with only a hand-held jigsaw, and a table saw.
Somebody else was asking about this from far away last year, and I took a
series of photos to show how it's done. The pictures etc are still on the
computer, and easily attached to an email.
Invitation... if you can locate a similar product from your own timber
supplier, and you aspire to making superb bats that last for ever... email
me off list and I'll send what I can.
Roger Graham, near Gerringong, Australia
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rogergraham
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