Flashballs on the Cheap (with pictures)

LordCaharin

Active Member
I know there is a few Judges out there who are doing budget builds to keep the costs down. I thought I would share how I built my flashballs cheaply.

It is pretty simple, cheap method and they look pretty decent for something that will be living in the pouch holder most of it's life. Screen accurate it is not. Here goes:

Materials needed:

2 inch wooden craft balls (I found mine at hobby lobby here in the States. You can get a bag of like eight for $4.99)

Colored coding labels (they are pretty much circular stickers of various colors)

1/8th inch red pin striping tape (found at most auto parts stores)

Green and black spray paint

Process:

1) Take the wooden ball and stick one of the colored label on what you will deem the top of the flash ball. This will represent the button pushed to activate the ball. (I thought of the labels after I did mine, I burnt a circle into mine with my woodburning tool.)
2) Wrap the pin striping tape around the center of the ball (running horizontally), this will create a visual separartion of the top and bottom and look more mechanical.
3)Cut about a 1/2 inch additional strip of the pin striping tape and place it anywhere over the first wrap of tape. (Made sure it is straight over the tape and not covering more wood than the first wrap or it will look silly at the end.
4)Primer the ball, paint the ball with the green and then mist it in black. (I used Glossy Forest Green and a black semi-gloss)
5) Remove the additional 1/2 inch strip of pin striping tape to expose the red underneath.

BAM. I made six balls in about 2 hours. This included paint drying time. I am at work now but if there is an interest, I will post pictures of the materials, process and finished product.
 
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Re: Flashballs on the Cheap

Any pics of your finished product? I'd love to see how these turned out.
 
Thanks for the kind words all, I thought it looked pretty good for being made so cheap. Sometimes I have issues paying a lot for things I know I could just make.

And if you have the Dave's Leather pouches (AWESOME product), I would do a set of three flashballs. The balls are pretty noisy with just two but three is most reasonable.
 
I've just knocked up a set of these copying/borrowing your idea and they turned out pretty good considering they only cost me a fiver all in :) And it's the first thing i've made on my first ever build :D yay me! Thank mate.
 
I've just knocked up a set of these copying/borrowing your idea and they turned out pretty good considering they only cost me a fiver all in :) And it's the first thing i've made on my first ever build :D yay me! Thank mate.

Glad to hear that it was useful to someone. This is why we have this site and all the awesome members and their techniques. Hope you get good use out of them. :)
 
Glad to hear that it was useful to someone. This is why we have this site and all the awesome members and their techniques. Hope you get good use out of them. :)

Agreed mate, I've come into contact with some very friendly and helpful people since starting this build.
 
Thanks for letting me rest a few brain cells. There is sooooo much to the entire build. This makes for one less issue to work out. I'll be using your instructions soon, for my own set.:love
 
Those look awesome. I'm just starting to look at putting this together, and think I'll be using your method to make my flashballs when I get to them.
 
Does anyone know for sure how big these are suppose to be? The guy who is touting his leather flashball holders is showing them with ping pong balls, which I think are smaller than 2".:confused
 
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