Salvation Army Baseballs

Friday, 8 July 2011

I went to a Salvation Army and saw these two baseballs in a cabinet. They had the Detroit Tigers logo on them and a bunch of signatures. I couldn't really read the names but the balls were only $3 so i bought them.

After looking more closely i started to recognize some of the names. One of the balls had '93 written on it so i checked the names with the 1993 Tigers.

This is the first ball. I labeled the names that i recognized, but there were a bunch more that i couldn't read.

• Sparky Anderson
• Alan Trammel
• Lou Whitaker
• Cecil Fielder

(click to enlarge)

The signatures on the second ball have faded more, but there are a lot of the same names.
At the same store i also bought a rocking chair for $30. It was practically new, it still had the plastic cover on the ottoman. It's really comfortable and sell's online for around $170.

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Melting Records

Thursday, 21 January 2010

I heard about this a long time ago and i finally decided to give it a try. So i went to the Salvation Army and bought a couple records, some real classics.

Everyone online says to put the record on a bowl in the oven at 200 degrees for 5 minutes. I didn't find it to be that exactly. It depends on the record's thickness and if you're using a glass bowl that's already hot or not. I found that 7 or 10 minutes is sometimes needed for the thicker records. The good part is that if you screw up and make a bad one, you can always reheat it and try again. Because it is tough, you only have around 5-10 seconds to really get the shape you want, after removing it from the oven.
You need oven mitts for the pans but the record itself cools down pretty quickly. The ones i liked the most were made when i wedged them between two bowls. It gave it a tighter more defined shape.
Or you can do it freehand and it gives it a more natural shape.

Out of the 20 i made i only thought maybe 5 turned out ok. Here's some of the better ones.

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