instructables How to Make a Polished Aluminum Foil Ball Instruction Manual
- June 9, 2024
- instructables
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instructables How to Make a Polished Aluminum Foil Ball
How to Make a Polished Aluminum Foil Ball
Making polished aluminum foil balls has been a popular trend online recently,
with loads of people doing it and sharing their results.
The idea started in Japan but has been spreading quickly, and more videos on
the topic are popping up everyday. This is one of the earliest videos of the
process for reference.
Now, I’m not normally one to jump on bandwagons . . but this just seemed like
a fun idea to me, so I decided to try it out. It was a surprisingly meditative
process!
I took an elementary approach to this and just used mallets, hammers, and some
aluminum polish. For the time and
eort, I was pleased with the results. There was no sanding involved whatsoever
– only pounding, tapping, and polishing by hand.
I’ll show you how I did this and share the tips I learned along the way.
Thanks for reading!
Step 1: Materials
used:
- roll of standard aluminum foil, 285 square feet
- various mallets and hammers
- Mothers brand aluminum polish, and lots of rags
- 20 lb barbell weight as a hard pounding surface
- pounding stump (it’s just a log I have in my shop for pounding on; it’s quite handy)
Step 2: Unroll and Make a Ball
- unrolled the aluminum foil on the floor, and gathered and rolled the tail end into a ball shape. (As I rolled up the ball, the foil roll would bounce into the wall and started leaving marks, so I added some masking tape to prevent that.)
- did not take special care to pack the foil ball especially tight – I just kind of did this as quick as possible. The completed ball was a little bigger than a basketball.
Then I began by smashing the ball with my hands and body weight as much as possible, to begin compacting it.
Step 3: Start Pounding and Compacting
- started pounding on the aluminum foil ball with small dead-blow mallet on top of the 20 lb weight. You just need to do this on a hard surface, like a sturdy table for hard floor (doing this directly on carpet won’t work very well).
- worked around the circumference of the ball making small blows to pack the aluminum foil tighter, until it was in a sort of marshmallow shape.
Then I rotated the shape and worked around the foil turning it into a kind of roundish pillow shape. The peaks of this pillow shape were then pounded in until it was back to ball shape, albeit smaller than before.
Step 4: Keep Going!
- switched to a slightly larger mallet and continued compacting the ball following the procedure outlined in the previous step. You can just pound away randomly and continually knock down the high points, but I liked the somewhat repeatable order of operations: sphere > marshmallow > cube-ish pillow > back to sphere Wearing some gloves is strongly recommended!
- was experimenting with different mallets, but you could just use the same hammer the whole time. The main thing is to not pound too hard and to avoid making overly deep indentations as you go.
Each blow should be enough to compact the foil a little bit, but you don’t want to deform the material so much that you end up with an unfxably non-round shape.
At some point the ball will be compacting less and less noticeably, so it becomes a more random process of continually examining status and knocking down high points. It’s a slow sculpting process, and a bit of a workout.
Step 5: Keep Going Some More
- took the ball out to my garage and set up my 20 lb weight on a waist-high log I use for pounding things. This was helpful.
- also switched to a small 2.5 lb hammer.
The smaller the ball gets, the heavier it seems. It’s funny how your mind plays tricks on you like that.
Cracks will begin to appear in the ball as you continue to compact it. You just keep pounding around the ball uniformly, and the cracks will appear smaller and smaller.
Step 6: Almost Done
When you’re nearing the end, you’ll notice the foil not really compacting any
more. Earlier on, each blow would make a hollow thud as the ball absorbed the
blow and compacted a little.
But toward the end each pound will ring more solid, and the ball will bounce
as the strike transfers cleanly through it. I switched to a smaller hammer and
began using it to tap out all the high spots and small irregularities. As I
did this, the ball became more and more shiny.
- put the ball on a folded up rag and made repetitive TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP all around the ball. It sounded like there was woodpecker in the shop for a while, and I’m sure my neighbors were confused!
At this point the ball was 16 inches in circumference (about 40 cm), and looked pretty good to me. I figured it was a fine time to stop.
Step 7: Polishing
At this point, some people begin sanding their foil ball with increasingly
finer grits of sandpaper, well up into the thousands.
-
didn’t see any reason to go to that trouble, considering that the ball was already pretty shiny.
Instead I polished the ball with a few rounds of Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish. You rub it liberally on and then work it into the metal until it turns black, and then you but it of with a series of progressively cleaner rags. -
As you but, initially the surfaces will appear dull and grey, but as you continue to but (and switch to cleaner rags) you’ll see the surface appear increasingly shinier. I repeated this process 4 or 5 times.
Step 8: All Done!
The surface of the ball is reflective but upon close inspection you can see
all sorts of cracks and creases. It’s really kind of fascinating to examine.
For about 4 hours of work and just a bit of polish, I turned a 7 dollar roll
of aluminum foil into this shiny ball. Pretty cool I think.
Got any tips for me, or for other readers? Share them below!
If you make one, please share a photo and let me know about your methods,
tools used, and how much time you spent. I’d love to see and hear about your
results. Thanks again for reading.
If you enjoy this process you might want to try fashioning a dorodango …
No cost. Just mud and determination.
One becomes emotionally attached to their little dirt sphere. Would that it
were with the larger one.
may be more impressed with a dirt sphere than a foil ball. Would be
interesting to stand on a dirt sphere and hold an dirt sphere. On Earth
holding earth so to say.
My Dad made a ball like this, only he used a slightly different technique. This
was when I was a little kid, and I’m 81 now. He loved chocolate. Every time he
finished a foil-wrapped chocolate bar, he would add the foil to his slowly
growing foil ball. He was an annoyingly patient man and the last time I recall
seeing this ball was when I was in my 30’s, so at that point he had been
working on it for at least 25 years! It was as solid as if it had been pounded
as in this tutorial, but no hammer had ever touched it. Just his hands,
applying one more small foil chocolate wrapper onto the growing ball, which
was probably 4″ in diameter last time I saw it. I’d guess he wasn’t the only
one doing it in those days . . .
What a nice story, Skip!
Your making this aluminum ball reminded me of back in Public school when in
the 70s anyways there was a couple girls that had aluminum balls that they
were making. How well start with a marble and the aluminum came from cigarette
foil packaging of which consisted taking the foil off paper backing and laying
one the marble and use pencil to rub that paper side down and would stick to
that marble. I remember the one girl during recess adding more foil and it was
shinny.
I tried it once and was having hard time getting that paper off I don’t know if
they had problem with it also and only get small pieces but i recall them
having whole foil with no paper .
They would us there nails to get foil and paper apart.
George
I did the same thing in the 40’s. Soaked the cigarette foil package in water
to loosen the foil. Never polished them however.
I recall her’s was perfectly round and the smoothness was from rubbing it down
it had a dull rather than shinny yet very nice. I wonder if those girls
remember doing this
What an interesting project! I don’t believe I am that patient! Great photos
and instructions, thanks! Question: a few gentle readers mention throwing the
ball into the dryer for a few minutes to shorten the process. Does that leave
black aluminum marks inside the dryer or on whatever is in there with it? The
black rub-off on the pictured hand is pretty formidable!
I love this! I’ve been making small foil beads from chocolate wrappers for
some time now. Hadn’t thought to use the aluminum foil to make a larger ball!
I’ll have to start recycling my used foil into a ball. Great Zen project AND
wonderful for anger management! 😉
Wow, I hadn’t seen this before, but now I definitely want to try it. It seems
like a pretty zen thing to do. What do you think is the smallest you could
reasonably get it?
With the amount of foil I started with, and with just hammer pounding.. I’m
not sure it could get much smaller. I worked on it for a while with that mini
sledge, and it never got below 16″ circumference, so I concluded I had
bottomed out (at least with the force I was applying).
It’s become a bit of a raging topic on youtube, so you should definitely search
and check out what some others have done if curious. It was very zen indeed!
Thanks for posting this instructable; I found it somewhat inspiring – maybe
someday I might try it myself.
I wonder if you had a power hammer or some other similar mechanical means if
you could make it smaller? It would probably be more difficult to work that way;
eventually you’d just end up with something like a large ball bearing and not
as interesting to look at.
Something you or someone else might try is to give the final ball a coat of
spray-on clear lacquer or polyurethane. You can also find transparent acrylic
colors that would probably work well too. These would all seal the cracks, but
still allow them to show, while protecting the shiny finish
(aluminum oxidizes and gets dull over time – that’s why polish for it exists).
Anyhow, it looks like a fun and low cost project; thanks again!
Thank you for the kind comment and excellent tips!
See attached. I started smallish and here is where I am after about an hour
and a half. Basically half the size of the original.
Oh and you should definitely make a cool stand for it!https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2669780
I have not seen this before, and I totally want to make one! It would look
awesome as part of bookshelf decor, or propped on a shallow bowl on a coffee
table. I could get into the zen. Thanks for the instructable!
Fascinatingly impractical, but you can’t argue with success. The Japanese Sky-
Tomo link supplied in the ‘ible’ has over 3.8 million views! A few of those
and I could retire early!
So…it’s dorodango with aluminum foil, basically? If you enjoyed the process of
turning foil into a semi-shiny cracked ball, you should try your hand at
dorodango. You seem to have the patience, and the results can be spectacular.
This is so strange; I love it 😀
NICE!
I used to do something similar in primary school, whenever lunch came wrapped
in foil I would compact it then rub it on the lunch table to make it smooth,
I’d usually end up with cubes though, rubbing the 6 faces on the table was a
lot easier than constantly turning for a ball
You should make an instructable for a foil cube! 🙂
I may be mistaken but this almost not quite is similar to the folding of metal
for katana blades. one million folds or what ever the number is. You end up
with something very different than what you begin with. Much as the person
sculptor creator mad scientist what have you is differnent at the end of any
project. Nice job. Not my cup of tea but hey i just learned that I COULD DRIVE
NAILS just with a ball peen hammer and not a claw or brad hammer. And as they
say in the metal working machine shop world “JUST KEEP HITTIN IT”
I thought someone said the kids were putting it into the microwave oven, can
anyone else confirm this?
I dont know about nowadays but in the 90’s (back in my day)
we would put foil and sometimes lightbulbs in my buddies mom’s microwave. It
creates quit the “laser show”. His dad caught us doing it at his house and we
ended up with the lecture about improper use of tools and electrical
appliances….(he was an engineer) But it was nice with some of our
“extracurrcular activities”
No, definitely don’t put any metal foil in the microwave.
XD
These negative comments are just crazy! Obviously all used foil is NOT
reusable. If you can buy foil at the Dollar store for $1 for this project you
are not breaking your banking account and destroying the environment. For
someone who said get a styrofoam sphere and put foil around it. That total
defeats the purpose of this craft. Yes you can do that to take a short cut but
you won’t get the desired effect that you get here. Plus there is a certain
satisfaction involved creating things with your hands, and banging things with
mallets can help get rid of other feeling or emotions in an un aggressive way
that hurts no one else. This project has many facets to in on many levels none
of which are BORING! If you don’t get it, just don’t comment. I see no reason
to take a person’s creativity away from them. You should always be thankful
that a creative human is willing to share their “inner wonder” with the rest
of us. I am very grateful for everyone who chooses to share every morsel with
me on every level. Thank you to every creative character in the universe for
sharing.
I have a question… I’m making the aluminum polished foil ball with a heart
shape. I’ve been taking into account the tips, but, why it’s cracking like the
photo? Can someone help me? Also those are the materials I’m using.
This is the photo
I suspect you’re running into issues because you’re not making a sphere –
trying to do this with any other shape besides a sphere means there is uneven
pressure being made on the shape and it will tend to deform and “blow out”
rather than evenly compress smaller and smaller. That’s my guess.
I do a lot of BBQ cooking and the foil is usually unusable afterwords (BBQ
Pork Ribs), So I collect this used foil and start up the ball. The one I show
is after a years worth of used BBQ foil that was used. I guess the hardest
part is to have patients in starting off the ball and the thousands of light
hammerings you have to do to get the ball going. When you get use to the time
consumed in the hammering its gives you that feeling of being an expert body
panel fabricator. After the ball is 2 inches in diameter, I use my hand to cup
the ball and flip it around. It avoids creating those small flat spots a lot.
The polishing at the end is my hardest part – in not lifting the multi edges
that exist. I sand, polish, clean it up and spray a clear gloss coat to seal
the ball. This was my first attempt and its more or less O.K.
Nice! I had fun making mine, just kind of an interesting little oddball thing
to do I guess, but people seem to get a kick out of seeing it. Thanks for
sharing photos of yours!
what if, right before the polishing step, you simply wrapped one fresh single
layer of foil around it?would that help jump start the shining process? also,
it may eliminate most cracks?
always shop at the dollar store for 50 feet rolls of aluminum foil. ONLY ONE
DOLLAR!!
Reminds me of Arnaldo Pomodoro’s giant spheres. Aluminum foil balls were
popular years ago. We even made an aluminum ball as a class project in grade
school some 75+ years ago. It may have been an effort to participate in a small
way to the wartime scrap metal drive.
This is the problem I am having. I am not hammering hard at all, but the edges
keeping coming up and no matter how I try to work them in or down, they only
get worse. I’ve even tried using super glue to hold them down but they won’t
stay. I have tried folding the ends in and that only makes it worse as then
the crack can’t be worked at all. Any suggestions?
Hmm. It looks like a flap that didn’t get tucked well enough earlier on in the
process, so as you compressed it there was a always that chasm running through
the ball. I don’t think pounding further can fix that unfortunately.
But if you make another one, as you’re in the earlier phases you can make sure
all flaps and loose edges get tucked in and mashed over with surrounding foil
as you compress the ball, which should help avoid this result.
I wish I’d read all your tips and comments before I started! So helpful. Mine
still looks so-so with some cracks. Yours is gorgeous!
Thank you! I’m sure yours is great – it’s all about the meditative process anyway 😉 I made it !!
Hey guys if you don’t like the project or think it is a waste of time keep it
to yourself. I understand wondering if there are any other uses but the whole
“why?? u must be bored” stuff is unnecessary. I think its cool and can imagine
spending an afternoon doing something like this.
I think it’s a good thing, I love making things with my hands, and they look
great in the flower garden with solar lights at night !
i made it but it isn’t as shiny because I didn’t have any polish
huh… You must be pretty boared XD
It looks great, so you certainly do not have to be bored to make this.
Besides, apparently you read the instructable. Was that because you thought it
was interresting @inconceivable1?touche!
Agreed.
To each their own, fellas.
I agree to each their own. I see nothing wrong with this and it hurts no one.