The "Bootiful" mod

More Football Madness

Using a hole cutter, holes in the base and the bottom of the ball were drilled. These holes would be used to pass the power and switch cables and also form part of the mounting system which would affix the ball to the base.



A plastic pipe gland was used as the mounting system



Here the ball is having a test fitting before the system components are installed.



The ball was removed from the base and the plastic boxes containing the system components inserted inside. Note that the open ends of the boxes have been sealed with masking tape. To keep the ball “inflated” and hold the boxes in place, expanding foam is to be squirted inside the ball and the tape is to prevent the foam from getting onto the mainboard and hard drive.



The foam was injected into the ball, ensuring that the foam completely filled the ball leaving no air pockets. Air pockets would spoil the effect of the ball being fully inflated. I used more foam than really necessary to ensure every nook and cranny was filled.



The foam was left to cure for 24 hours, after which the excess was cut away with a knife. My first attempt was not quite the success that I had hoped. Whilst the foam perfectly filled the ball, it also pushed the boxes containing the system components back out of the ball, causing them to protrude slightly. I was not happy with this so I cut the skin of the ball off before removing the foam ready to try again. Lucky I had bought several balls to play with. Here is a picture of the foam ball without the outer skin. Time to prepare a new ball!