How Baseball Bats are made

Pat writes in with this week’s “How it’s made” video – “In honor of baseball’s All-Star game to be played next Tuesday at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, we present another video from our friends at South Carolina Educational TV of the making of that American classic, the Louisville Slugger. For fans and non-fans alike, this 9-minute video is fascinating. It traces the bats from billets (like small tree trunks) — made of white ash or maple — all the way through final sanding and branding. You’ll see the mass lathe and then the CNC lathe that cranks out thousands of custom-made bats for the professional athletes. The CNC lathe has pre-programmed requirements stored for each player. CNC — or computer numeric control — is in use in most manufacturing plants around the country, making all the latest stuff with computers. So when you settle in to watch the All-Star game, you’ll once again be watching the handiwork of America’s manufacturers. Without us, there wouldn’t be much action on the field or off.” – Link.