Baseball Bat Key Chain

I was commissioned to make a baseball bat key chain similar to one I made in school.  I used a piece of recycled aluminum from a bicycle kickstand found in a dumpster about .440"⌀ to build it from.

Some arbitrary numbers written on a sticky note.

Starting by facing the piece in the lathe.

Then filing the end radius.  Before anybody outrages about the gloves I suggest they read this.  Feel free to outrage about the cuffs though.

Using my smallest center drill to make the least conspicuous center hole possible.

While supporting the piece with a live center, turning the outside diameter to .425"

Plunge cutting the handle diameter to provide a starting point for the subsequent passes.  This makes it easier to start the cutting passes.

Turning down the handle.

Turning the tapered section to 7.5° blending the two sections together.

I then filed the whole thing to make it look more uniform, but I think it made the finish worse overall.

Parting it off.  I cut most of the groove while the live center was still in the other end.  I then removed the center and broke off the piece.

I wasn't satisfied with the end radius as it looked too small compared to the original.

I put it back in the lathe and cut it with a small corner rounding endmill held in the boring bar holder.

The spindle had to be run backwards to use this cutter

Filing off the part-off tit and smoothing out the handle end.

All done after drilling a .150" hole in the handle and polishing.  Even after polishing, the lines from filing were still visible.  Next time I should use some 600 grit sandpaper.