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Post by rpetrie on Feb 23, 2011 19:29:27 GMT -6
I've wanted one for years but can't afford the cost from our budget. That being said the other day our baseball coach offered up one of his old ones he's no longer using (he just got 3 new ones). Might seem like a dumb question, but can you take a baseball pitching machine and use it for footballs? If so...what needs to be done or are each type of machine specific to each sport? I haven't seen it yet so I don't know any particulars of model or style. Perhaps someone on here has done a conversion from one use to the other and could let me know if its possible.
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tdtom
Sophomore Member
Posts: 208
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Post by tdtom on Mar 4, 2011 7:19:31 GMT -6
I am not an engineer, but I think they are specific to each sport. I coach softball and we cant feed softballs through a baseball machine. If it is a two wheel Jugs pitching machine, you would have to find a way to increase the space between the two wheels, get both wheels to lay flat, find a way to adjust the angle of the individual wheels, and get it to accept the ball from the opposite direction.
But if you do figure it out, let me know.
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Post by Chris Clement on Mar 4, 2011 7:31:12 GMT -6
As an engineer(!), in principle, yes. The wheels should be adjustable to some degree to allow for wear. You would definitely have to remove the feeding mechanism (which a football obviously won't fit through) and probably jury-rig a football-style one, to avoid having the ball ripped from your hands. You shouldn't need to turn the whole mechanism sideways. If it doesn't have a spindle mount, you may want to consider getting one so you can turn however you want.
There's a lot of resons why this might not work, but the principle holds. At the least, you should be able to fire tennis balls for WR practice, but be sure to turn down the speed when you do. Barehanding a 90 MPH tennis ball sounds unpleasant.
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Post by highball007 on Mar 4, 2011 8:46:19 GMT -6
I would just use it for tennis balls and make the kids catcch tennis balls with it all winter and spring!
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Post by rpetrie on Mar 4, 2011 16:34:26 GMT -6
thanks...looks like that's what we're gonna do, use it for tennis balls. I was just hoping that someone had some ingenious idea, wishful thinking I guess
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Post by airman on Mar 4, 2011 16:50:02 GMT -6
Jugs makes a machine for footballs.
IF you cannot afford it tennis ball cannons are wonderful as well. if you want to up the speed just have the kid stand closer.
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