Bored with the idea of forcing a soon-be-married Bachelor to wear a ‘funny’ t-shirt or phallic symbol on his Buck’s Night (aka Bachelor Party or Stag Party), I decided to make my own ‘Ball and Chain’ and attach it to him for the entire night.

Marriage (for the guy) is often compared to being attached to a ball and chain and so what better way to get the victim use to the idea that to actually chain him to one for the night. You can’t easily walk into a shop and ball a functional ball and chain, so I decided to make my own. The completed item is shown in the left photo below, and in the right photo the same ball and chain this time in actual use. The blacked out label on the ball was the victim’s fiancee’s name

Ball and Chain Materials

• Bowling Ball
• Epoxy adhesive (aka 2-part glue, araldite etc)
• Chain
• Padlock (and key)
• Spray paint / Texta

Bowling Ball:

I bought this on eBay and choose a 14 lb (approximately 6 kg) ball. You want it heavy enough so that it is inconvenient, but not so heavy that the victim is going to collapse exhausted by the end of the night. Remember to take into account that the victim is likely to be totally drunk and unable to stand upright, let alone carry a heavy weight around … although it is highly amusing to watch them try …

Epoxy adhesive / 2-part glue / Araldite:

This goes by various names, but you basically want the strongest adhesive you can find. Epoxy glue is the stuff that generally comes in two tubes - you squeeze equal amounts of each tube out and mix the contents together to form the glue. When I was sourcing the materials for this project, the sales people at the hardware store didn’t believe epoxy adhesive would be able to support a 14 lb weight - I can assure you it can!

Chain:

Make sure that one end of the chain can fit into the finger holes of the bowling ball. The length of the chain should be enough that you can wrap one end around his ankle and for him to have enough slack in the chain that he can carry the ball in his arms as he walks around. On the night, if you want to make it more amusing, wrap more of the chain around his ankle so he has to stoop when carrying the ball

Spray Paint / Texta:

You want some way of writing the name of the fiancee on the bowling ball. I ran out of time so simply printed the name on a piece of paper and stuck that on the ball. If I had more time I would have spray painted her name onto it.

Instructions

Take one bowling ball. Squirt the contents of the 2-part epoxy adhesive into the largest finger hole in the bowling ball and mix the contents well. Once done, insert one end of the chain into the finger hole as far as it will go. Rig up some supports to ensure that the ball doesn’t roll away and that the chain is supported whilst the glue dries (see photo right).

Wait 3 days for the epoxy glue to fully solidify and gain maximium strength. Once set, write the financee’s name on the ball.

That’s it - you have an unusual Bachelor Party prank to play on the bachelor!