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DIY Backyard practice net
- Thread starter DeanWhipper
- Start date
DeanWhipper
Cricket Spectator
Been a while, thought I'd update.
Paceman have unveiled their new hard ball machines, bit stupidly priced IMO, they want 800 bucks for no swing and 1000 for a machine that swings, kinda blows my $1000 budget.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201164653615997&set=vb.308549152576838&type=2&theater
Interestingly I've done some digging and found the machines they offer are just re badged American baseball pitching machines for twice the price, I've been in contact with the American manufacturer inquiring about shipping etc. but there's heaps of potential problems with that option.
Starting to think my best option is the $300 light ball Paceman machine, heading to the Greg Chapel Center on Saturday morning to buy a couple of the balls and put them through their paces, I'm hoping they're not just tennis balls.
Paceman have unveiled their new hard ball machines, bit stupidly priced IMO, they want 800 bucks for no swing and 1000 for a machine that swings, kinda blows my $1000 budget.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201164653615997&set=vb.308549152576838&type=2&theater
Interestingly I've done some digging and found the machines they offer are just re badged American baseball pitching machines for twice the price, I've been in contact with the American manufacturer inquiring about shipping etc. but there's heaps of potential problems with that option.
Starting to think my best option is the $300 light ball Paceman machine, heading to the Greg Chapel Center on Saturday morning to buy a couple of the balls and put them through their paces, I'm hoping they're not just tennis balls.
Last edited:
DeanWhipper
Cricket Spectator
Aha yeah pretty strange choice, I reckon they might just be that dude's kids or something.
As for problems with an American machine, I've done my research and it seems it uses 220v for power which would be fine with a normal outlet converter (IE from US pins to AUS pins), as US standard is 120-220v and our standard is 240v, which means it's within reasonable range.
Then you have warranty and stuff, it would be an absolute prick to have to send it back to the US if something broke.
As I said, starting to think the cheapo light ball Paceman might be way to go, at least for the moment, if I don't like it in the long run I can flog it and have a crack at an American pitching machine.
Funny fact, the conversation I had with the American company was hilarious because I thought the US ran DC power rather than AC, I can blame my dad for telling me that for the past 20 years lol.
fixing stuff's fun.DeanWhipper
Cricket Spectator
Update.
Got a Paceman light ball machine, they went on special last week for $200 and it was too good to pass up.
Had a bit of a play with it, pretty good speeds and the balls do the job nicely, they're hard enough to give you a good feel off the bat but still soft enough to not bruise you.
Set it up in the backyard over the weekend with a make shift edging board, it gives good quality slips training, the only downside is it doesn't give you any notice of when it's going to fire out a ball, in theory you could count to 10, but I think I'll just set up some sort of sensor.
The ball really slaps into your hands like a real new ball, feels great.
Won't be moving for a few months so I can't get the pitch and netting set up, I'll post up some pics when I get that all worked out.
Got a Paceman light ball machine, they went on special last week for $200 and it was too good to pass up.
Had a bit of a play with it, pretty good speeds and the balls do the job nicely, they're hard enough to give you a good feel off the bat but still soft enough to not bruise you.
Set it up in the backyard over the weekend with a make shift edging board, it gives good quality slips training, the only downside is it doesn't give you any notice of when it's going to fire out a ball, in theory you could count to 10, but I think I'll just set up some sort of sensor.
The ball really slaps into your hands like a real new ball, feels great.
Won't be moving for a few months so I can't get the pitch and netting set up, I'll post up some pics when I get that all worked out.
DeanWhipper
Cricket Spectator
The whole thing is complete, I'll take some snaps when I get around to it.
I moved into my new place a couple of weeks ago and got to getting it all set up in the first week.
The yard wasn't as big as I wanted, but it serves the purpose perfectly. I have the machine set up around 8 meters from where I bat, it sounds close but it's easily enough.
Ended up going with a $100 temporary gazebo frame from Bunnings and a bunch of bird netting, works much much better than I ever imagined.
The entire thing ended up costing me around $400 bucks including the machine, which is $600 less than I anticipated.
Bit of a personal review of it.
Pros
Setting it up to practice front foot shots works really really well, you can dial in the swing/angle/cut to give you really solid representations of right and left arm swing bowling.
The pace and speed of the machine is completely acceptable for the price, the dial goes to 10 and after 5~ it gets too quick for me to react over the distance I have it set up at.
The balls are light enough that I don't need to wear protective gear, at first I thought I'd just wear pads etc. anyway so it would be like real net practice, but I soon learned that I couldn't be bothered, and it was far more convenient just being able to grab my bat and gloves and go.
Another good point is the auto loader, it came with a 12 ball auto feeder but I soon found 12 balls just wasn't enough and I was having to reload the machine literally every 120 seconds. Then I went to Bunnings and picked up some PVC pipe, cut it to size, and glued it onto the auto feeder to allow for another 6 balls to loaded in for a total of 18. Couldn't be happier with the results, a full load takes around 180 seconds~ or 3 minutes.
The setup doubles as a really good baseball hitting cage, if you angle the machine a bit and turn the speed up it can give you really good curve balls, awesome fun.
Catching and fielding drills with the machine work really well. I'm going to pick up one of those Katchet orange slips cradle things sometime soon and that should make it absolutely spot on for slips catching.
Cons (so far)
The machine can be a bit finicky to set to speeds/line/length, it frequently vibrates slightly to a different angle etc. which changes what the ball will do out of the barrel, it can be a bit annoying and can really encourage you to find a line and length that works and stick to it.
Practicing backfoot shots is very difficult with the way I have it set up, the ball just doesn't have the time to get up high enough to practice pulls/cuts by the time it gets to me. However, the machine is completely capable of it, if I had a few more meters it would be completely possible.
The machine doesn't appear to be able to replicate spin at all, if you set it at a low speed and put maximum spin on the ball it just swings all over the shop, we're talking 6 ft of swing. To be fair even 2 wheel machines don't replicate spin very well, you need to use those super expensive 3 wheel machines to get real spin.
Overall
Really happy with the time and money I have spent on this project, regardless if it actually improves my game, I will certainly spend countless hours having fun and exercising with friends and family
I moved into my new place a couple of weeks ago and got to getting it all set up in the first week.
The yard wasn't as big as I wanted, but it serves the purpose perfectly. I have the machine set up around 8 meters from where I bat, it sounds close but it's easily enough.
Ended up going with a $100 temporary gazebo frame from Bunnings and a bunch of bird netting, works much much better than I ever imagined.
The entire thing ended up costing me around $400 bucks including the machine, which is $600 less than I anticipated.
Bit of a personal review of it.
Pros
Setting it up to practice front foot shots works really really well, you can dial in the swing/angle/cut to give you really solid representations of right and left arm swing bowling.
The pace and speed of the machine is completely acceptable for the price, the dial goes to 10 and after 5~ it gets too quick for me to react over the distance I have it set up at.
The balls are light enough that I don't need to wear protective gear, at first I thought I'd just wear pads etc. anyway so it would be like real net practice, but I soon learned that I couldn't be bothered, and it was far more convenient just being able to grab my bat and gloves and go.
Another good point is the auto loader, it came with a 12 ball auto feeder but I soon found 12 balls just wasn't enough and I was having to reload the machine literally every 120 seconds. Then I went to Bunnings and picked up some PVC pipe, cut it to size, and glued it onto the auto feeder to allow for another 6 balls to loaded in for a total of 18. Couldn't be happier with the results, a full load takes around 180 seconds~ or 3 minutes.
The setup doubles as a really good baseball hitting cage, if you angle the machine a bit and turn the speed up it can give you really good curve balls, awesome fun.
Catching and fielding drills with the machine work really well. I'm going to pick up one of those Katchet orange slips cradle things sometime soon and that should make it absolutely spot on for slips catching.
Cons (so far)
The machine can be a bit finicky to set to speeds/line/length, it frequently vibrates slightly to a different angle etc. which changes what the ball will do out of the barrel, it can be a bit annoying and can really encourage you to find a line and length that works and stick to it.
Practicing backfoot shots is very difficult with the way I have it set up, the ball just doesn't have the time to get up high enough to practice pulls/cuts by the time it gets to me. However, the machine is completely capable of it, if I had a few more meters it would be completely possible.
The machine doesn't appear to be able to replicate spin at all, if you set it at a low speed and put maximum spin on the ball it just swings all over the shop, we're talking 6 ft of swing. To be fair even 2 wheel machines don't replicate spin very well, you need to use those super expensive 3 wheel machines to get real spin.
Overall
Really happy with the time and money I have spent on this project, regardless if it actually improves my game, I will certainly spend countless hours having fun and exercising with friends and family
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DeanWhipper
Cricket Spectator
*Update*
Just bought my own place with a really large backyard, easily 20~ meters back.
Will be waiting for a second hand proper 2 wheeled 150kph bowling machine to come up second hand.
Probably spend a fair bit on it this time, 3k~.
I'll post some photos when it's done, well I might haha.
Just bought my own place with a really large backyard, easily 20~ meters back.
Will be waiting for a second hand proper 2 wheeled 150kph bowling machine to come up second hand.
Probably spend a fair bit on it this time, 3k~.
I'll post some photos when it's done, well I might haha.