How can i repair a small hole in a basketball?

Answer 1

This technique works well with minute punctures. The bare essentials to perform this operation are a small sachet of super-glue(per leak), like Feviquick, and a disposable syringe (its a good idea to by a second in case the glue.

First pump up the Basketball until it is relatively firm. Now immerse the ball in a half-filled bucket of water (half-filled so the water doesn't come splashing down all over you), making sure that all of the ball is completely below the surface. Locate all the leaks by the stream of bubbles emerging from the surface of the ball. Encircle and cross the leak(like a cross-hair)( using a permanent marker (contrasting colour) or a ball point pen, if you don't mind the tiny marks on your ball, as this will help locate the leak quickly.

Now you may release the part of the air from the ball (using the nozzle provided with your basketball) to make sure that air is no longer emerging from the puncture.

This is the tricky part. The next few steps must be executed quickly so its best you read this part through before attempting the following....

BE VERY CAREFUL HANDLING THE SYRINGE. DO NOT ACCIDENTALLY INJECT YOURSELF OR ANYONE ELSE WITH THE SUPER GLUE AS THE CONSEQUENCES COULD BE LETHAL. IF YOU CHOOSE TO PERFORM THIS OPERATION MAKE SURE YOU DO IT IN THE PRESENCE OF ANOTHER ADULT, AS A PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE, WHO IS IN A POSITION TO FETCH HELP IN CASE OF ANY EMERGENCY.

Open your sachet/bottle of super glue and dip the needle of the syringe into the glue itself. Draw the glue into the syringe and make sure there aren't any air bubbles.

Now locate the leak, which you have marked with the marker pen and insert the needle through the skin. Let the syringe be inserted up to half its entire length. Now turn the ball until your syringe is dangling underneath the ball itself. At this point, inject a tiny amount of super glue into the ball while keeping the ball above the syringe itself. Carefully removed the syringe from the ball and apply a couple of drops of super glue to the punctured area on the outer surface. Do not apply too much here as the glue will tend to spread and solidify unevenly ruining the appearance of the ball.

Keep the ball in the same position (with the puncture directly at the bottom) for a period of time until the super glue dries completely.

Repeat the process for each of the leaks, one at a time. Use multiple syringes (a syringe can rarely be reused after it has drawn super glue as the glue solidifies inside) to repair multiple punctures.

After this step, you may now pump up the ball and repeat the immersion test to see if all the leaks have been properly sealed. If yes, then you are ready to play ball. If not, then its most likely you injected the super-glue in the wrong spot or were too careless with the ball's position while injecting the glue.

In theory, the super-glue instantly binds with the material inside the ball forming an airtight crust. The excess glue pools around the puncture, while a certain amount trickles into the air passage of the leak itself. This created a sort of board-pin like structure that proves to be quite sturdy and is also complimented by the increased air-pressure once the ball is properly pumped. The glue on the outer surface reinforces the punctured region preventing the passage from reopening in the near future.