second hand tennis racquet hack

I'm a thrift store fiend.  I was exploring my local salvation army this week and an idea came to me.  I bought this used child size tennis racquet for $4.20 (no joke) and have been working on making it into a lightweight landing net. 

I reused some netting that I had from my "floating bait pen" experiment.  It's almost done, so I will post finished pics tonight.  Its a slow day in the office, so I decided to post this since the pics are on my phone. 

Looks like a good net for landing flat fish

   Actually, the concept you are going for is a great idea!  Way to go & keep us posted as it works itself out.

So.. I finished the net, but damn, it was hard.  The end product is probably the ugliest net I've ever seen.    

I still want to wrap some string around the rest of the rim and finish wrapping the handle, but the hard part is done.  I think I learned about how to shape the net for my next version, but this one looks very strange.   

What do you think?  Anyone have experience sewing a net together? 

Check out Janns Netcraft.  They might have some good info on their site about this type of stuff.

~Bill

Bill,

Thanks, that's actually where I initially got the netting from.  I need to try another design soon.  Luckily, there is no shortage of used tennis racquets out there.  I'll post 100% pictures as soon as I finish it. 

Thanks for looking

This is brilliant!!! Thanks for sharing.

Have you ever thought of weaving your own net? I've wanted to do it for some time, since I saw a couple videos a year ago on Jan's site or youtube.

I think there was one where you can use old credit cards as shuttles and a gauge.

Haha great idea

Well while we are talking about nets, I have been toying with the idea of making a large net more one handed friendly.  Working at the VA I see every single variation of canes, and walkers and crutches.  Having seen a custom fishing net at sports store once that used essentially a modified crutch, I thought I could adapt one to a the net I have.  I am also a Goodwill/thrift store junkie and you know , now that I am looking for one, I can't find it.

I have thought about it, but that's about as far as I got.      I'll have to check a little more into it.  I actually, already bought another racquet for version 2.0.  I would like to use that rubber netting too, at some point. 

Squidder,  That would be a good thing to have.  I've seen "one arm" nets before, but not one for a large net.

Thanks guys. 

This is awesome! I am going to do this also, I have a couple rackets from when I was fooling myself into thinking I was going to play tennis! Still lookin for them balls I blasted over the fence and down the road! Now they can be used for not only netting a fish, but bonkin the $hit out of them, while still in the net! #Christmasgifts

For some reason, I have this horrible image in my mind of one you prancing around trying to catch butterflies with that thing.   Or is it chickens? 

-Allen

ziptie it to the end of a crutch, and you can stick it out the window and catch chickens along side the road in many rural California Burbs, and nobody will know............

Try to shape the net, how you want it before you attach it to the hoop. Make a cone then cut it to the shape and diameter you want.

Thanks for the net shaping advice.  I will eventually get up enough motivation to do another one.  The next one definitely needs a paint job. 

I could get some small wild turkey with an extension.