CHICAGO-
Building a huge ball out of more than 175,000 rubber bands is dangerous business. Really. “The rubber bands … sometimes they’ll break. That hurts,” said Steve Milton, whose 4,594-pound rubber band ball was certified Tuesday as the world’s largest by Guinness World Records officials. “As long as you wear your safety goggles, you’re good.”
Milton, 26, of Eugene, Ore., watched as four bodybuilders rolled the multicolored, rubbery mass–5 1/2 feet high and 19 feet around–onto a giant scale in downtown Chicago for the official weigh-in.
He raised his arms over his head in Rocky-esque style when Guinness judge Sarah Wagner announced his ball had bounced the previous 3,120-pound record-holder from the books. That record was set by John Bain of Wilmington, Del., in 2003.
“I feel very excited right now. It’s just amazing; it’s out of this world,” said Milton, who began building the ball in November 2005.
Bain said he didn’t begrudge Milton the honor.
“Steve can have the record … he worked hard for it,” Bain said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “I had my glory days with the rubber band ball.”
So how does a person get into the rubber band ball-building business?
“It was just a great project with me and my kids,” said Milton, who worked on the ball with his 6-year-old son, Bryce Milton, and soon-to-be stepson, Austin Johnson, 7. “We did a little bit of research on how big rubber band balls are, and realized there was one out there that was 3,120 pounds and we knew we could do it.”
Milton credited his success to a simple credo: add to the ball every day, even if it was for just a few minutes.
“We tried to do at least ten to 20 pounds a day,” said Milton, who moved the ball to the garage after it dawned on him the growing globe would soon be too big to fit through the door. “Some days we’d take off, and not do anything, but we definitely stuck with it.”
Milton’s fiancee, Nicole Johnson, said she thought at first that her family might be a little crazy.
“I was wondering,” Johnson said. “But it turned into a fun project for all of us.”
Milton bought the rubber bands, finally striking a deal with a manufacturer to buy them in bulk.
Guinness judge Wagner, who is based in London but flies around the globe certifying records (her previous assignment was the world’s longest line of pizza in Italy), said the atmosphere for the weigh-in was great.
“You meet all kinds of people all over the world, and it’s lovely because people have passions and you get to help realize them.”
Milton’s recommendation to future rubber band ball engineers is to take it slowly but surely.
“My advice is to basically not overwhelm yourself with it,” Milton said. “A lot of people who try to break this record, they overwhelm themselves by trying to do too much; they give up.”
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