My friend asked me to make an acrylic template for cutting the panels for a leather ball. She wanted holes large enough to poke a small nail through. I used fluorescent acrylic, and I flipped the numbers (which indicate how many of each piece to cut from the leather) for the engrave, so the numbers show through from the back.
In full disclosure, I haven’t actually made a leather ball. I just cut the template. But I’m pretty confident it will work.
Very nice, thanks for the template. Would be cool to engrave the peices and cut them and sew together.
What a great share! Thank you so much!
Thanks for the share! What thickness of leather is your friend going to use (if you know)? is the seam to the inside of the ball, or exposed on the face? I’m wondering what other laser-friendly materials will work with this pattern?
Yes, I know you haven’t made one yet… 
This is a presumption, but typically balls are done with a seam that goes through from the back, crosses over the front, and then goes through the center seam and back on the other side. It keeps the edges smooth to each other. Like this:
I tried to convince my friend to just let me cut the leather for her, but she was excited to have the template. I may try using the pattern to cut leather on the Glowforge at some point. The hole size may need to be adjusted, depending on what thread is used.
I don’t know what thickness of leather she’s using. I should have asked more questions!
Most soccer balls are made using this arrangement of pieces, so I’d guess the seam is on the inside, leaving a smooth surface. But honestly, I don’t know. 
I hadn’t thought about the possibility of a baseball stitch. Perhaps that’s what she has planned. I’ll ask her to send photos when she finishes, and I’ll share them here.
It’s funny this comes up now because YouTube has been serving me videos of a custom ball maker lately.
Here’s one:
I have just spent way too much time watching custom ball videos. I love the one-panel ball. Have you seen that one? Fascinating.
