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I have a bunch of dead tennis balls and don't want them to just get wasted in a landfill somewhere.
I've heard of recycling programs for tennis balls before, but I was wondering if I could find a way to actually use these tennis balls again for their regular purpose without having to buy a $15 pressurization tube that takes a month to revive dead balls.
You can easily make your own repressurizing device. Get plastic pipe parts of large enough diameter that the balls will slip inside, glue a cap on one end and a thread adapter on the other. Put a replacement car tire valve in the center of a screw cap that fits the threads. Slip the balls inside, screw the cap on tightly, and use any air pump or compressor to pump up the inside of the tube to the pressure you want the balls to have inside.
Wait, and check pressure on the device every week. I doubt there's any way to speed up the process, but this will save (a little) money; you can probably build this for around $10, perhaps less if you already have pipe or a tire valve lying around.
I found this web site which seems to have the answer: http://savethetennisballs.com/how-to-revive-dead-tennis-balls/
They evidently have a cylinder where you stack in 3 tennis balls, seal the cylinder and then pressurize it. The balls evidently are porous enough to repressurize.
