Table Tennis Ball Picker Upper

just regular butterfly nets (you can get one for 0.50) work just fine...

I use one of those things that handicap people use that has a handle that you pull and has 2 rubber cup's on the end. Yeah you can only pick up 1 ball at a time, but it only cost me $5 bucks and is well worth the money for what I use it for.

In Australia, there is www.ozpingpongpal.com 

Postage to Australia from the US and the exchange rate makes the US product far too expensive.

Yes John, postage was the killer for me too, so I made my own. Bought a cheap badminton racquet from the op-shop for $1. Used a plastic net from a bag of oranges and picked up the handle from an old squeeze mop from someones junk pile on the nature strip. I removed the strings from the racquet and cut off the handle (this was very difficult as the handle was made from stainless steel). I then held the handle in a vice and carefully bent it to the angle I needed.

Using some 120 pound fishing line I ran parallel lines about 35mm apart using the holes in the edge of the racquet from the previously removed strings. I then used a lot of small cable ties to fix the net around the outside of the badminton racquet. Trimmed the plastic fitting on the end of the handle and then drilled a hole in the plastic fitting the same size the racquet handle. I mixed together a large amount of araldite and filled the plastic insert and the end of the handle with glue, pushed the racquet handle into the plastic insert and then pushed the insert into the handle and left it to set for a day.

I've used it every week since early 2015, it's a wonderful tool and much lighter than previous types I had made and you can easily get balls from under the table.

Well done, a lot of work but if you have the time and equipment, sounds like it would work well.

A$44.95 plus $15 postage to anywhere in Australia for www.ozpingponpal.com sounds a little easier ;)

Not really a lot of work. My wife said I should have been mowing the lawn. It was a lot more enjoyable than mowing.

I was going to include a photo of the ball picker upper but I can't figure out how to do it. Any suggestions Alois?

Email it through to me and I will get Jeff to  upload it... While you get on to mowing...

Just made my own from less than $10 worth of PVC - a 1 metre length of 50 mm tube plus a 45 degree joint plus a silicon hair elastic. Fit the angle joint to one end of the tube.  It doesn't need any gluing or fixing. The angled end allows for reaching under tables and chairs. Drill 2 holes of the correct diameter for the elastic about 5 mm from the end so the elastic will divide the tube's diameter into 2 sections of 35 mm and 15 mm (approx. is good enough). Cut the elastic to create a straight length, tie a knot in one end of the elastic, feed the elastic through both holes pulling it taught, tie a knot in the other end and trim the excess. The only tricks are to get the position of the elastic right so balls can push through easily but not come back out when you have the weight of a few in the tube (it holds 28).  The other trick is to not have the elastic too tight or too loose.

It took literally 5 mins to put together.  Bargain! 

i get more exercise from picking up balls (manually) than practising!