A 26-year-old man set a new Guinness World Record by making the largest rubber ball ever from more than 175,000 rubber bands. It weighs 4,594-pounds and stands 5 1/2 feet high and 19 feet round.

"The rubber bands ... sometimes they'll break. That hurts," said Steve Milton. "As long as you wear your safety goggles, you're good."

Four bodybuilders had to roll the multicolored, rubber ball on a giant scale in downtown Chicago for the formal weigh-in.

Guinness judge Sarah Wagner verified that the ball had beat the former 3,120-pound record-holder previously 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 had started making the ball in November 2005.

"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."

"It was just a great project with me and my kids," said Milton, who made the ball with the help of his 6-year-old son, Bryce Milton, and 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 told the AP he attributes his success to the 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 transferred the ball to the garage after realizing it would soon be too big to go through the door. "Some days we'd take off, and not do anything, but we definitely stuck with it."