Gluing, Regluing, Rubber Cutting Anxiety

What's helped me a lot is to use a hairdryer to let the glue dry much quicker til it's clear. Also I bought a decent pair of scissors from a craft shop and cut with the topsheet facing down and the scissors guided by the outside of the blade. Finally, to stop rubbers coming off, edgetape. (Sorry if all this is obvious...)

this works wonder for me: use finezip and wetglue (overglue) when regluing.  This way, you could reposition the rubber if you were not dead on the first try.  As for the cutting, get a really sharp cutting tool, not the cheap ones.

jt99sf wrote: Spray Windex on the scissors to get a better cut.  Draw a line on the blade of where the rubber should land. Practice on an old blade and rubbers.

Before, when I used a blade where the hinoki wood was 'sealed' I found only butterfly Freechak II would adhere to the blade well.  Nittaku finezip would always not adhere well.

jt99sf wrote: Spray Windex on the <span style=": rgb251, 251, 253;">scissors to get a better cut.  Draw a line on the blade of where the rubber should land. Practice on an old blade and rubbers.</span>

That would work well, but we always do not have that product handy... I simply lick it on bottom quarter rubber side a little to get that mission accomplished.

I totally understand your anxiety when it comes to gluing and cutting rubbers. It can be a tricky process, and it's frustrating when things don't go smoothly. Have you considered using rubber cement instead of glue? It might provide better adhesion to your blades. As for cutting, have you tried using a fresh, sharp pair of scissors? That could help prevent the rubber from detaching. As for regluing, taking your time and using alignment tools, like a ruler or edge guide, can help ensure the rubbers are properly aligned with the blade. Remember, practice makes perfect, and don't be too hard on yourself. We all go through these challenges in our hobbies. Also, if you suffer from anxiety often, you should check out the prayer for depression. It's also helpful for anxiety since both are linked to each other.

Edited by Soniaross - 07/06/2023 at 9:06am

I agree with darkermylove with regard to Butterfly Free chack II. I have never had a problem with adherence problems with it, on either sealed or unsealed blades. I also never had a problem in removing it from the blade. With new rubber, I put on one medium coat, let it dry, and follow that with a thin coat, let ir dry, and then another thin coat, let it dry. I put a medium coat on the blade. After that dries, I attach the rubber, roll it on without stretching it. I then use some very sharp dress making shears to cut off the excess. I then place a plastic covering on the rubber, usually the plastic wrapper that the rubber came in, I then place the paddle head on a flat surface, and pile a few heavy books on top, and let it sit over night. It is very easy for me to tell if a sheet of rubber has not been securely attached, by simply hitting the ball very hard into the net. Poorly attached rubber has more hollow sound.

I'm using paddle palace glue and have the following problem. When I spread it over the rubber, it's perfectly fine. However, when I spread it over the blade, it dries so fast that it becomes clumpy during spreading. Then I have to remove it from the blade (fortunately it's easy) and re-do. Last time I redid the blade 5 times until I was able to spread it fast enough without much clumps.

qpskfec wrote: Add a little water to the glue, use a wet sponge to spread the glue

groupoid wrote: Thanks everyone, I will try the water trick next time. For cutting, I found that the best thing (for me) is cutting after gluing, use large scissors, cut using the base part of scissors (closest to the center, to get max leverage) and go little by little, perhaps 1/4 inch at a time.

Edited by cole_ely - 07/10/2023 at 12:38pm

Bleh... I had a whole thing written up but it got wiped when I tried to add a picture 

try my videos in cutting rubbers: