OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Or in blue. Whatever you want...

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:650890

Iskandar

There is a video of it bouncing even, and it sounds like the first batches of plastic ittf approved balls

How about these Huisheng/Huieson "3-star" (sic; no ITTF stamp) purportedly ABS "D40+" (sic) balls in orange @ USD30 cents each?

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/produc ... 0.0.6FhzvV

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"Once you get past a certain threshold, everyone's problems are the same: fortifying your island and hiding the heat signature from your fusion reactor." –Doctor Impossible

I've ordered some from XVT and they should arrive by early June. I know the "3 star" labelling is meaningless since the balls aren't ITTF-approved. At best, I'd expect them to be like the 1-star DHS D40+.

~US$18 delivered for 50 isn't a lot to spend in order to satisfy my curiosity.

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"Once you get past a certain threshold, everyone's problems are the same: fortifying your island and hiding the heat signature from your fusion reactor." –Doctor Impossible

The orange Huieson "D40+" balls have arrived.

While I haven't had a hit with them yet, the seam width looks the same as a 3-star D40+ seam. Bounce height, sound and the rate at which the bounce decays are about the same. I guess these are very likely to be real, rebadged DHS D40+ balls or maybe a really close copy. Most likely a orange no-star or 1-star equivalent, with 3 stars for puffery.

Also picked up a Sanwei 9th-generation all-wood pistol blade for kicks, and a couple of spare M8 blades. The pistol blade feels very comfortable. It weighs 87g. I'll get it sealed and rubbered up soon.

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"Once you get past a certain threshold, everyone's problems are the same: fortifying your island and hiding the heat signature from your fusion reactor." –Doctor Impossible

Reminds me. I got another message from Minkow this morning asking me if I was interested in buying more ABS training balls (they're 10 cents each in quantity). I said I thought the last batch were a little slow, did have a new one? Got a reply - yes, they've got some new ones "from a different factory", and the old ones were actually the same as the DHS D40+ (which is odd, I think they're slower than the D40+....). Their seamless "super" training balls are excellent, but expensive.

Why DO I think of these things LONG AFTER I should have thought of them? When Hangdog was here I should have given him a few of the Minkow ABS balls to see what he thought... I'll make sure to put some in my bag to give to Robot Blocker. I literally have hundreds of these things...

Nothing orange from them at the moment, though...

Iskandar

Had a hit with some of the orange balls today. Everyone noticed that they were hard. Based on limited play, the people who tried them, liked them. I don't have a balance that will weigh to better than 1g precision – I weighed ten of them at 28g but that could range from within tolerance to overweight, so I'll have to find out at a later date. Roundness ranges from good to not-so-good. Will probably get more.

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"Once you get past a certain threshold, everyone's problems are the same: fortifying your island and hiding the heat signature from your fusion reactor." –Doctor Impossible

Received a cheap digital balance that has 0.01g precision, so I weighed most of the orange ABS balls.

2.77g or less (2.77g is the maximum permissible weight for seamed poly balls under ITTF rules): 4 balls
more than 2.77 and less than 2.80g: 28 balls
2.80g or more: 14 balls.

I don't have a way to calibrate the balance other than to also weigh the 3-star DHS D40+ balls (which do indeed come in about 0.1g lighter), and am not impressed with the repeatability of the results on that balance, so the above weights shouldn't be taken as gospel.

So, the orange Huieson ABS balls are heavy, hard and durable. Based on how far they (don't) fit through the celluloid-ball-sized hole in the plastic test-fitting template that came with one of my robots, the diameter is the same as the 3-star D40+. Which is fine, compared with most of the 729 seamless balls I bought last year, many of which were easily a huge ≥41.0mm in diameter.

I sent 3 of the orange balls out for the bottom pennant grade to play with the other night, and had no complaints or breakages.

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"Once you get past a certain threshold, everyone's problems are the same: fortifying your island and hiding the heat signature from your fusion reactor." –Doctor Impossible

For calibration, use some coins. You should be able to find out what they're supposed to weigh somewhere. New, unmarked coins would theoretically be better. Also, try allowing the balance to warm up for 5-10 minutes, tare it and wait for it to settle down before starting. Repeatability to the nearest .01g is unlikely but I think within the closest .03g is achievable with most cheap balances. Also if you're doing this in a cold/airconditioned room, there's static electricity to worry about - when I was weighing things at the geochemistry clean room at VU in Amsterdam they actually had one of those static eliminator guns they used back in the days of vinyl records, but we were concerned with weighing to the nearest .001-.002g there.

Iskandar

I see TSP is also selling orange plastic 44+ balls in Japan... and at quite good quality

Yeah, those have been out for a while. I wouldn't be surprised if those come from a totally different factory than the 40+ balls, though - maybe there's only one or two that make 44+ balls in the world.

I've always been amused by the "44+" label, too.. I'll bet they're the same exact size as the old 44 balls. No need to change tooling when it's not necessary, after all.

Iskandar

I hear in Japan only Nittaku is producing this large ball. Yet TSP large ball looks different, maybe sourcing from China?

Minkow was producing a 44mm ball (and a 27mm and a 55mm as well). They sold these under many names.. Tibhar, etc. I have a couple.

My 3 star 44mm balls were sold by Champion (in Korea). Excellent quality, no idea who made them. Very nice for ab-initio training.

Iskandar

Thinking about the general overweight-ness of the orange balls -- I'd have to get hold of some of the white Huieson balls to see if my guess holds water, but the lack of ITTF-approved orange balls seems likely to have been a matter of needing to have all the mass of the ball contribute to its durability.

I'm not sure what percentage of a coloured poly ball consists of orange pigment. If it's around three percent, that turns a 2.72g ball into a 2.80g ball. You could probably still have acceptable durability in an orange ABS ball that falls within the ITTF weight limit. Couldn't see it happening with the crappy cellulose acetate 40+ balls.

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"Once you get past a certain threshold, everyone's problems are the same: fortifying your island and hiding the heat signature from your fusion reactor." –Doctor Impossible

hangdog wrote:


It also depends on what colour the original poly material is, what percentage any white pigment contributes to the weight and whether removing the white pigment and adding the orange pigment changes such characteristics of the ball as its strength, co-efficient of friction as well as weight.

(IANA materials scientist)

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