OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I am wondering if anyone has used Elmer's washable clear school glue O.K for gluing rubber to a wooden paddle ? The paddle itself has been pre-painted with varnish .

I haven't heard of anyone using this, personally.

Do you have any old rubbers and a spare blade you can test it on? I'd be pretty cautious trying a new glue on your main setup with fresh rubbers.

If you're dead set on not using table tennis specific glues, I've had success with tear mender (VOC free) and good ole rubber cement (not VOC free, but works fine for casual play).

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[quote="Joo Se Kev"]

I heard some guys in the gym saying that Elmer washable school glue might be used instead of the expensive, fancy special glues . I am searching for infos before trying it out on an old bat and cheap rubbers . Just curious about this Elmer's water-soluble glue ....

I don't think that is a contact cement. If it's not you'd have to apply it, and then slap the rubber on while it's wet. Which means having to wait a LONG time (this is meant to evaporate through paper, I think). Why not experiment using a piece of wood and a cut-off piece of rubber? If it doesn't work give it to the kids to, er, use for school...

If you're looking for a cheap alternative to water based glue - well, Igor was touting latex body paint some time back.. The problem is, I think, if it's sticky enough to stick rubber to a blade, you'd end up with a bunch of people at a latex dance party all stuck to each other...

Iskandar

+1 on Elmers rubber cement - available in every pharmacy/craft/hardware store and does the job. Has VOC, but they are gone 2-3 days later and it matters only IF you are playing in the tournament with racket control (which I doubt).

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Available in every drug store, department store and grocery store IN THE US. Outside the US it's not that easy to find. I get mine at a big art supply store, and it isn't as cheap as you'd find in an American Wal-Mart. It's what I use, unless I'm putting on OX pips.

If you're in the US, give Best Test brand rubber cement a try - it's supposedly thinner and better than Elmer's. They also sell a thinner called Bestine. Where to get it? Office supply stores like Office Depot and Staples will have it. Comes in pint cans, and is used (or was used before computers came into widespread use) for assembling newspaper and magazine pages before they're photographed for making lithographic plates. Yearbook editors are probably highly familiar with the stuff.

Still wonder if Igor's latex body paint would actually work, though.. It comes in colors, which might be useful for judging whether you have applied a uniform coat.

Iskandar

Elmer's Shool glue? Near non-removable stuff ...


Be alert !!!
PVA glues are known to not be removed easily from all the wooden items. Noway soluble in water after having dryed. Stuck to the wooden blade permanently.
Sorry.

Hi, Iskandar

Yes, I still consume this product a lot. It is imported to Russia from Malaisia factory, transportation by sea 12000 miles sea route.

https://sprzedajemy.pl/lateks-naturalny ... nr46560142

And you can get this product next door, I guess/

Be happy.

If it's "washable", it's probably not PVA. Dried PVA is pretty insoluble, and they're probably talking about dried glue spilled onto kids' clothing. Still, I don't think it's suitable for this purpose.

Iskandar

[quote="igorponger"]

I just completed a test by gluing a rubber on a sealed old blade (i.e sealed with polyurethane) . The rubber stuck quite well on the blade after being left to dry out overnight . Subsequently, I had no problem peeling the rubber off .

I'll glue a pair of new Chinese rubber (i.e. Galaxy Mercury II) on a sealed Andro Kinenetics OFF+ blade and try it out later on .

Great to hear of the test.

I saw the glue in different colors on the shelf at Walmart and was tempted to buy.

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[quote="LOOPOVER"]

It's vital to seal the blade with varnish (i.e. at least 2 layers) before using the glue . As for the test, after peeling off the rubber, I could clean the blade easily with a moist piece of cloth.

I always now use Tear Mender on the sponges of the rubbers, and then regular Rubber Cement on the blade. Always. That way, you don't need to worry about the VOC affecting the rubber. Let RC completely dry and there are no appreciable VOCs anywhere near the paddle. And...I have never seen a sniffer at a tourney in all my TT career anyways. Not that it matters.

If you need to reapply, just take the rubber off, scrape off old RC from the blade, apply new RC, let dry, and slap the rubber back on using the existing glue on the sponge.

With this process, it doesn't matter if your rubbers are OX pips, or Max Tenergy. Always comes off easily. You can seal the blade if you want, but I haven't really seen the need to yet. for OX pips you have the added benefit of no curling due to the Tear Mender being water based.

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I assume the glue in the first post was what was tested. Did you apply it to both the blade and the rubber or to the rubber alone? Drying overnight would be a pain, if you had to do both sides...

As for rubber cement and VOCs - there should be ZERO bad effects of VOCs on the rubber and sponge, no reason not to use it there as well. We used this for decades before the speed glue ban came along, no one worried about it hurting the sponge.

Iskandar

It's the scaping the rubber off the blade that worries me . I damaged a blade in this process when I used unmixed Elmer's rubber cement to glue the rubber ( i.e. some surface wood was scraped off !!). The problem is partially solved when I use gasoline to thin out the rubber cement at the ratio : 40% gasoline + 60% rubber cement . This way , peeling off was really easy but the rubber cement did curl up the foam a bit + the smell for a few hours, which is o.k. as I am not ITTF tournament player . However , I would prefer a water-based glue for gluing rubbers .

In my view, sealing is essential to protect your blade if changing rubber is routinely carried out . So far, Polyurethane for outdoor is the best solution .

BTW, Tear mender is much more expensive than Elmer's transparent school glue (i.e. @ 8. $ US for 2 oz. ) .