OOAK Table Tennis Forum

As I mentioned here:
http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=431&p=359932#p359928
and here:
http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=11969&start=450#p359938
I started seriously learning TT and building TT blades.
This topic/blog is intended to be about the things I will build in the future and post on the Make your own blade only general stuff/questions or design issues.

For the moment I am collecting veneer and using only a few hand tools for cutting the wood. When I will reach the 10th blade I want to buy an electric trimmer.
I have in mind the Makita 3709.
http://www.makita.biz/product/category/ ... /3709.html

If these first 10 prototypes will produce some interest and will prove playable, some new will be built.

Here we are - 2 weeks later - 3 new blades are work in progress and I have read a lot a about (mechanical) design, especially these threads which opened my mind a lot regarding design.

So, I measured my 2nd build and here it is: [email protected]
And here some pictures.
(It looks dirty because it is dirty. It was used for a month and it came to me for the measurement and "tire" change).

Looks really nice to me, great job!

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A few more will come with pictures ... but what kills me the most (and takes time) is making the handles.

You can cheat and buy pre-made handles on AliExpress

You can? Haven't seen those yet. One company (XVT?) does build custom blades, though.. you can choose from about a dozen to fifteen or so different handles. Maybe they sell handles. Back when I was making blades I'd use soft balsa - I'd hand-carve and sand them using a knife and a sanding block. I used cellulose cement to glue the blanks onto the tangs, that way if I didn't like the handle I could remove it with acetone. Never did have to resort to that, though.

I've seen those trimmers before - people usually use them to trim laminates (i.e. formica on tabletops, etc.). If you look around, you'll see people recommending plunge routers mounted on a table. Routers and tables are easily available and cheap in the US, not so much elsewhere in the world. I did come across this neat router table insert on AliExpress though:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Aluminu ... 08496.html



This would be nice for cutting out the blanks using a template. And with a different bit, for chamfering the handle pieces. I use a bandsaw, myself....

Iskandar

How are they coming along? I'm looking for inspiration

I have bought a router and built a jig for it. And this speed up the cutting time, but created a new one: DUST.
Boy how it is!!! The wood is transformed in a very fine powder that goes everywhere. I have made my first tests in my kitchen. Took one day to cleanup the mess.
But I have in mind a fix: a cardboard jig that I can connect to my vacuum cleaner.

The prototypes built till now:
white ash - white ash - kiri - white ash - white ash -> glued with hide glue, 5.4 mm
white ash - white ash - kiri - white ash - white ash -> glued with PU glue, 5.4 mm
7 layer all spruce -> glued with PU, 6.9 mm
5 layer all spruce -> glued with hide glue, ~6.5mm
koto-lime-balsa-lime-koto -> PU glue, 6.3mm
lime-lime-balsa-lime-lime -> epoxy glue, 6.3mm

but they do not have handles yet since I'm fighting the dust created at home and thinking about some handle designs.

I hope to finish this till weekend and post pictures.

Iskandar is going to hate me...

But, buy yourself a few dozen of these:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Sh ... aaa973de77

dip them in boiling water and rip off the two handle pieces. Might save you loads of time.

Might be.... but from China to Europe the shipping takes around 1 month.
In that amount of time I will come up to something original.

So, here it is one of the last creations

It is a white ash(0.6mm) / white ash(0.6mm) / kiri(3mm) / white ash(0.6mm) / white ash(0.6mm) glued with PU.
Pressed and sanded it's around 5.3mm tickness, 77.2 grams and 1158 Hz in speed.
Before glueing the handles, it had 1097 Hz.

Also, together with thie above blade I glued another bare-blade (identical composition, cut from the same sheet) but glued with hide glue.
Just to study the differences.
Conclusions:
- hide glue stincks, but not that much and probably in time you can get used to it;
- after hardening if you smell the edge of the blade you can still feel that smell;
- in matter of speed the difference is minimal (6 Hz !!!):
PU: 1097 Hz (the blade itself, without handles)
hide: 1103 Hz (the blade itself, no handles)
- in the way the bare-blade feels when you play with a ball, there is a difference but to me is minimal (it took good minutes knocking the ball to feel it):
PU: feels a bit more like a stiff box with a tiny balsa-like catapult effect inside it;
hide: feels like a one-piece elastic wood compared to the PU and the catapult of the kiri is less felt;
- the hide glue took 3 days to harden and curls the veneer and the core during lamination;
- I have opened the press twice a day and added new paper towels between the press and the blade to help absorb moisture;
- after hardening has finished, the whole blade curled overnight around 0.6-1.5mm;
- on one side it has de-laminated for a few mm. I tried to pull a small piece of paper in to see how deep was the delamination and it was for around 2-3 mm deep. So not such a big deal, but still;
- PU glued the layers perfectly and in 3 hours it was completely cured. After those 3 hours I pulled the blade out and no curling. It stayed perfectly flat.

So, soon I will not use hide glue if I will not find some proper method how to avoid curling.

ROFL...

I must admit, the handles on those aren't really very nice. If I had the time and materials I'd make handles like the ones on this racket:





There used to be 4-5 different "inorganic dragon" blades for sale - most of the others used wood with more contrast, so the handles looked more striking. Cool idea, I must say - don't know why more companies don't use it. You can see HRT doesn't put nearly as much care into building their blades compared to Yinhe. That crooked butt-end label is a turn-off..

I'll have to say, that blade from two posts back looks VERY nice! Great work!

Iskandar

Thanks Iskandar!
That handle from HRT looks nice. I wonder what kind of materials they use to do it.

It's laminated veneer of the sort they make practically all handles of these days, half the layers are dyed grey. No idea what wood they use, it's probably something light colored. The trick is cutting the laminate at 45 degrees. I wonder who makes the laminate - there's probably 2 or 3 sources, the Chinese manufacturers buy from them. In the US they use similar wood for making rifle stocks. Sometimes they also use alternating contrasting wood layers (also dyed, I think - wood isn't naturally red or blue). Except gun stock laminate is impregnated with resin and is relatively heavy.

Iskandar