I need to take about 1.5 inches off the shaft of my carbon Bandit. I’ve done it on fiberglass shafts. I’m thinking it’s basically the same thing: slowly heat, remove the T-grip, cover area to saw with tape, use a fine hacksaw blade and finally expoxy the T-grip back in.
Is that pretty much it? I don’t want to regret something later.
Thanks in advance.
I think you’ve got it
I have done some cutting, milling, drilling of CF sheets and bars (super-secret seat mods) and the only thing I would add is a dust mask or respirator. That CF dust seems to float everywhere!
Jim
cut paddle
i shorten my zaveral paddles all the time. cut to length, file or sand the grip so it fitas on the shaft again. remove epoxy replace. doing one tomarrow
can’t overstate that point
You do not want to get CF particles in your respiratory system.
I can’t get the grip out !
How far down into the shaft does the T-grip go on a carbon Bandit? I’ve had it quite hot with to low setting of a heat gun. But so far it won’t budge.
Any suggestions?
Have you already cut the shaft to the
new length? That’s what I would do, and then I might not remove the wood plug at all. I would drill a hole down the center as accurately as I can by hand, and then (after exploring with a wire to see how far the plug goes down) I would glue in a dowel which would be the attachment for the grip.
If exploration suggests that, after cutting down the shaft, the plug is too short to continue acting as a support and connection, then I would drill a larger center hole in the plug and then remove it, very carefully, with a narrow chisel. Don’t knick the inside of the carbon shaft. But I think if the plug is still at least 3/4" long after cutting the shaft down, you can probably just make a dowel connection to the existing plug.
Thanks but that’s a lot of hassle
… and risk to lose an inch or inch and a half of shaft. Maybe I’ll contact Werner to see how long that T-grip extends into the tube and see what suggestions they have for removing the T-grip.
I appreciate the suggestion though. Maybe I just need to suck it up, quit being a sissy, and get used to a 60" stick.
Theres wood in there ???
Isn’t it just an ABS grip ???
Lemme know on the grip and I believe I can help.
Right now heating it is only having everything expand @ the same rate … If the grip is ABS or wood its expanding MORE than the shaft which you are probably damaging with the heat and ASSuming here pulling and twisting BTW.
You’re right Pat, it’s ABS
What do you suggest?
Thanks!
If its the one I am thinking it is…
– Last Updated: Mar-27-10 10:13 PM EST –
the bonded in section is pretty much exactly 2" long.
You might want to call Werner and tell them the year of the paddle before you decide what to do first ..
Ask them how long the bonded in section is.
Lets say it IS 2". You could cut @ 2.125" and ever so carefully slice that bit of shaft stuck to the grip with a hand held hack saw blade. You will still probably have to file out some bonding goop that squished down past 2" when the grip was bonded in originally.
Or
You could go for your desired 1.5 by ever so gently slicing the shaft @ 1.5", then splitting up to the grip's top throat and peel off the shaft in little pieces. Side note here is after you cut the circumference of the shaft @ 1.5" you should be able to rock / wiggle the remaining 1/2" in there to break it free and extract anyway. Tedious but I've done it many time to change out blades which cannot be touched with the blade ...Think Doctor cutting off a cast here.
Or
Simply cut through everything @ 1.5" then look inside and deal with whats left ... Again, not 100% on the grips but the new ABS ones that have the 2" long bonding surface have a bottom on them with a tiny hole. This bottom 'plate' would strengthen the grip but if you have 1.5" left, bottom or not, thats enough to hold with no worries ever. .. I'm sure Werner is wincing here but they can type in to say otherwise if they want yeah ? If you cut through @ 1.5" you are still gonna have to pop the remaining shaft off the grip and dig out the 'bottom' of the grip that is still in there on the blade side ..
Tap or drill as above it to break it up into pieces then lightly file trying to not gouge the up shaft ID.
Cutting a carbon tube .. Tape on the side you want to save, cut the circumference 'skin' all the way around very gently with a fine tooth hacksaw blade, keep spining the shaft around cutting evenly 'till you are though. Once you get through the outside 'skin' you can go a littl faster and use slightly more pressure if you want.
If you do not have a grip there ( as in simply cutting a tube ), put the tube over another smaller tube thats in a vice .. EZ to hold / spin while cutting. Pull tape and hit that new top edge part with 320 to make it nice.
Edit to add ... These grips are pretty cheap so not to bad to just R&R with a new one too.
Maybe boil the grip end.
The Wenonah rep at Canoecopia suggested boiling the grip to soften the adhesive holding the grip on the shaft. He said that you wouldn’t overheat it like you might with too hot of a heat gun. I’ll take for granted that he knew what he was talking about with their Black Light carbon paddles.
Ok, all done
Thanks guys everyone for the help. It was a bit of a job getting the T-grip out. I is 2" on mine. I cut 1.25" out using Pat’s “removing a cast” method. Then I heated it up to get the last 3/4" inch out.
Yanoer, I did try boiling. But when I tried that method I didn’t leave it in the water long enough I’m sure. But, I really have my doubts that you could remove the entire 2" out of the shaft using heat (without causing some damage). The 3/4" was hard enough, and I had it in a padded vice.
Thanks again all.
Brian
Oh yea … I did wear the mask too
ALong these same lines …
Glad it worked for you. Just curious though, is it an “urban legend” that epoxy softens-up with heat enough to separate paddle blades from shafts or the like? Has anyone in particular successfully tried separating the two parts on a Werner or AT white water paddles with heat and no cutting? Asking because I would not mind buying one of these paddles used if the right model and length comes along at a decent price, but they all have some + offset typically and I like 0 ofset …