I have a well used Onno carbon paddle that has gotten loose. The paddle is a joy to use. The button hole has some wear which has slightly enlarged the hole and makes the joint a bit loose.
Is there a way to build up the hole to make it a tighter fit? Thanks.
We have that same issue on an Aqua-Bound Surge (or Slice) carbon shaft 2-pc. paddle. Weighing in here now - in case you get a fix.
Considered building up either the hole or the pin…
Maybe there is a niche market for supplying oversized pins/pin-assemblies?
This isn’t the solution you want, but you could just glue it at the ferule and have a one piece paddle. Among my paddles I have two one-piece paddles and I like them fine. Among my two piece paddles I have one that is a bit loose. It’s a great paddle, but the constant clicking bugs me so I don’t use it. Sounds like I should take my own advice.
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I have a paddle that has a little wiggle that I would consider making a one piece. For a carbon fiber shaft, would a general purpose 2 part epoxy be appropriate for this repair? Also would you remove the button, or keep it for a little more strength in the joint?
I thru bolted a paddle that lost a pin. It is an old paddle that does mostly local trips. I failed to open it up enough and it became a single piece/shaft paddle. Oddly enough it has more individual uses than our good paddles.
The key is it was a cheap paddle. For an expensive Werner I’d do what Pikabike is suggesting.
When that happened to one of my Werner paddles, I contacted them. They had me send the paddle to them for repair at what was going to be a small fee for an out-of-warranty (age) repair. They ended up doing it no charge to me after evaluating the paddle.
I’ve bought a total of 8 Werners over the years and still have four of them. Sold 3 because I wanted a different blade or shaft length and eventually retired one because it was just plain worn out from so much use. That’s the one that had received the ferrule repair years earlier.
Onno is out of business, but if your two-into-one piece fix doesn’t hold, maybe a paddle manufacturer can repair it for a fee.
put a piece of Mylar or anything like it that epoxy won’t stick to , inside the shaft and force it tight with a piece of foam the presses the Mylar {or piece of plastic sheet } tight and seals around the hole. mix a small amount of marine grade epoxy, fill the hole. let it cure, then re-drill the hole with a small drill. fit for size with a small rotary stone on a dremel.
Take your time fitting …only do a little and check the fit and the feather
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If it is just the hole for the button. filling and redrilling might work. Be careful not to get any epoxy on the inside of the paddle shaft. It might keep the paddle halves from fitting together and probably be a pain to sand down the excess.
If it is the way the two paddle halves fit together then the only reasonable recourse may be glue them together. If gluing them together, there’s no reason to keep the button. Make sure it is well sealed to keep water out. I don’t know if painting the male side with a thin coat of marine epoxy might work. You might need additional coats or to sand it to get the proper fit.
My first paddle was a Bending Branches low angle carbon fiber paddle. After a few thousand miles it got so loose I was concerned that it might break. I ended up switching to a new high angle paddle and gave the old paddle away for someone to use as a backup. Most manufacturers consider this normal wear and tear and won’t warranty it unless the paddle is fairly new. Keeping the ferrule clean and rinsing with fresh water after every use will reduce wear.
I’m new to paddling but I am somewhat well verse in fixing things, autobody, and woodworking. As far as fixing a loose hole the best would probably be to fill it and re-drill it out, if you have the tools. Since you probably don’t want to mess with the aesthetics of the outside too much you could tape over the outside of the hole (with painters tape or car tape) and then fill with epoxy from the inside (if you can get to it), this way you will have little to no epoxy spill over on the outside of the paddle. After it cures drill the correct size hole back into to and I would assume it should how for a long while. You could tape the inside (or block it up with something) and fill from the outside, but that could potention lead to more cleaning up for aesthetics. Actually, put painters tape on the male end, put the paddle together, but so the pin does not line up and the tape is under the hole, then fill. (this might be the best bet to get a good fit.
All just some ideas for a at home/ DIY fix. hopefully this will help or spark some ideas of your own. Good luck!
You don’t want epoxy on the inside of the hole because the half with the hole is the female half. Any excess there would keep the paddles from fitting together and be difficult to remove. Any excess on the outside wouldn’t affect the fit and could be easily sanded down. Paddle halves should fit together very tightly It is unlikely that putting painters tape on the male half would allow the paddle to go together.
thank you for adding that, as i don’t have much experience with higher end paddles, most I have used have been loose enough to stick a thin piece of tape between. When I mention epoxying from the inside I meant the pin hole and then go through and take off the excess (from the inside) so that it doesn’t effect the fitment of the two ends going together. Doing this would make the outside very clean and if you scratched up the inside while removing excess epoxy it would not be noticeable.
The location of the hole where the pin goes is pretty far down and the paddle shaft is narrow. About 1ÂĽ" ID and 4" down for my Werner Ikelos.
If you can stand to loose a little length (now I’m thinking of the std. button & hole ferrule) you can cut off a bit and redrill the button hole…
I’ve been paddling many years and if some old timers around here remember Whetsone paddles…I bought 2 I have a few higher end stuff that I mostly use but the Whetstone paddles were really nice. I use d them so much that the pin holes got loose. I bought a Gorilla Tape spool and wrapped the ferrules after connecting the halfs and it was bombproof…
No doubt a quick fix but effective
This thread is 4 years old, but I’m trying anyway:
I’m having the same problem with an adjustable paddle that wobbles slightly, because the spring button doesn’t fit absolutely snug in its hole.
@roym 's advice seems to me the most promising. Are there pictures or even videos showing this method to be found anywhere? Has anyone here tried this method? Or in the meantime found a different method not suggested here yet?
Fixing this issue with reasonable effort would really upvalue my paddle a lot. So, I’m thankful for your help.
There are other sizes of those push-pins, so enlarging both holes for a larger pin might be an option. Do a search on Amazon for “kayak paddle spring clip” or “kayak paddle push pin” and many options show up:
In most cases it’s not the spring hole that causes the problem. It’s that the ferrule has worn, probably due to sand and grit getting in there and wearing down the paddle shaft. The two paddle halves should fit together very snugly and allow no wobble. Many new paddles can be a bit hard to get apart.
There is no easy fix that I know of. I’ve had a couple of expensive paddles wear out like this over more than 25 years. I’ve just tolerated the wobble until it became too much and I was fearing that the paddle would fail. Then I would replace it and either give the old one away or keep it as a backup.
For this type of problem (over time worn of ferrule), could the two halves be epoxied together?
Though: no more feather, more difficult to transport.
This is an old thread, but I would use a thickened epoxy like G-flex thickened epoxy to build up the edge of the enlarged hole and then file it down to the right size. I would put a piece of tape on the inside of the shaft under the hole, so I don’t get unwanted build up on the inside of the shaft.