Restoring Tackiness

Originally Posted by suds79

Nice.

Yeah i'm looking for something of the thickness or rigidity of those old overhead projector type films. but seems like actually finding those old things is getting harder and harder considering nobody uses those anymore.

Shoot me a PM.


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Some time ago out of curiosity I've tried olive oil on my H3 neo. The condition of the rubber was ok, I'd say it was in the second part of it's lifetime, but still some weeks could be played with it. So my impression were such as I didn't notice any good changes to my rubber. Maybe on the contrary, my first feeling was that it seemed somewhat a tiny bit slippery when I brushed the ball on the surface... if I pressed it a little bit, the rubber felt as it was before. But maybe that's my imagination, because generally, as I said, I didn't notice any bigger difference.

I think it would be interesting to try wd40 on it. so maybe I'll do it by the end of rubbers life cycle


It's an interesting idea and an economical solution to use report covers for rubber protection (I find specialized covers a little bit overpriced for such a simple thing in essence). I am using non tacky film for my H3 Neo and nothing on my Donic Bluefire. I could imagine using report cover on neo, but it's hard to imagine report cover sticking to european rubbers. So thumbs up for the video demonstration and I'll be going to buy a report cover to the stationary shop to try it

Here is the video. What it shows is that, if the non-adhesive cover is pressed on well, it will stick to the topsheet of a non-tacky rubber adequately. It won’t stick like it will with a tacky rubber but it will grip.

The rubbers on this blade are Nexy Karis. It sticks pretty well to my racket with MXP as well. And when I used to use T05 it did about the same.

You can hear, as I pull the sheets off, that the rubber is grabbing the topsheet a little.



Also the sponge is damp but very lightly damp. And the air in Brooklyn is dry enough that, as I put the sheets back on the rubber is already dry.

But you can also see that the covers were stuck on more fully when they came out of my racket case than they were after I reapplied them.

So, when they are pressed on well and stay on for a while the rubber grabs the plastic sheet slightly harder if it is clean.


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I would either try Der_Echte's advice with the olive oil/lemon juice mixture or try find gekko rubber cleaner on eBay. It says it even changes non-tacky rubbers into tacky ones. Never tried it personally though. My rubbers are nuff tacky.

Originally Posted by Suga D

I would either try Der_Echte's advice with the olive oil/lemon juice mixture or try find gekko rubber cleaner on eBay. It says it even changes non-tacky rubbers into tacky ones. Never tried it personally though. My rubbers are nuff tacky.

This is the stuff. It´s called Gekko Monster spin
http://www.ebay.de/itm/TISCHTENNIS-B...-/271597899222


You could also try this here:

On a german Forum a tabletennisplayer who is a chemist wrote that the stuff that makes rubbers tacky is called Methylcyclohexane. Not sure if that´s what the guy from the vid used though

Originally Posted by jddavid

Next time it loses its tackiness, I plan to try what the first guy suggested though. Put on the protective film before it dries after water cleaning.

You should be doing this every time, now....not next time. Even if you just got the tackiness back, after you use, after there has been dust on the topsheet, you clean the topsheet with WATER and put the plastic sheet on top of the rubber. The clean topsheet being covered with something like a plastic sheet will cause the tackiness of the outer layer to increase.

What causes the tackiness to go away is usually the dust clinging to the topsheet.

That is....unless you wear a dead spot (flat spot....slick spot) in the topsheet. There was a post by Igor Ponger that implied this. The top layer that is tacky is thin. If you pull it off from heavy contact in the same spot over and over, you can wear a dead spot (a slick spot) in the topsheet of a tacky rubber. But that is different than if the whole topsheet has lost its tackiness. And you need to have fairly descent impact power to wear a dead spot like I am describing into the topsheet of an H3.

Still, if you do that, and put oil on the dead spot and left the topsheet covered with a plastic sheet for about a month, you could get some of the tack back in the dead spot.