revivng dead rubbers?

says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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It is hard to get a rubber that is no longer gripping the ball to start gripping the ball again.

Mineral oil and olive oil really won't do much. They will do less than WD40 which really is not much.

WD40 on the top sheet may help a teeny tiny bit.

That Revolution 3 cleaner/rejuvenator may also help a little; this should do more than WD40 but I wonder how long that will last for.

Boosting the sponge will make the sponge feel more alive but it won't get the topsheet to grip more. Using a tiny bit of booster on the topsheet may give the topsheet a tiny bit more grip as well. That would probably do about what WD40 does. Maybe a little more.

But, in the end, if the rubber molecules in the topsheet are starting to oxidize and are no longer grippy, it is hard to really change that because this happens as a result of oxygen atoms attaching on to the rubber molecules and causing the molecule to change. That causes the rubber to loose grip and elasticity.

You can mess around. See if anything works well enough for you to get a little more use out of the rubbers. No harm will come from trying. But if the topsheet has really lost its ability to grip the ball, not much is going to really change that fact.

A way of thinking about this is thinking of rubber bands. When they are new, they are stretchy. They are also grippy. If you left a rubber band on your shelf for a few years, it would still be grippy and stretchy and you might not notice that it is less grippy and stretchy than when it was new. But several years after that, if you tried to stretch the rubber band it would feel a little brittle and when you tried to stretch it, it would sort of start breaking apart instead of stretching. There is nothing you could do to that rubber band before trying to stretch it that would make it stretchy how it was when it was new. After that much oxidation, after that much time of the rubber being exposed to the air, the rubber molecules have changed enough that they are no longer the same molecules any more. :)
 
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says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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You could try rubbing a little gun oil on the topsheet, and keep rubbing with your palm... keep rubbing for many minutes with some force without additional oil... it takes a little elbow grease, but eventually, you will break through the tiny layer of crud on top and start abrasing the topsheet… then you got tacky where you were rubbing.

You could do the same thing with a scouring pad and abrasive cleaning powder, rinse, oil some, repeat.

You have nothing to lose. Alternate method is to use a little bear piss. Good luck finding u a bear, but if you look hard enough, you can find one.
 
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You could try rubbing a little gun oil on the topsheet, and keep rubbing with your palm... keep rubbing for many minutes with some force without additional oil... it takes a little elbow grease, but eventually, you will break through the tiny layer of crud on top and start abrasing the topsheet… then you got tacky where you were rubbing.

You could do the same thing with a scouring pad and abrasive cleaning powder, rinse, oil some, repeat.

You have nothing to lose. Alternate method is to use a little bear piss. Good luck finding u a bear, but if you look hard enough, you can find one.

Sounds funny, but the piss idea actually works...don't ask me why.

Try ammonia if you want a slightly less messy but even more pungent alternative.

Unfortunately, its only an interim measure. No matter how much watering/rubbing you do, it will never return to its original state.
 
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It is hard to get a rubber that is no longer gripping the ball to start gripping the ball again.

Mineral oil and olive oil really won't do much. They will do less than WD40 which really is not much.

WD40 on the top sheet may help a teeny tiny bit.

That Revolution 3 cleaner/rejuvenator may also help a little; this should do more than WD40 but I wonder how long that will last for.

Boosting the sponge will make the sponge feel more alive but it won't get the topsheet to grip more. Using a tiny bit of booster on the topsheet may give the topsheet a tiny bit more grip as well. That would probably do about what WD40 does. Maybe a little more.

But, in the end, if the rubber molecules in the topsheet are starting to oxidize and are no longer grippy, it is hard to really change that because this happens as a result of oxygen atoms attaching on to the rubber molecules and causing the molecule to change. That causes the rubber to loose grip and elasticity.

You can mess around. See if anything works well enough for you to get a little more use out of the rubbers. No harm will come from trying. But if the topsheet has really lost its ability to grip the ball, not much is going to really change that fact.

A way of thinking about this is thinking of rubber bands. When they are new, they are stretchy. They are also grippy. If you left a rubber band on your shelf for a few years, it would still be grippy and stretchy and you might not notice that it is less grippy and stretchy than when it was new. But several years after that, if you tried to stretch the rubber band it would feel a little brittle and when you tried to stretch it, it would sort of start breaking apart instead of stretching. There is nothing you could do to that rubber band before trying to stretch it that would make it stretchy how it was when it was new. After that much oxidation, after that much time of the rubber being exposed to the air, the rubber molecules have changed enough that they are no longer the same molecules any more. :)
Thanks this was very helpful I don’t really want to waste any money on dead rubbers so I might as well add some wd40 and see how that goes thanks!
 
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says Spin and more spin.
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If don't want to spend money the beter way is to throw in the trash the rubbers.

Well, if you read what he said:

Thanks this was very helpful I don’t really want to waste any money on dead rubbers so I might as well add some wd40 and see how that goes thanks!

So, it sounds like he will try something that will not cost him anything. And then, if it doesn't work, the implication seems, he will move on to other rubbers. So, it sounds like he already implied the recommendation you presented here.
 
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Well, if you read what he said:



So, it sounds like he will try something that will not cost him anything. And then, if it doesn't work, the implication seems, he will move on to other rubbers. So, it sounds like he already implied the recommendation you presented here.
exacly thats my spare bat anyway thanks carl
 
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