Table tennis 11 Racket assembly + Lacquering

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I wanted to know how good the free racket assembly on tt11 is. The fact that idk how the rubbers were actually glued on would kill me, im pessimistic so all i can think abt is the person having a bad day and just rushing/ not gluing properly etc.
Although im a sucker for free stuff and if everyone has had good experiences with it i may try it out.
also do you guys reccomend their free lacquering?

I dont have any glue/ assembly equip at home, although i have friends who do.
 
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I don't believe I've ever seen anyone complain about that service from them.

If you are gonna be paranoid about it, just do it yourself. I do it myself simply because I find it fun and satisfying.

Pretty much what I was going to say.

I like doing it myself. I like beveling the edges on the wings of a blade and I like sealing the blade myself. I like my method for doing that.

I also like my method for gluing and the glue I use. So, I do it myself because I want to be making the choices on how things are done.

But if you are not fussed by that kind of thing, they have way more experience gluing and cutting rubbers than any of us do. Think about it. :)
 
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In the past couple of years I have bought two rackets lacquered with rubbers glued on by TT11. Very nicely assembled with no problem whatsoever. Still play with the racket bought two years ago from time to time, and the rubbers are still glued on tight.

TT11 has really good reputation and prices are reasonable.
 
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The lacquering is great. Thin and even and invisible. But if you look carefully at the wings, you'll see that they've actually done it. 5 star.

(Editted this part below. I made a mistake. I’ve never ordered glueing service from tt11 for myself, but once for my friend. Experiences are from other retailers.)

The glueing services from retailers usually only fit for casual player. If you hit the ball hard and practise hard regularly, the chance that the edge will be off or some parts feel a little airy later is extremely high. If you are an enthusiastic player, there is no way to avoid glueing stuff yourself.

All of my retailers' gluing work from several places were off after a while. My casual player friends never have problems though.

Give them a try though if you don't mind. They cut the bat perfectly so if u are as unlucky as me, redoing the gluing is still a lot easier than from scratch.
 
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A29D3BD4-F235-4CB7-ACDC-B08F50178291.jpgI have not had them lacquer my blade, but I have ordered their gluing service. Excellent quality service.

841A95F1-54A7-4CDF-8153-6D4492E12312.jpg

One thing worth asking them about is the glue they use. I believe their glue is Donic Formula First, which holds tightly but is harder to remove from blade and rubber when changing rubbers.
 
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View attachment 21988I have not had them lacquer my blade, but I have ordered their gluing service. Excellent quality service.

View attachment 21989

One thing worth asking them about is the glue they use. I believe their glue is Donic Formula First, which holds tightly but is harder to remove from blade and rubber when changing rubbers.

Aha Im about to but the nittaku acoustic from tt11 haha. yeah the limba outer plys are apparently very susceptible to splintering when changing rubbers so was wondering if i should risk it or not.
Ive heard depending o nthe glue you use t=you should be fine. but if they use a glue that makes it hard to remove then i might ask my friends to glue for me instead
 
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One thing worth asking them about is the glue they use. I believe their glue is Donic Formula First, which holds tightly but is harder to remove from blade and rubber when changing rubbers.

I also think it is Donic Formula First.
It seems to get harder to remove from the blade and rubbers over time.
On one blade I ordered from them I changed one rubber after 3 or 4 months with no problems. I then stopped using the blade for several months to try something else out, when I went back to it and eventually changed the other rubber it was much harder to remove without damaging the sponge. I think this was the glue and not due to the rubber aging, but this could also have contributed to the issue.

They do a really neat job of cutting the rubbers and the lacquering is very thin and even, which is good as it has no detrimental effect on how the rubbers stick or the blade plays, but probably doesn't offer quite a much protection as the thicker lacquering from some other shops.
 
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Pretty much what I was going to say.

I like doing it myself. I like beveling the edges on the wings of a blade and I like sealing the blade myself. I like my method for doing that.

I also like my method for gluing and the glue I use. So, I do it myself because I want to be making the choices on how things are done.

But if you are not fussed by that kind of thing, they have way more experience gluing and cutting rubbers than any of us do. Think about it. :)

Hi Carl,

Could you please post a pic of the wings of you blade? I'd like to see how you bevel the edges.
 
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I sand, varnish, and glue myself now but I've ordered several rackets varnished & assembled from TT11 and theirs do look better (but they don't sand the edges which I need). I don't know how they cut the excess rubber off but it looks perfect. Maybe mine look as good too after a few 100's of rackets done...
And if you want to see how TT11 does it, here it is on YouTube. The master at work ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSSlqq8kNfY
 
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I sand, varnish, and glue myself now but I've ordered several rackets varnished & assembled from TT11 and theirs do look better (but they don't sand the edges which I need). I don't know how they cut the excess rubber off but it looks perfect. Maybe mine look as good too after a few 100's of rackets done...
And if you want to see how TT11 does it, here it is on YouTube. The master at work ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSSlqq8kNfY

They likely use a specific cutting machine. The main TT store in France does to cut rubbers.

I get similar results when I use a scalpel.
 
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Hi Carl,

Could you please post a pic of the wings of you blade? I'd like to see how you bevel the edges.

Sure. In photos it seems hard to see usually. And I just file till it feels right. So, not anything too scientific. But hopefully you can see. Here:

IMG_2954.jpg

IMG_2955.jpg

IMG_2956.jpg

IMG_2957.jpg

IMG_2958.jpg

IMG_2959.jpg

IMG_2960.jpg

IMG_2961.jpg
 
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Try it a tiny bit first and then more if you like as it changes the feel a little. Carl has certainly done it to the maximum:)))
 
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wow this is actually cool, sanding the wings, maybe i should try too

Try it a tiny bit first and then more if you like as it changes the feel a little. Carl has certainly done it to the maximum:)))

I have just done it to the point where it feels good in my hand. I know what I like. I have seen a lot more extreme particularly from penhold players. You may as well get the blade to fit your hand. At least I feel that way.
 
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I have just done it to the point where it feels good in my hand. I know what I like. I have seen a lot more extreme particularly from penhold players. You may as well get the blade to fit your hand. At least I feel that way.

Thanks for the pics Carl. I wanted to see if it looked similar to what I do to my blades or not, and it does.

I know for exemple that Butterfly Japan recommends sending their typically large wings "to taste" on their webiste and it's a common practice in Japan for shakehand and penhold players alike. I think many players think they might be damaging their blade if they do so but it does create a better fit.
 
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I only ever round the edges of the wings but never had the courage to cut into them like the photos show. I am always afraid that it makes the blades more "springy" and weakens them.

Even with just rounding the edges I did have an incidence where i ended up with just holding the handle and watching the rest of the blade turning into a frispee. Doubles are so much fun.;)
 
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I only ever round the edges of the wings but never had the courage to cut into them like the photos show. I am always afraid that it makes the blades more "springy" and weakens them.

Even with just rounding the edges I did have an incidence where i ended up with just holding the handle and watching the rest of the blade turning into a frispee. Doubles are so much fun.;)

Wow, what model blade was it?
 
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That blade in the photos is probably the most durable blade I have ever owned. Until I owned that blade, I thought Butterfly blades were usually more durable than all others. I have slammed it from all angles. It has taken a beating. It does have some dings. But the dings that it has sustained do not reflect how hard it was slammed into the corners of tables. :)

If you have a solid blade, what I have done shouldn't affect the strength of the blade.
 
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In Japan sanding down the handle and wings is indeed common practice, JP pen players really go for it but the tradition was passed to shakehand . I had a blade given to me as present from a Japanese relative and inside the box he put a sanding paper set.. and he told me to use it. That’s when I learned how easy it is to sand down the handle and wings, the wood is really soft. Recently I completely reshaped a Darker handle I really did not agree with using my favourite flared as reference (stiga). Blade feel changed completely (luckily in a good way) and looks like a factory made handle.

Btw,I had my 1st racked made by TT11 and they did a very professional, super neat job.
 
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