Re-Building the BEAST

MOG

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MOG

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i havejustswitched to lp on bh. love my stiga infinity but lp are not great on it.triedlp on a tsp balsa 6.5mm and they are amazing but fh is too bouncy fortenergy.

so am iallowedto glue 2 blades together ie balsa 3.5 to stiga infinity, i wouldremovehandles glue them together and put handles back on and sand all theedgesequally, i assume this would be legal as it still meets woodrequirements?anyone ever done anything similar?

what do you think der echte?




 
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This one is in the spirit of beast, but with a twist: diy handle on my Xiom Offensive S. Hated the shape of the offensive s handle, figured I might try to give it a new life, and bump the weight up in the process (82 grams with stock handle).

The Goncalo Alves I used initially put the blade at 104 grams. I played with that at first and it felt like a bit much. So I performed a reverse beast mod on my handle: hollowing out the middle to knock the weight down to 95 grams!

Made a bunch of mistakes doing the mod. The two sides are also asymetric because I was trying out different things on each side, and then made tweaks until I was happy. The side I like for forehand is with the steeper thumb slope and black rubber.

Happy to report that besides feeling wayyyy better than the original handle (to my hands - thicker, with a much steeper slope for the thumb), the weight bump to 95 puts the head/handle balance in a nicer spot for me. Also, can’t report any negative effect on feel of adding hollows to my diy handle. Seems to me like besides shape, overall weight and balance are the more important factors.

PS: rubbers are the new Gambler Nine Ultra Tack (semi tacky, with long pip structure inspired by the new gen ESN. Haven’t played enough to be sure, but for a very low catapult rubber (seems like even less than Karis and MX-S) with spin performance in the direction of spinny ESN/Jap, these seem worth exploring IMO. Coming from Vega Pro, Karis M, and MX-S, first time I find a $14 rubber that feels satisfying and allows for a similar spin and block technique - unlike traditional tacky rubbers.)
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says Spin and more spin.
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Seems this approach is a bit too extreme, and most of the time extreme approaches might get you going for a bit, but never till the end, because with extreme pros, comes extreme cons.

Yeah. Der added all that weight to the handle for fun. It did feel good. But all you have to do is make the handle solid. That should be enough.

But it is interesting that it played so well even with the blade weighing about 120 grams. I used it. It felt pretty nice.

I guess I would have had to train with the blade for a few months to see if there was a real downside. But I didn't see much except the sloppy job of opening and sealing the handle. But it would be nice if blade makers would just make some blades with either solid or more solid handles.
 
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Yeah. Der added all that weight to the handle for fun. It did feel good. But all you have to do is make the handle solid. That should be enough.

But it is interesting that it played so well even with the blade weighing about 120 grams. I used it. It felt pretty nice.

Don't get me wrong, this build is really interesting, I like the idea of heavier paddles for stroke training (I should know since I have an all metal blade for that :D).
 
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Don't get me wrong, this build is really interesting, I like the idea of heavier paddles for stroke training (I should know since I have an all metal blade for that :D).

When you feel it, it is interesting. One time Der and I gave one of his beast mod blades to a guy who is very fussy about weight and insists he needs a blade that is under 80 grams. He regularly says anything heavier will bother his elbow. Well we gave him a blade that weighed about 100 with the extra weight in the handle and he hit with it for 40-50 min and had no idea it was over 80 grams. :)
 
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When you feel it, it is interesting. One time Der and I gave one of his beast mod blades to a guy who is very fussy about weight and insists he needs a blade that is under 80 grams. He regularly says anything heavier will bother his elbow. Well we gave him a blade that weighed about 100 with the extra weight in the handle and he hit with it for 40-50 min and had no idea it was over 80 grams. :)

Haha, nice. And yeah I don't get why some people is so obsessed with the weight of their equipment, by obsessed I mean down the the grams. If it feels good when you use it, why does it matter, if it doesn't feel good, just get another one. The construction of the blade, and the material used playes a much bigger role than the weight, especially what we usually see is only a difference of a few grams.
 
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- Take off both handle pieces.

Could you please share a method to remove the handle? I've read about putting the blade in a microwave or boiling the handle for 10 minutes... both methods sound pretty scary to try on a 100+ EUR blade :(

If you read through this thread, Der_Echte, at some point starts talking about how, when he starts to use a heat gun to warm the handle before pulling it off, he starts getting the handle off cleanly unlike the first photo of the thread.
 
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UpSideDownCarl said:
If you read through this thread, Der_Echte, at some point starts talking about how, when he starts to use a heat gun to warm the handle before pulling it off, he starts getting the handle off cleanly unlike the first photo of the thread.

Someone asked me to beast mod a couple blades.

- Nexy Yoo Nam Kyu pro
- Boll ALC

Nexy YNK was 84 g or so and had only a tiny bit of hollow handle and solid throat. Added 4-5 grams and called it a day.

Boll ALC was 89g and handle pieces solid, but throat hollow. Added hide glue and a stick for another 6ish grams and put it together.

Used heat gun to take both off very cleanly, worked slow on low power. YNK plastic piece at bottom sensitive to heat and bends, had oto work it back.

Difficult for me to put handle pieces back on perfect without wrapping grip tape. Would need to use sand paper to smooth out the .1mm offset... not so skilled or equipped with all that.. but grip tape would make it great though.
 
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I used a $20 usd heat gun that is designed to heat up floor tiles... I think low setting is like 700 watts.. home hair driers are more powerful, so they might work.

Key is to work SLOW.

SLOW.

SLOW.

I used a box cutter to slide under the top of handle and slowly wiggle it in.

I am now way better at getting handles off cleanly... if I do not use grip tape in reassembly, I am off by .1 or so mm.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk
 

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Thanks Der, when you say slowly? How slowly? Presumably the heat breaks the bond from the glue?

Just been through all ten pages and found the answer!!

I dont want a beast mod, just want a fatter handle on the solo, what do you think about taking handle off, adding a play same size as handle both sides then putting handles back on? As opposed to making new handles or using handles off something else?
 
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Thanks Der, when you say slowly? How slowly? Presumably the heat breaks the bond from the glue?

Just been through all ten pages and found the answer!!

I dont want a beast mod, just want a fatter handle on the solo, what do you think about taking handle off, adding a play same size as handle both sides then putting handles back on? As opposed to making new handles or using handles off something else?

You could of course remove the handles, glue on a 1-2 mm piece of wood on each side, or whatever size you want... then glue the handle pieces over the new wood, then sand away.

It wouldn't look like the factory original, but you would have fatter handles.
 
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Even though you add 1-2mm of wood on each side of the blade throat, the end product will look very different from the original handle.

Maybe you can take a page out of some of the custom blade makers' book...

... and change COLOR the wood first... to an outragous color.

That mod doesn't cost a lot, adds a high degree of personalization, and instantly makes that blade unique.

There are colors of politics, social issues, medical issues, personal preferemces, or even sports teams (are you a Reds supporter?)

I might add a thin blue line... or a thin red line... or a green line to show support for police, fire, military to one of my blades that doesn't have a fat handle.

It might be a real thin line, after all, 1 mm isn't very thick, but the possibilities are there and it might be a lot of fun and we learn something.

The possibilities are endless for this easy to do mod and it is decently inexpensive.
 
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