Anybody ever fixed air bubble on topsheet?

[ben1229]

Should I remove the entire topsheet to reglue? or should I just peel back the corner of the topsheet?

The whole sheet, and you need to sand the spone to make sure smooth enough , use a flat piece of glass , pour a light layer of glue on it, dip the top sheet 2 or 3 times, while all the legs have glues on it, then cover the already layer spone, don't use hand, use a roller lightly roll it.

 

[TensorBackhand]

The whole sheet, and you need to sand the spone to make sure smooth enough , use a flat piece of glass , pour a light layer of glue on it, dip the top sheet 2 or 3 times, while all the legs have glues on it, then cover the already layer spone, don't use hand, use a roller lightly roll it.

Any advice on how to remove the topsheet without tearing the rubber or breaking the pips?

 

[ben1229]

Any advice on how to remove the topsheet without tearing the rubber or breaking the pips?

Hair dryer or heat gun, you need to warm the top sheet first, not easy to remove I can tell .

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Yeah I know what you mean. If I can manage to save the rubber somewhat, I will probably just use it as a test rubber or practice rubber or backup rubber of some sort. It might be useful to have around.

Totally agree with JJ Ng.

1) Get a new rubber.

2) Use this rubber to experiment and see what happens when you take the topsheet off and reglue.

Note: it will not be easy to take the topsheet off and keep the pips whole. Try not to break the pips. Maybe use solvent as you are taking off to get the glue that is still holding the pips down to let go without damaging pips or sponge.

Also Note: if you use solvent to help get the topsheet off, wait a few days to let the solvent evaporate out of the sponge before gluing. If you expand the sponge with solvent and then glue, and the sponge shrinks, you will have the opposite of a tensioned topsheet.

 

[TensorBackhand]

Totally agree with JJ Ng.

1) Get a new rubber.

2) Use this rubber to experiment and see what happens when you take the topsheet off and reglue. Note: it will not be easy to take the topsheet off and keep the pips whole. Try not to break the pips. Maybe use solvent as you are taking off to get the glue that is still holding the pips down to let go without damaging pips or sponge. Also Note: if you use solvent to help get the topsheet off, wait a few days to let the solvent evaporate out of the sponge before gluing. If you expand the sponge with solvent and then glue, and the sponge shrinks, you will have the opposite of a tensioned topsheet.

I wish there was a youtube tutorial on how to do this

 

[TensorBackhand]

The only thing I could find was this:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=table+tennis+separate+topsheet+from+sponge

They seem to put the rubber in a rice cooker to heat up the rubber to make it easier to separate?

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

I wish there was a youtube tutorial on how to do this

The good news is, technically the rubber is toast. If the experiment goes badly, no harm done. If it goes well and you can use the rubber again, then you get extra time using a rubber that was otherwise done. So, in a sense, you can't mess up.

I think mineral spirits might be a solvent that would work on the glue holding the topsheet to the sponge. I wonder if the heat gun would damage the sponge and topsheet. The heat that would get the glue to start letting go, would it not damage the rubber and sponge? It might work. I just remember Der_Echte telling me about burning handles while using a heat gone to get the glue in the handle to release to get the handle apart.

Just remember, if it works, it is like you are getting extra time with a rubber that otherwise would have been toast so your experiment can't really go wrong.

 

[TensorBackhand]

The good news is, technically the rubber is toast. If the experiment goes badly, no harm done. If it goes well and you can use the rubber again, then you get extra time using a rubber that was otherwise done. So, in a sense, you can't mess up.

I think mineral spirits might be a solvent that would work on the glue holding the topsheet to the sponge. I wonder if the heat gun would damage the sponge and topsheet. The heat that would get the glue to start letting go, would it not damage the rubber and sponge? It might work. I just remember Der_Echte telling me about burning handles while using a heat gone to get the glue in the handle to release to get the handle apart.

Just remember, if it works, it is like you are getting extra time with a rubber that otherwise would have been toast so your experiment can't really go wrong.

So far the topsheet is coming apart fairly easily. Ill post photo later.

But each pip comes off with a tiny residue of sponge.

 

[TensorBackhand]

 

[TensorBackhand]

Pips are pretty much intact. Except they came off with a little blue sponge

 

[TensorBackhand]

But one problem i can immediately see is that the topsheet is now larger than the base sponge. If i glue it on, it will overhang over the sponge.

What should i do?

 

[TensorBackhand]

Maybe i should take the sponge off and boost it to try to expand the sponge and then hope it fits the larger topsheet better?

 

[TensorBackhand]

 

[TensorBackhand]

Well i went ahead and glued it back up. As you can see, the topsheet is longer than the sponge. So if i cut off the end, this new rubber will have the same sponge as before but with a wider pips structure.

How will that affect the performance?

 

[TensorBackhand]

 

[ttarc]

Hair dryer or heat gun, you need to warm the top sheet first, not easy to remove I can tell .

Maybe easier with this rubber. I once managed to completely remove the topsheet of a Triple Extra by accidentally leaving it in the sun for too long. Maybe the booster to flatten the reverse dome helped too.

 

[ben1229]

Maybe easier with this rubber. I once managed to completely remove the topsheet of a Triple Extra by accidentally leaving it in the sun for too long. Maybe the booster to flatten the reverse dome helped too.

Should be the booster,

 

[TensorBackhand]

I was really hoping this experiment would be a success, but i gotta report that its a complete disaster.

First off, even when bouncing the ball on the reglued rubber, it has a somewhat supple and unstable feeling. Kinda like jello.

When you hit topspin, its abundantly clear that the rubber cant bite the ball. 90% of shots fall down into the net. There is no stability and no confidence in shots.

What do you think led to this? Possibly
1) the expanded topsheet means that there are far fewer pips per surface area than normal. Is this what is causing the rubber to shoot low?

2) the bond between pip and sponge may be too weak, possibly leady to instability.

3)the additional booster on the sponge somehow messed up the rubber?

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Maybe i should take the sponge off and boost it to try to expand the sponge and then hope it fits the larger topsheet better?

It is good you did not do this. As I said in an earlier post, if you had expanded the sponge and then glued the topsheet on, the sponge would shrink when the booster wears off and the topsheet would be too big for the sponge and the but glued to the sponge when it was bigger.

Think about it. That would be the opposite of putting the topsheet on tension.

Cutting off the excess topsheet and accepting that the rubber is going to play differently than it used to, makes far more sense than having an topsheet that is wrinkling or doing something else that is weird because the sponge shrunk under it.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

And when you use it, you can tell us what the results are.