Change of Feeling After Re-gluing Rubbers

[returnee]

Hello everyone.

According to your experience, does the overall playing feeling change after re-gluing rubbers? I’m talking about factory-tuned ESN tensors (MX-P and similar).

For example: you have completely new rubbers, glue them on, and play a few training sessions. Then after about 20 days, you remove the rubbers, completely remove the DHS 15 glue from them, and glue them onto another blade to test them there. After 2–3 training sessions, you put them back on your original blade. So basically, three gluings of new rubbers within about 30 days.

I’m writing this because I have a request from a very good young player who has been using an outer-carbon blade for years and wants to try his brand-new MX-P rubbers on a different inner-carbon blade. The rubbers are about 20 days old, and he has played 10–15 training sessions with them. He changes rubbers roughly every 6 months and uses only MX-P on both sides.

My own long-term experience is that a new rubber performs best, longest, and most consistently if it is not re-glued for at least the first 3–4–5 months (which, unfortunately, is also about the typical lifespan of ESN rubbers nowadays).

I’m worried that I might negatively affect his rubbers just because he wants to test them on another blade. He never boosts or tunes his rubbers.

 

[Archosaurus]

You're probably right about it being ideal to never re-glue, but I'm personally not so worried about it.

When I glued on this Vega Europe DF sheet, I messed it up and used too little glue (Norisuke-san is pretty liquid...) and it was dramatically loose at many spots. I noted how it plays before I re-glued it.

Later I re-glued it, using more glue this time, for a better adhesion. That was maybe a couple days after the first time, at most a week. I didn't scrape any of the old glue off as it wasn't really possible to, it was still soaked in.

As far as I can tell, both sheets played exactly the same bounce, speed and spin wise. If there's a difference, it's small.

 

[Tyce]

Just don't do it. You either ruin the sponge, have it curl up because boost has started wearing off already or even worse, splinter a blade for nothing.

I won't be reglueing my main competition bat again until the rubbers are done. Reglueing is reserved for worn sheets only.

 

[returnee]

Until about 10 years ago, almost everyone in our club was using Joola Lex glue. It was very difficult to remove from the sponge, especially from softer tensor sponges. If someone re-glued their rubbers, they usually didn’t remove the old glue. I honestly don’t clearly remember how re-gluing affected the rubbers back then. I think I didn’t notice any significant difference, but I might be wrong.
After that, we switched to Revolution 3, which is very easy to remove. I’ve been thinking… could removing the glue somehow accelerate the loss of the factory booster from the rubbers? Could it be that when the glue is removed, it also pulls out part of the booster from the sponge? .. I’m asking because I experienced something similar about 7–8 years ago with a pair of G1 rubbers. Within a month, due to testing, I re-glued them 3–4 times on several different blades. After that, the rubbers no longer bounced properly. They became slower, harder to control, the rebound was weaker and inconsistent… and when I put them back on my blade, the sound had changed as well. I got that unpleasant “bounce” sound from the racket.
I don’t know — maybe it was just a bad pair of G1 rubbers. Since then, I’ve made it a practice to avoid re-gluing — both my own and anyone else’s rubbers — during the first 3–4 months.

@Tyce ... We wrote at the same time

 

[Archosaurus]

Until about 10 years ago, almost everyone in our club was using Joola Lex glue. It was very difficult to remove from the sponge, especially from softer tensor sponges. If someone re-glued their rubbers, they usually didn’t remove the old glue. I honestly don’t clearly remember how re-gluing affected the rubbers back then. I think I didn’t notice any significant difference, but I might be wrong.
After that, we switched to Revolution 3, which is very easy to remove. I’ve been thinking… could removing the glue somehow accelerate the loss of the factory booster from the rubbers? Could it be that when the glue is removed, it also pulls out part of the booster from the sponge? .. I’m asking because I experienced something similar about 7–8 years ago with a pair of G1 rubbers. Within a month, due to testing, I re-glued them 3–4 times on several different blades. After that, the rubbers no longer bounced properly. They became slower, harder to control, the rebound was weaker and inconsistent… and when I put them back on my blade, the sound had changed as well. I got that unpleasant “bounce” sound from the racket.
I don’t know — maybe it was just a bad pair of G1 rubbers. Since then, I’ve made it a practice to avoid re-gluing — both my own and anyone else’s rubbers — during the first 3–4 months.

@Tyce ... We wrote at the same time

The factory booster will gas out in a month or so, so it may have been coincidence if it didn't just suddenly change.

That being said I would avoid re-gluing if possible just to minimize chance of gluing errors. It's probably more difficult to get a perfect adhesion if there's already glue in the sponge.

 

[Tyce]

It's not a bad theory... I have left glue on intentionally as to seal the rubber somewhat when I put it in storage, and in my very limited experience it has helped even if only to physically keep the sheet straightened.

G-1 definitely changes, the sharp edge goes off even if it doesn't curl *that* much. C-1 curls, Rakza 7 curls (they have a pretty similar sponge material IMO) but also rubbers like Hurricane 3 just lose that little bit of sharpness.
(AK47 actually wrinkles in the topsheet like pulling off a sheet of glanti/flanti. You bet it played differently after that!)

So my theories:
- pulling off a rubber is more stress than it is designed to handle. The physical action of pulling the rubber off simply damages the rubber, visible or not.
- factory sponge treatment doesn't just gas out on its own, otherwise it would gas out in the package, too (most packages even have holes in them). However, the combination of applied stress (playing and/or pulling) either breaks down the lower-strength bonds in the sponge (which could be "booster") or something indeed leaks into the glue layer.

 

[Archosaurus]

It's not a bad theory... I have left glue on intentionally as to seal the rubber somewhat when I put it in storage, and in my very limited experience it has helped even if only to physically keep the sheet straightened.

G-1 definitely changes, the sharp edge goes off even if it doesn't curl *that* much. C-1 curls, Rakza 7 curls (they have a pretty similar sponge material IMO) but also rubbers like Hurricane 3 just lose that little bit of sharpness.
(AK47 actually wrinkles in the topsheet like pulling off a sheet of glanti/flanti. You bet it played differently after that!)

So my theories:
- pulling off a rubber is more stress than it is designed to handle. The physical action of pulling the rubber off simply damages the rubber, visible or not.
- factory sponge treatment doesn't just gas out on its own, otherwise it would gas out in the package, too (most packages even have holes in them). However, the combination of applied stress (playing and/or pulling) either breaks down the lower-strength bonds in the sponge (which could be "booster") or something indeed leaks into the glue layer.

Factory pre-boosted sponges seem to have some kind of protective layer that prolongs it. Maybe some kind of stabilizer treatment.

That being said, I did leave a H3N sitting for almost 3 years and it had 0 booster effect left when I tried it again. It was noticeably bouncier new. Has never been removed from the blade yet and was played less than 5 hours. It definitely does wear out with time if you just leave it sitting. Gluing probably accelerates it, but I wouldn't know.