Prolly the most important post in the entire thread. Instead of updating the
previous post, let's post anew:
This is it! (Confirmed.)
The wheels have a width of 14.0mm. To account for the width reduction upon stretching and the intentional overlap, we need to cut down the rubber hose at ≥24mm length. The tough rubber material is highly resistant to cutting with a single razor blade, so i use a pair of quality scissors. The cut (cutting line) should be as straight and clean as possible, in order to avoid imbalance (flutter) at high rotational speeds. A perfectly geometrical "rubber ring" also makes it easier to detect shifted positionings later on, for more convenient repositioning (if ever needed):
Apparently a hose (or a ring) has an outer production face and an inner face (where a husband would engrave his initials or date of marriage lol). For no reason i turn the inner face up and then stretch that god dang thing over the black wheel. The installation of the rubber band is completed when you're sure that the rubber is stretched uniformly all over the wheel; you could use a metal chop stick to circumscribe the rubber along the circumference. Not a big installation challenge but, as you would understand, a uniform
symmetric strain within the installed band is key; otherwise the band could shift during ball operation and eventually fly off. The pic shows the overlap and that i had cut the rubber lousily:
All looks good before the hardcore testing session. Notice that the color of the rubber material has changed, it's become lighter because of the extreme stretching (from 25mm to 50mm diameter!):
After
3.0h+ of running all Tomahawk drills (and drills of hard topspins) i can confirm that this
is it! The rubber band mod works beautifully, absolutely beautifully. It never came off during the whole session time. And in general, most of the time, there was no shift of the band to either side, i.e. the band stayed very much in place, in position. Beautiful. Does the rubber material get consumed? Negligibly so and only at super high rotational speeds. Here you can see the minimal rubber dust collecting on the inside after all those hours:
Another pic showing the rubber abrasion/residues after 300 balls at top rotational speeds (see the LED colors!). I'm not concerned at all, since the rubber material is thick and
very tough. A reduced material thickness at ball touching point means a growing ball touching spot, which would be beneficial in the end (~increased ball consistency). In our heads, we regard the rubber band as a consumable anyway:
This pic is to show that indeed i operate the Nova in an
open head configuration. This way i can see, check frequently, if the rubber band has shifted or if everything
still looks
A-OK:
EDIT: I applied a total of 12 minuscule droplets at the rubber rim, punctually 3 on each side (3×2×2 = 12), to prevent accidental shifts. The liquid glue is a special fast glue for rubber materials, let's see how that performs over the next couple of weeks and months:
Comments:
- The 12 Tomahawk serves (à 4 balls) were perfect for hardcore testing of the mod because they make use of all kinds of spin types, always at max spin setting. With the mod, the balls get at tad more spin and speed (and their amount remains constant, because there is no clogging of the contacting surface!), so for a few balls i had to edit the ball settings by reducing the speed by |-0.5|. In numbers, maybe for 30% of the 48 Tomahawk balls i had to reduce the speed like that.
- Since this is it!, from now on all my Nova sessions will be performed with this installed pair of rubber bands. Accordingly, i'll have to finetune the ball settings of all my Custom Drills, no problem.
- The mod is for power users only. The 2 main advantages are: 1) a set super high spin rate (and speed) remains constant all the time, 2) there's practically zero maintenance work. Nova non-power users doht need to bother because they doht experience the clogging of the black wheels and its negative effect on the Nova's performance; and they doht maintain the wheels, do they? In contrast, power users had to maintain the wheels frequently. Luckily, those times are over, thanks to the mod. I'm a hero. 👨🚒
- What is the maintenance work then? — One needs to check regularly if the rubber is still in a-ok position, i.e. hasn't drifted at one spot along the circumference. If it does have, then take off the wheel, pull the rubber back into perfect symmetric position, install the wheel back on, and done. (EDIT: or apply Rubber Super Glue punctually as shown above 🫗)
- The dimensions of the rubber band are: 25mm diameter, 24mm width (or 25mm or more, doesn't matter), 1mm thickness. Manufacturers of "rubber rings" (e.g. 3mm width) produce them from rubber hoses, by slicing 3mm's off of them. Try to find a manufacturer of rubber hoses in your country thanks! You can cut off 24mm (instead of 3mm) by yourself then, with quality scissors.
- Time will tell how long (weeks, months, or number of shots) 1 pair will last me. At this point i am going to assume 6 months. Rubbers age ... so at one point the material degradation will lead to failure (snap!). Depending on such observations, i'll order more of the rubber hose stuff. Prolly you doht really need the mod. But i do. I am a power Nova user! 😛
