C-Forum

Try heating the shaft up with a hot air gun and twist, wiggle and pull.. slowly. Don't overheat.. go easy! Hot to the touch is enough, stop at the slightest signs of burn marks or if the ABS handle softens (Surface, fingernails.. you get the point you dont want to pull the handle off like hot sugar.. leaving the molten rest inside the shaft!)

If that doesnt work, you'll have to cut it off and work out the remains until only the shaft is left, which is a pain though. Or since its ABS and the shaft probably is left unharmed by that, I have another idea involving sticking it in a glass of acetone and waiting until the whole grip has dissolved.. should give you a great glass of ABS RoyaleX repair putty in the process. If you want to try that (at your own risk, eh?) please tell us how it worked. Dont forget to wrap it in saran wrap to prevent the Acetone from evaporating before the grip is done dissolving ;D

Cheers,

Jan

xmas0c1c1k1 wrote:has anyone had any luck changing the grips on the bandit i would like to put a dowel style grip on a bandit but not sure what the best way to go about it would be. Any thoughts?

Never done a bandit, but I did my mate's broken carbon powerhouse to make a guidestick, just got an offcut of ash about 40-45mm wide by 30m thick, cut it to a suitable size, carved the square edges to a curve and used a carpenters brace to drill a hole (should be 31mm, could only get 32mm bits though) about 3/4 of the way in, then packed the end with epoxy and wood dust covered the top inch or so of the shaft with some more epoxy put the grip on and left it held in place overnight.

I cut down my carbon bandit about 1.25". But man did I have a time removing the T-grip. Mine extended 2" into the shaft. I used a heat gun and held the paddle in place with a padded vice. But I could not get that T-grip to budge. I used a fair bit of heat. The shaft was hotter than I could touch, but I still couldn't budge it.

Then I used a hacksaw to "circumcise" the shaft to the new length, and then used a wood chisel and heat to remove the band of unwanted shaft. With only 3/4" of an inch of T-grip remaining in the shaft, I was able to get the T-grip out.

If I was trying to remove a broken T-grip from a carbon bandit, I think I would try getting some help and use two heat guns, one on each side, to more uniformly heat up the shaft to release the T-grip. When I was doing it with one heat gun, it seemed I just couldn't get the shaft uniformly hot enough.

In case you weren't aware (and it sounds like it) only some types of epoxy resin will release when heated; If at first you don't succeed, stop before you scorch the composite.

Xmas- I haven't had to pull one out, but if I did I would try heat first, and if that didn't do it I might (being the carpenter that I am) cut it square and carefully drill it out. Since the glass shaft is hard and the plastic grip is soft, the plastic should come out like butter with minimal damage to the shaft.

In case you weren't aware (and it sounds like it) only some types of epoxy resin will release when heated; If at first you don't succeed, stop before you scorch the composite.

Thanks for the heads up. You're right. I didn't know that. But in the case of my Bandit, the epoxy did actually loosen with heat. But I couldn't free the entire 2" with heat, at least not with 1 heat gun.

For future reference, Araldite Rapid should reliably soften above 130 degrees centigrade, this makes it ideal for T-grips which you expect to replace over time.

I also have a positive experience with regular hot glue in this regard.. a T-Grip I just wanted to leave in for a length test stays in there.. and as long as it doesnt release by itself I wont try to reglue. So might be worth a try (and is redoable with just a lighter on trips if it DOES come loose - just dont lose your handle ;D

The Werner grip may be good, but it's hard to make a grip that suits everyone. It would be nice if paddles were made so changing grips was easier. Because my hand is large, I carve my own grips, and I order paddles without a grip installed.

I've removed that type of handle by cutting it off flush with the end of the shaft. Then I carefully drill a 1/4" hole down the exact center of the remaining dowel. Once that is done, I can use a larger drill to clean out the hole as close to the shaft wall as I dare, finishing off the interior with a round file. I don't trust heat on a composite shaft. To much possibility to damage its integrity.

Depending on how hot your "hot water" is you can run the grip under the tap - works great with ski pole baskets and grips too (XC skiing), and is much safer than a heat gun (though not as fast).

I suppose you could boil water as well, then let it soak for a bit, though I'm not sure the upper temp. you should expose the shaft to.

What diameter are most dowel grips? How wide do you make the grip?

xmas0c1c1k1 wrote:What diameter are most dowel grips? How wide do you make the grip?

At least a 1/4 inch thicker than the shaft of the paddle (werner use 1 1/4 in shafts, so you'd need a 1 1/2 in dowel which is quite big, normally dowels are used on the 1in lendal/galasport/double dutch shafts), you can carve it to fit your hand more comfortably once it's fitted securely though.

I had a bandit a few years ago, the old version with the wooden t-grip. The grip broke after a few month. Since I had an old Grey Owl C1q paddle with a broken blade, but a nice good T-grip that I really liked I ended up cutting the shaft of the Grey Owl about 4 inches belpow the grip. I then drilled the remaining piece of the Bandit's grip out to the diameter of the gry owl shaft and ended up glueing it together using some marine epoxy. I sold the paddle a while ago, but ad far as i know the repair still holds and the paddle is still used.

TGG!

heat gun will plastic grip or the fiberglass shaft on wooden bandit grips before it loosens up the epoxy. or at least that's what happened on the two i tried to get out last week.