How to shorten a paddle

[wgriffith]

I have a Werner paddle that needs to be shortened by a few inches. What's the prescribed manner? The shaft is carbon fiber and the t-grip is wood. Thanks

[ezwater]

If "a few" means more than two, you will be cutting below the wooden plug in the shaft, so you can then cut the carbon "collar" off the plug and re-use it. Just clean it up and use your favorite glue to glue it back in the shortened end of the shaft. Be careful about the angle while the glue sets.

[Sorcrow]

Soften the glue/epoxy by putting the handle in boiling water. It only takes a minute or less to soften the glue up enough to twist out the handle insert.

Then cut the handle to length with a very fine saw or a cut-off wheel in a Dremel tool. remember to account for the height of the handle insert when measuring and cutting.

Crow

[Jim Michaud]

I've just shortened a couple of Mitchell paddles which also have carbon shafts and wood handles. I tried the boiling water technique and had no success so I just cut the shaft just below the T-grip. I then chipped out the old handle and epoxy with a narrow chisel. A friend told me that it was the technique recommended by Mitchell.

[ezwater]

Just a wonderment.... If the matrix of the carbon shaft is held together with epoxy resin, wouldn't heat weaken that matrix? Would cooling fully restore it? I know epoxies must have different melting points, but are they *that* different?

[Sorcrow]

There are some temp ranges for epoxies. JB weld is a high temp type.
The other factor is materials. I shortened a carbon fiber shaft with a plastic grip. It came apart easily, but the epoxy lumps left in the shaft had to be chipped out.
Crow

[clarion]

I have not had any luck heating up the epoxy on newer Werners and then simply twisting the T grip out.

The last one I did was pretty easy since 2" was coming off. That meant I could simply cut the 2" off without hitting the T grip plug. It goes 2" into the shaft. After cutting, I then cut the shaft longitudinally at the T grip. Then I heated the T grip and pried the two halves of the shaft off the T grip.

The one I did before that only needed 1" off it. For that I used what I call the "circumcision method." Cut the shaft 1" down from the T grip without cutting into the T grip plug. Once you're through the shaft, heat the plug below the cut and then remove it buy twisting and pulling. Be careful because even though you are only removing 1" of plug holding onto the shaft, the amount of heat required to soften the epoxy also softens the plug. It is easy to stretch and distort it while pulling and twisting. Once you get the T grip out, remove the other 1" by cutting it longitudinally as in the first example, heat it and pry it off.

I think Werner changed their epoxy at some point. I could remove the older ones by simply heating the shaft and twisting the T grip out. Those older ones also had a pin through them to back up the epoxy. But the newer ones don't have a pin and the epoxy is much harder to soften.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

[ian123]

I tried removing the t-grip from a werner bandit using the boiling water method. The glue didn't soften and the plastic T-grip itself started to twist... yikes! If you have to two or more inches off, just cut it where you want and carefully cut/chip/pry the extra bits off the T-grip.... or make your own t-grip.

[clarion]

I tried removing the t-grip from a werner bandit using the boiling water method. The glue didn't soften and the plastic T-grip itself started to twist... yikes! If you have to two or more inches off, just cut it where you want and carefully cut/chip/pry the extra bits off the T-grip.... or make your own t-grip.

Yep. That's my experience too. The new adhesive is more heat resistant than the plastic T grip. But if you cut it per my post above you can get it off without distorting the T grip.