Cutting Tensor Rubbers
Equipment
Jayce Soberano Asked 11 years ago
Hi
i just bought a xiom sigma euro rubber, and its a tensor rubber. I somehow heard about that when cutting the rubber, u should cut it so you keep about 1 cm more of what u would normally. I heard you should do this because when u take off the rubber it will shrink. Correct me if im wrong. Cant find anything about this on the net.
Alois Rosario Answered 11 years ago
Hi Jayce,
You can cut the rubbers up to 2mm wider than the blade and still keep it legal.
However if you are not going to be taking the rubber off and regluing it then you can just cut it to the exact blade size. It will not shrink while it is stuck to the blade.
Thoughts on this question
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NIKOS TSAVALIAS Posted 6 years ago
Hello and best wishes for a happy 2018 !
I glued an ADIDAS TENZONE rubber on my blade and cut it to the exact blade size.
After a time (about 1 month, i think) the rubber was (and remains) smaller than the racket size about 1mm !!
In others words, the rubber was shrunk by 1mm while it was (is) firmly glued on the blade !!!
Pls give me your opinion, as i'm ready to glue a XIOM V EUROPE rubber on a blade (i think it's also a tensor rubber)
(Sorry for my poor english writting)
Thanks
NIKOS TSAVALIAS
GREECE
Rohan Keogh Posted 6 years ago
Hi Jayce and Nikos. I've done a lot of gluing, removing and re-gluing of various rubbers over the past few months, including Xiom tensors. In my experience, the ONLY reason a rubber shrinks while still glued to the blade is that it was over-stretched during the initial application. This can occur through either excessively pulling while laying the rubber down (inadvertently while trying to avoid lumps, bumps and bubbles) or using too much force if using a roller.
A very slight amount of tension will not cause the rubber to recoil (shrink) while glued as the glue can overcome the elasticity of the rubber. However, it doesn't take much force with modern rubbers to go too far and end up with a rubber that is permanently too small for the blade. When you remove rubbers they will revert to their original state, i.e. shrink, so if you trimmed a stretched rubber to the exact blade size, it will no longer be big enough without stretching it again when you refit it. This is a real pain so I don't recommend stretching modern rubbers at all. I've 'been there, done that' and ended up binning a pair of $30 Xiom's as a result.
My recommendation is to apply no stretching or pulling force when fitting your rubbers (modern rubbers don't need to be stretched to perform their best). If you use a roller, do so merely to get an even lay-down of the rubber across the blade. I do this by merely curling the rubber back over the roller and then using the roller to merely guide the rubber onto the blade and get an even glue contact. Do not 'push' the roller into the rubber.
If you are unsure of whether you have stretched the rubber at all, trim it slightly larger - 5mm if you don't need to play with it straight away and 2mm if you do (to remain legal) and leave it like that for a week or two of practice/play. After that, you should be able to confidently trim it to the blade size and still have a re-usable rubber if you choose to remove and reuse it later.
Good luck, and have fun.