How Do You Hold Paddles? Why Does it Work?

[Lance Waller]

Cliff. Can you give us a part # or dimensions so I can pick some up?

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[Pat]

Also, what about shrink wrap material folks use for electronics? Those plastic tubes that shrink when a hair dryer is applied?

[Pat]

Well, I tried some of our daughter’s very thin straws and split them and put over the pole and then put on a paddle. The paddle was too tight and wouldn’t move up and down hardly at all, so I think the tolerances are tight enough for me.

[Steven N. Bolin]

I’d say the wall of those shrink tubes will still be too thick. I have an average of .02″ slop between my rods and handles. Not sure shrink tubing would work.

As far as the straws are considered, I believe that mod oh applies to first generation WEPS.

[Pat]

Thinking back to the straws again, perhaps I cut one in half so the gap is filled only on one side of the rods vs all the way around. I think that would really help. If it removes slack and remains rather easy to work the paddles, I will figure how to adhere it to the rods temporarily.

I’ll report back.

I’d say the wall of those shrink tubes will still be too thick. I have an average of .02″ slop between my rods and handles. Not sure shrink tubing would work.

As far as the straws are considered, I believe that mod oh applies to first generation WEPS.

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[CliffCurry]

Cliff. Can you give us a part # or dimensions so I can pick some up?

I just Googled 1/4 nylon flange sleeve to see what’s out there. Many choices, some expensive. I’m betting mine are not since they throw a bag of them in ever rail set you buy. I can say they are an excellent fit without binding.

I would bet they are common hardware store variety & would even think if you took a rod down to the store you could find something that works well by test fitting there.

Aloha,
Cliff

[tcmeyer]

If you try the soda-straw method, you might trying to cut a slit on one side. When you glue it in place, orient the slit to be at ninety degrees from the faces. This will place the tightest fit in the best possible place.

I really like Cliff’s nylon flange sleeve idea. I wonder if you could shape the base to the cone-shaped recess. Cliff: Can you post the dimensions of the little critter?

I think the heat-shrink tubing may be impractical because of its coefficient of friction.

I’m going to play around a bit with some thin aluminum stock I have.

[CliffCurry]

Add it to the great List of Things I Want… a micrometer.
Here’s the pics and I’ll do my best with measurements below:

The height top to bottom is 5mm
The outer lip thickness approx 1.5mm
The sleeve height approx 3.5mm

Lip diameter 13.5mm
Sleeve ID fractionally over.25in

Again these don’t appear or be of high cost. I did have to trim 1mm of the sleeve height so it would drop in and set flush in the taper at end of the bore. Hope that helps some… I could probably contact the pool table rail set manufacturer and get a reference to their supplier.

Attachments:

• IMG_20150221_160834.jpg
• IMG_20150221_160845.jpg

[tcmeyer]

That’s what I was interested in; Would you need to cut the sleeve length down a bit.

I bought a 12″ length of high-tolerance ground and polished 0.250 rod, although I think your WE rods would be fine I’d insert the rod in the block, then slide on the sleeves and super-glue them into place. Do all this while the block is sitting on a horizontal surface and on one of its stone faces, so the rod lies as close to parallel with the face as possible. Wax the rod ahead of time to keep it from adhering to the sleeves.

[CliffCurry]

They are kind of self centering as they settle into the end. Yes I did trim a tiny bit off the sleeve, kept the rod vertical however, and watched that the inset was sitting correctly in the hole as I glued & applied a bit of pressure to it. That’s good enough for this country kid. No slop, smooth stroke, call it a day and move on to abrasives research at the micron level…

[Author]

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