Extending racquets

bleno567

bleno567

Professional
Hello,

I want to extend a racquet by 0.5 to 0.75", and I'm looking for advice on the best way to do it.

I've heard solutions that include purchasing long 3D printed butt caps, cutting balsa wood to place under the mold, cutting plexi glass, etc.

Cutting a solid piece of material sounds sort of complicated. Does anyone have any advice for the best way to do this? What type of balsa or plexi have people had success with? What do you use to cut it? How do you secure the butt back on the racquet? epoxy or staple gun? ever had any issues because of it?

Anyone had any luck with the 3D printed Caps?

Any help is highly appreciated!!
 
I have used the balsa method and the 3d method. With the balsa method I didn't feel comfortable going longer than 3/8. There just wasn't enough butt cap left to staple solidly to the racquet. I did it a few times, and while it usually worked, I did have it loosen.

I recently printed my own 3D one, and it is heavier than I would like but it is a lot more solid. It has a bit more pallet coverage than my old one and I was able to do a full 1/2. It would be very easy to do 3/4" this way.

There is a place that first started with 3d, but has more traditionally manufactured ones. They are only 12 grams for a 3/8 and thinner. If I extend another racquet I will probably go that route. The only hesitation I have is that I printed my 3d one using exact dimensions of my Prince pallet and it is a snug fit. I don't know if theirs is.
 
jonestim said:
I have used the balsa method and the 3d method. With the balsa method I didn't feel comfortable going longer than 3/8. There just wasn't enough butt cap left to staple solidly to the racquet. I did it a few times, and while it usually worked, I did have it loosen.

I recently printed my own 3D one, and it is heavier than I would like but it is a lot more solid. It has a bit more pallet coverage than my old one and I was able to do a full 1/2. It would be very easy to do 3/4" this way.

There is a place that first started with 3d, but has more traditionally manufactured ones. They are only 12 grams for a 3/8 and thinner. If I extend another racquet I will probably go that route. The only hesitation I have is that I printed my 3d one using exact dimensions of my Prince pallet and it is a snug fit. I don't know if theirs is.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the reply. Can you DM or post where you acquired this 3D printed one? Also, how did you secure it to the handle? Just an old school staple gun?
 
I just bout a new pallet recently. The pallet is about 2" longer than what I need. Take the old pallet off your racket and epoxy wood dowels in the tubes of the hairpin. Install pallet and cut off to size. The butt cap goes up the pallet about 1" so if you extend the length the seam will be inside the butt cap.
 
bleno567 said:
Sorry to sound like a noob, but what's a hairpin?
Click to expand...

Hairpin is the bare graphite shaft of the racquet...... Your racquet will either have a hard yellow foam handle molded onto the hairpin, or a black plastic handle made of 2 halves or pallets that are stuck on the hairpin with tape. If yours has black plastic pallets i would go with Irvins idea and get some more that you can cut longer.
 
Seems like a lot of work extending a frame why don't you just add 7 g of lead to the head? Both options will add about 20 SW points, and adding mass is by far the easiest method.
 
Extending the racquet can give you much greater spin, angles , and velocity while playing with a lighter racquet... If done right.
 
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QuadCam said:
Extending the racquet can give you much greater done, angles , and velocity while playing with a lighter racquet... If done right.
Click to expand...
When you extend a racket 1/2" it will have a greater SW and when you add 7 g @ 12 it will also have about the same SW. Your body and soul knows it's harder to swing but can't identify why. Both will travel it about the same speed. 1/2" won't amount to anything.

EDIT: And because you're adding more mass to your racket you will have a greater plow though. If on the other hand you extend the racket you creating more leverage for the ball to inflict more damage on you arm.
 
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I personally prefer the standard length of a racket, but if I need the characteristics of the extended racket during the game I hold the racquet near the butt cap i.e.

b_0902_031_nadal_2.jpg

2012_08_13_grip.jpeg
 
Irvin said:
When you extend a racket 1/2" it will have a greater SW and when you add 7 g @ 12 it will also have about the same SW. Your body and soul knows it's harder to swing but can't identify why. Both will travel it about the same speed. 1/2" won't amount to anything.

EDIT: And because you're adding more mass to your racket you will have a greater plow though. If on the other hand you extend the racket you creating more leverage for the ball to inflict more damage on you arm.
Click to expand...

No. It's about being comfortable with where I make contact on the stringbed. I grew up playing with extended frames, so my muscle memory places the ball in the middle of the string bed with that length. It feels too high and close to the upper hoop when I hit with regular length.
 
bleno567 said:
No. It's about being comfortable with where I make contact on the stringbed. I grew up playing with extended frames, so my muscle memory places the ball in the middle of the string bed with that length. It feels too high and close to the upper hoop when I hit with regular length.
Click to expand...
If you grew up playing with an extended frame you probably grew up playing with a lighter racket. Extending a heavy (normally 27") racket to 27.5" is not the same. But if that's what you want do it.
 
bleno567 said:
No. It's about being comfortable with where I make contact on the stringbed. I grew up playing with extended frames, so my muscle memory places the ball in the middle of the string bed with that length. It feels too high and close to the upper hoop when I hit with regular length.
Click to expand...

Most important advantage is on serves. I also love a higher contact point on the racket, and the best way to do seems to be using extended frames. I've also had some success using really low tensions, which gave me good power and a clean feeling contact slightly above the centre of the stringbed.
Obviously keep an eye on the balance and swingweight, that goes without saying.

Please let us know how you end up extending your frame, I'm also interested.
 
Irvin said:
If you grew up playing with an extended frame you probably grew up playing with a lighter racket. Extending a heavy (normally 27") racket to 27.5" is not the same. But if that's what you want do it.
Click to expand...

That all depends on when OP grew up too. For all we know his original stick could have been a POG LB, or a Yonex RD Ti-70 Long. Let's not jump to conclusions here.

There are more benefits to extended length racquets than just SW, namely added reach and leverage. Serving with a plus-length racquet and a standard length racquet of the same SW are very different experiences. Same thing with hitting groundstrokes, shots where you're stretched out wide/on the run, etc (especially when you're considering length vs a more polarized balance). The OP has a good idea what they want. Let the man live and swing a longer stick if he wants to.


bleno567 said:
Sorry to sound like a noob, but what's a hairpin?
Click to expand...

OP, what brand is the racquet you're thinking about extending? Head racquets have a pallet system that would let you do the pallet method another poster described above.

There's also a great thread on here about using the balsa wood method, which is simple and cheap. Works pretty well and doesn't take a ton of time. Do a quick google search/forum search and it should pop up.
 
TheOneHander said:
That all depends on when OP grew up too. For all we know his original stick could have been a POG LB
Click to expand...

POG LB is 28", 11.6 oz, 334 SW, and 10 Pts HL. What do you think will happen if you extend a heavy 27" racket to 28"? Now who is jumping to conclusions? Cut 1" off a POG LB and you will have a SW of about 290.
 
Obviously he'll need to take his desired final swingweight and balance into consideration and choose his base frame accordingly. Not a complicated process. There are lots and lots of low SW standard length frames on the market. Personally my desired SW would be around 360, but even if his is 330, he'll find something suitable without any trouble.
 
Do we know the added SW when you extend a frame? For example, taking 27 to 27.5 adds how many SW points?

I used to play 345 gram frames, but now that I have a pure aero plus, I play it at stock weight and it is right around 320 grams or so. Normally that would feel too light, but extended, it feels great.
 
Power Player said:
Do we know the added SW when you extend a frame? For example, taking 27 to 27.5 adds how many SW points?

I used to play 345 gram frames, but now that I have a pure aero plus, I play it at stock weight and it is right around 320 grams or so. Normally that would feel too light, but extended, it feels great.
Click to expand...

I don't know personally, maybe someone else does. If not, he would need to do some testing. A lot of tennis shops have one of the SW diagnostic machines, at least in my neck.of the woods. To experiment, you'd just need to clamp the racket lower on the handle by the same distance that you want to add.

Next time I go to the tennis shop, I'll do some testing.
 
TheOneHander said:
That all depends on when OP grew up too. For all we know his original stick could have been a POG LB, or a Yonex RD Ti-70 Long. Let's not jump to conclusions here.

There are more benefits to extended length racquets than just SW, namely added reach and leverage. Serving with a plus-length racquet and a standard length racquet of the same SW are very different experiences. Same thing with hitting groundstrokes, shots where you're stretched out wide/on the run, etc (especially when you're considering length vs a more polarized balance). The OP has a good idea what they want. Let the man live and swing a longer stick if he wants to.




OP, what brand is the racquet you're thinking about extending? Head racquets have a pallet system that would let you do the pallet method another poster described above.

There's also a great thread on here about using the balsa wood method, which is simple and cheap. Works pretty well and doesn't take a ton of time. Do a quick google search/forum search and it should pop up.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your insight here. Yes. My frame I've been using since I was in high school is a POG LB (I'm 28 now and about a 4.5 - 5.0 player)
 
To clarify, to me, they messed up the re-release of the POG LB. I'm looking for a racquet to recreate the old POG LB experience, so what I'm planning on doing is extending a Phantom to 27.75 or 28 and trying to match the specs as closely as possible to recreate the feel. I know it'll be slightly different, but that may be a good thing. It's my hope that the o-ports make the racquet cut through the air and feel more maneuverable despite the length and high SW.

I cannot wait for the Phantom!!! It's taken so much self-restraint not to buy from abroad.

If all else fails, I'd give a custom angell a try....
 
bleno567 said:
To clarify, to me, they messed up the re-release of the POG LB. I'm looking for a racquet to recreate the old POG LB experience, so what I'm planning on doing is extending a Phantom to 27.75 or 28 and trying to match the specs as closely as possible to recreate the feel. I know it'll be slightly different, but that may be a good thing. It's my hope that the o-ports make the racquet cut through the air and feel more maneuverable despite the length and high SW.

I cannot wait for the Phantom!!! It's taken so much self-restraint not to buy from abroad.

If all else fails, I'd give a custom angell a try....
Click to expand...

The Phantom seems to have a SW of around 325. You won't be able to use it as a base racket to recreate your old POG LB.
If you extend it, the swingweight will be much higher than you want.
 
Yeah I figured it'd be a bit off, but the main thing about the POG LB re-release that threw me off was that they made it WAAAAY too stiff. A flexier beam that's a little off in terms of SW is manageable.

The main criteria I'm looking at here is total weight, how many points HL, and stiffness.
 
Irvin said:
POG LB is 28", 11.6 oz, 334 SW, and 10 Pts HL. What do you think will happen if you extend a heavy 27" racket to 28"? Now who is jumping to conclusions? Cut 1" off a POG LB and you will have a SW of about 290.
Click to expand...

He never said anything about the weight of his racquet. I wasn't concluding anything, just showing that "old" is a relative term and "older" racquets have different weights other than just "lighter". There are also lots of comfortable extended length racquets, nor did the OP say anything about arm troubles, strings, stiffness, etc. I didn't conclude anything that the OP hadn't said already, which is that he wants to try extending his racquet. You're the one jumping to conclusions here.

The point of my post is that 1) the user is asking questions about extending length because 2) he wants to play with an extended length racquet 3) if he wants to extend his racquet, let him play with an extended racquet. Other people have different preferences with SW, length, and balance. Extended racquets give different benefits than standard length racquets that can't be changed by tinkering with SW.

That's all. If any of what I said bothers you, I hope you find something that makes you happy tonight to offset how upset my post made you feel.
 
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bleno567 said:
Yeah I figured it'd be a bit off, but the main thing about the POG LB re-release that threw me off was that they made it WAAAAY too stiff. A flexier beam that's a little off in terms of SW is manageable.

The main criteria I'm looking at here is total weight, how many points HL, and stiffness.
Click to expand...

So you're looking for something around 11.6, 10pts HL, and 335ish SW? And definitely 27.75" to 28", not 27.5"?

I guess what I'm asking is what spec ranges you would be comfortable with.

TW is doing another run of the POG LB (I asked about it in the TW Questions/Comments board if you want to find the post). Hopefully it'll have more flex this time around
 
I attributed the differing feel to stiffness. I believe it's because the re-release is marginally thicker. It's listed as having a 19 mm straight beam, whereas the old release of the graphite was 18 mm straight beam. This changes the way the racquet flexes and the overall feel substantially. I can definitely tell it plays stiffer regardless of RA rating.

Since the Phantom is tapered and goes all the way down to 16 mm in the throat, it seems like it won't have that problem. I like playing with a noodle :)

Re: spec range I'm comfortable with -- Ideally 28", but I'm a realist that knows I'm going to have to go back down to 27.5 at some point, as 28" racquets are just so hard to come by. I'd like to ween myself off slowly. Those specs sound about right, but I need to acquire some legit measurement tools to be sure. It's been a while since I weighed my old racquets, but I believe they come in around 12.1ish strung w/ a leather grip. Def need to double check though.

Re: TW is doing another run of the POG LB -- That's fantastic news. You just made my day, sir!
 
The Phantom is the spiritual successor to the POG, so I guess maybe it's time I finally accepted the new gen racquet tech too. I'm waiting for TW to start selling the Phantom, bc I'm worried they will change the paint, and future ones I purchase won't match the specs. If I can get one and extend to 28", I'd gladly do review to compare with the old original graphite.

Hurry up TW!!!
 
esgee48 said:
The number is about 20 SW units (kg-cm^2) per 0.5" of increase or decrease. Figure is a ball park only.
Click to expand...

That's nice, where did you find that? I am just curious since I use XL and like to get an idea of what extending a regular frame would do to the specs.

It adds 20 SW points, and the balance goes more towards the head I would guess. Do we know the general numbers on balance point shifty from standard to 27.5?
 
Irvin said:
POG LB is 28", 11.6 oz, 334 SW, and 10 Pts HL. What do you think will happen if you extend a heavy 27" racket to 28"? Now who is jumping to conclusions? Cut 1" off a POG LB and you will have a SW of about 290.
Click to expand...

Attila_the_gorilla said:
I don't know personally, maybe someone else does. If not, he would need to do some testing
Click to expand...

esgee48 said:
The number is about 20 SW units (kg-cm^2) per 0.5" of increase or decrease. Figure is a ball park only.
Click to expand...

Power Player said:
It adds 20 SW points, and the balance goes more towards the head I would guess. Do we know the general numbers on balance point shifty from standard to 27.5?
Click to expand...

I find that I wrote in my old poast: 'every 1 mm extension increases the SW by about 1.5 points, depending on racquet'.

So yes, half an inch is roughly 12,5 mm so 19-20 points increase in SW. A full inch adds 40 points of SW!! :eek::confused:
 
Power Player said:
That's nice, where did you find that? I am just curious since I use XL and like to get an idea of what extending a regular frame would do to the specs.

It adds 20 SW points, and the balance goes more towards the head I would guess. Do we know the general numbers on balance point shifty from standard to 27.5?
Click to expand...

I'd think the balance point change would be very dependent on what method and how much weight you use to extend the handle.
 
Power Player said:
That's nice, where did you find that? I am just curious since I use XL and like to get an idea of what extending a regular frame would do to the specs.

It adds 20 SW points, and the balance goes more towards the head I would guess. Do we know the general numbers on balance point shifty from standard to 27.5?
Click to expand...
Assuming the weight of the spacer you use (in combination with the butt cap) is roughly similar in density to the rest of the racquet, extending a frame by 0.5" will shift the new balance point roughly 0.25" further from your hand (which, keep in mind, is also about 0.25" closer to the hand from the head of the racquet, since the head is now 0.5" further from the hand). In other words, if your balance is at 12.5" from the butt to begin, the extended frame will have a new balance of about 12.75". Even if the assumption above is not true, the balance shift will not vary all that much from this approximation. I've extended and shortened frames more than 40 times.
 
travlerajm said:
Assuming the weight of the spacer you use (in combination with the butt cap) is roughly similar in density to the rest of the racquet, extending a frame by 0.5" will shift the new balance point roughly 0.25" further from your hand (which, keep in mind, is also about 0.25" closer to the hand from the head of the racquet, since the head is now 0.5" further from the hand). In other words, if your balance is at 12.5" from the butt to begin, the extended frame will have a new balance of about 12.75". Even if the assumption above is not true, the balance shift will not vary all that much from this approximation. I've extended and shortened frames more than 40 times.
Click to expand...

It doesn't take much weight in the bottom of the handle to get a very noticeable change in balance point. A few grams makes a pretty noticeable difference. The new balance point will depend a lot on how much the extension weighs.

But most likely you'll need to add even more weight in the handle after the extension, if you want to keep the original balance point (as measured from the buttcap). So just make sure the original static weight is low enough for you to add that extra weight.
 
Irvin said:
EDIT: And because you're adding more mass to your racket you will have a greater plow though. If on the other hand you extend the racket you creating more leverage for the ball to inflict more damage on you arm.
Click to expand...

While I understand your cautionary statement - it goes both ways; you also inflict more damage on the ball. ;)
 
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