I have seen quite a few threads on head pallets and will they fit other hairpins and how to make the head pallets into a more conventional wilson shape, i thought i would jump in with what i know.
A TK82 pallet fits fairly well on the hairpin of my Wilson Prostaff BLX 95. The hairpin is ever so slightly small (less than half a mm around), so little in fact i think after double sided tape or glue was applied it would fit fine (see below for more detail).
The TK82 pallet fits the hairpin of my Dunlop 4D 300 very snuggly, however the two halves dont close all the way they leave about a 2mm gap on each side. To me this isnt a problem because if your using a dunlop you like that grip shape and if the two halves arnt quite closing its going to be closer to that squarer grip shape most of us prefer anyway and after you put grips on it the small gap doesnt matter plus your old dunlop butt cap will still fit.
The TK82 pallet also fits my Dunlop Tour Series 90 Philippoussis almost perfectly (that racquet is a copy of a prestige classic).
From this a number of deductions can be made i think because i cant see the hairpins being different from the below racquets:
TK82 will fit the Pro staff BLX tour 90 and i would think it will fit the newer models and probably the older BLX models aswell as i cant see the hairpins differing between these frames, i would be reluctant to say tk82 will fit a kfactor or ncode the chance these hairpins are different is higher considering the timegap.
TK82 will fit (with the 2mm gap) most of the Dunlop 4D line up i would think the 100, 200 and 200 16x19 and 200 Tour, 300 and 300 tour, 400, 500 and 500 tour. After this your into the tweener frames which may have a different hair pin although they probably don't. I would think the hairpins for the older series aerogel frames would be the same as the molds appear to be virtually identical, i dont know about the mfils and biomimetic there is a chance these will have different hairpins aswell as the latest model Dunlops.
I have also seen various threads about how best to square up the shape of a Head pallet, various people using tape and balsa wood ect. Arnuit made a great thread about putting the build up material under the pallet to preserve bevels. Most people use tape to achieve this, to me this isnt ideal tape is going to deform, degrade, compress and slip over time and balsa wood will compress and degrade plus the biggest issue for me its adding a layer of foreign material which is affecting the original feel of the frame (in most cases deadening the feel.
A much better option for building up your hairpin to either accept a head pallet or square up the shape of your grip once the pallet is installed is to use graphite foil (sometimes called graphite paper) which is fairly cheap ($10 - $15 for a 12 inch square), readily available (heaps on the bay) bendable and comes in a wide variety of thicknesses. Figure out what thickness you need cut the shape you want, the thinner stuff is cuttable with scissors (thicker stuff cut with stanley knife) and use a very runny thin glue like superglue to secure it to the hairpin (store superglue in the fridge it makes it thinner). Apply this to the hairpin and it will be a much longer lasting non compressing permanent fix to building up hairpins plus as it is graphite it will retain more of the original feel of the racquet before modification. then put your pallets back on and hit the courts.
The inside corners of head pallets are very sqare, which leaves a little gap on the four corners of the hairpin. This isnt a problem because your flatter sides are now built up to accept the pallet but i do see these little corner gaps as another modification option. For a little extra weight, head light ballance and slight vibration absorbing qualities you could run a single line of silicone along the inside corners of the pallets just before you put them back on, i suppose you could do it after putting the pallets on so long as the silicone bottles nosecone was small enough to fit in the gap. Also if your pallet shells dont quite close up around a hairpin and the gap is bothering you can use silicone here to fill in this gap also
Feel free to jump in with other ideas maybe you have used a different material/method.
Cheers.
A TK82 pallet fits fairly well on the hairpin of my Wilson Prostaff BLX 95. The hairpin is ever so slightly small (less than half a mm around), so little in fact i think after double sided tape or glue was applied it would fit fine (see below for more detail).
The TK82 pallet fits the hairpin of my Dunlop 4D 300 very snuggly, however the two halves dont close all the way they leave about a 2mm gap on each side. To me this isnt a problem because if your using a dunlop you like that grip shape and if the two halves arnt quite closing its going to be closer to that squarer grip shape most of us prefer anyway and after you put grips on it the small gap doesnt matter plus your old dunlop butt cap will still fit.
The TK82 pallet also fits my Dunlop Tour Series 90 Philippoussis almost perfectly (that racquet is a copy of a prestige classic).
From this a number of deductions can be made i think because i cant see the hairpins being different from the below racquets:
TK82 will fit the Pro staff BLX tour 90 and i would think it will fit the newer models and probably the older BLX models aswell as i cant see the hairpins differing between these frames, i would be reluctant to say tk82 will fit a kfactor or ncode the chance these hairpins are different is higher considering the timegap.
TK82 will fit (with the 2mm gap) most of the Dunlop 4D line up i would think the 100, 200 and 200 16x19 and 200 Tour, 300 and 300 tour, 400, 500 and 500 tour. After this your into the tweener frames which may have a different hair pin although they probably don't. I would think the hairpins for the older series aerogel frames would be the same as the molds appear to be virtually identical, i dont know about the mfils and biomimetic there is a chance these will have different hairpins aswell as the latest model Dunlops.
I have also seen various threads about how best to square up the shape of a Head pallet, various people using tape and balsa wood ect. Arnuit made a great thread about putting the build up material under the pallet to preserve bevels. Most people use tape to achieve this, to me this isnt ideal tape is going to deform, degrade, compress and slip over time and balsa wood will compress and degrade plus the biggest issue for me its adding a layer of foreign material which is affecting the original feel of the frame (in most cases deadening the feel.
A much better option for building up your hairpin to either accept a head pallet or square up the shape of your grip once the pallet is installed is to use graphite foil (sometimes called graphite paper) which is fairly cheap ($10 - $15 for a 12 inch square), readily available (heaps on the bay) bendable and comes in a wide variety of thicknesses. Figure out what thickness you need cut the shape you want, the thinner stuff is cuttable with scissors (thicker stuff cut with stanley knife) and use a very runny thin glue like superglue to secure it to the hairpin (store superglue in the fridge it makes it thinner). Apply this to the hairpin and it will be a much longer lasting non compressing permanent fix to building up hairpins plus as it is graphite it will retain more of the original feel of the racquet before modification. then put your pallets back on and hit the courts.
The inside corners of head pallets are very sqare, which leaves a little gap on the four corners of the hairpin. This isnt a problem because your flatter sides are now built up to accept the pallet but i do see these little corner gaps as another modification option. For a little extra weight, head light ballance and slight vibration absorbing qualities you could run a single line of silicone along the inside corners of the pallets just before you put them back on, i suppose you could do it after putting the pallets on so long as the silicone bottles nosecone was small enough to fit in the gap. Also if your pallet shells dont quite close up around a hairpin and the gap is bothering you can use silicone here to fill in this gap also
Feel free to jump in with other ideas maybe you have used a different material/method.
Cheers.
