When putting silicone in the handle of a racket where should you put it and how much? Do you just squirt a certain amount down the handle or what? Coat the sides? Regular silicone caulking is used correct? I do not mind changing the balance and weight of the racket i just want to dampen it. Thank you
Vibration absorbtion with silicone
- Thread starter Yondan
- Start date
yip kok kuin
Rookie
Dont try. I screwed 2 Profile doing that. The silicon does dry up with you cap the butt and start to flow towards the head. It will dry up eventually but the spread make them kind of imbalance.
yip kok kuin said:
I it is only logical that you shield off the other internals of the racquet before putting silicone in the handle since everything is hollow inside. You can easily make a barrier out of cardboard for instance.
I have not used silicone myself, but I did put eraser gum in the handle of one of my racquets to absorb vibration. The frame sure felt different afterwards, more muted but in the end I preferred the stock version.
counterpuncher
Hall of Fame
Something easier and reversible you can try which will not effect the feel and balance that much is cotton wool. I got this idea from the tail-weighting article on TW tech pages for head heavy racquets.
I have applied this to my Prince Shark by removing the butt cap and packing cotton wool into the handle before replacing the cap. I ended up adding a total of 5g (which is a lot of cotton wool) to slightly change the supposedly even a balance to slightly headlight and have noticed a slight increase in dampening (more so than when I just had about 5g of lead in the handle).
I have applied this to my Prince Shark by removing the butt cap and packing cotton wool into the handle before replacing the cap. I ended up adding a total of 5g (which is a lot of cotton wool) to slightly change the supposedly even a balance to slightly headlight and have noticed a slight increase in dampening (more so than when I just had about 5g of lead in the handle).
matchpoints
Professional
counterpuncher said:
I tried stuffing a Babolat handle once with cotton. the problem is that there is NO barrier in the handle so if you keep stuffing it'll end up in the throat then to the head. Even if there was a barrier, how consistent would it be and how can you be sure that it won't move when playing? It could eventually shift up or down.
counterpuncher
Hall of Fame
Haven't tried cotton in a Babolat but have in a Prince Shark, Volkl V1 and Yonex RDX 300. My method is to stuff cotton as far up the handle as possible using something like a pencil. I then keep packing it in and after the first few cotton balls I can assure you that they don't move. I keep stuffing and packing tight with the pencil and eventually the space in the handle fills up to the handle butt.
Using this method the cotton balls don't get past the handle, most likely because I use as large as will fit clumps and as it is not liquid I could not see it getting into the throat or head. As the cotton is packed in tightly and compressed with a pencil as each clump is added, uniformity is pretty good.
I just went back to my Prince Shark & took the cap butt handle cap (trap door) off to double check, and after 2 months the cotton is still packed in as tightly as it was on day one on both sides of the racquet handle channel.
Using this method the cotton balls don't get past the handle, most likely because I use as large as will fit clumps and as it is not liquid I could not see it getting into the throat or head. As the cotton is packed in tightly and compressed with a pencil as each clump is added, uniformity is pretty good.
I just went back to my Prince Shark & took the cap butt handle cap (trap door) off to double check, and after 2 months the cotton is still packed in as tightly as it was on day one on both sides of the racquet handle channel.
Gaines Hillix
Hall of Fame
I would recommend trying a softer string, a cushioned grip and a vibration damper before filling the handle with silicone.
In another post by Brent Peterson it is stated that he used cotton balls stuffed down a Babolat Pure Drive + handle and then proceeded to put art gum eraser in. I was wondering if anyone else knew how much (length wise) gum eraser one would need to put in the racket. The rackets i wish to do this in are the Babolat Pure Drive + or the Aero Pro Drive +.matchpoints said:
