Just contributing a little of my exprience with regards to badminton equipment especially rackets As I have been living in the UK and basically badminton rackets come in G3 sizes (which is not very suitable for me as I am asian and have got smaller and thinner hands ) I am faced with 2 options; 1) Order from asia or 2) modify the racket I chosen the 2nd route. So, basically G3's handle is about 2mm to 3mm thicker than G5 and this can be felt if you put a grip onto it (as I play mostly with my backhand rather than forehand, I find that G5 is the most comfortable and fastest to maneuvour especially in tight situations) Well I bought sandpaper and used a pair of venier calipers. after measuring a sample G5 racket (from a Nanospeed 6000 which I have broken while playing ) I stripped off the factory fitted grip and dug out the "staples" holding the grip's bevel onto the wooden handle. Anyway I sanded down the wooden handle and after wrapping a grip on it, it was PERFECT I have done the same to a further 4 rackets of mine. Just thought of sharing with you guys
Good for you. I was thinking to do that on one of my racquet. I have a few questions if you don't mind. 1) How long did you take to sand it down to G5? 2) What did you do to the cone? ( I mean the handle that close to the cone) If possible, could you post some pictures?
depending on the grade of the sandpaper, I used medium in this case and it took me about 30mins to 45 mins to complete the modification. I advise having the sand paper held with a block of wood so that it is more linear (if you know what i mean) nothing needs to be done to the cone at all as the only area you will be sanding down is the handle area. the slope from the Hexagon grip area to the cone area is not affected. you can leav it as it is. Pictures.... hmmmm i dont have any pictres at the monet but I have another 2 rackets that I am thinking off doing. I might take detailed pictures then and post them up here. I have got another few mods and theories I might post up here as well.
Sanding down a wooden handle needs some care. The reason is that larger wooden handles have longer and/or larger internal tunnels, necessary to balance out and to take away the extra weight of larger handles, so that different sizes of wooden handles of a particular model of racquet will actually weigh the same. One end of the handle at the shaft end is drilled to accept the shaft and at the other end a tunnel is drilled to balance the weight of different size handles, so that a g5 handle will weigh exactly as a g3 handle. A g3 handle will have more weight (wood) taken off the tunnel, either by making the diameter of the tunnel bigger or its length longer, or both, so that the extra wood taken off is roughly equal to the extra weight from the increased size of the handle. Sanding down will weaken the handle. Wooden handles of badminton racquets all have two tunnels, one at the shaft end which is sealed and closed with the shaft using glue, and the other at the opposite end has a larger and longer empty tunnel, plugged at the butt end with a plastic cap. Depending on the weights to be taken off from the butt end side of the tunnel, the 2 tunnels can sometimes almost meet, separated by a mere 10mm of solid wood. A smaller handle will have a shorter rear end tunnel which is further away from the front end shaft end.
Reviving this old thread because im about to sand down my racket.. By logic the statement here has to be true, can anyone who sand his racket down one size tell their experience? Does sanding down the racket makes your racket handle more vulnerable and easier to break?
I didn't face any issues with it, but I strongly suggest to not sand it down, but just get a high quality manual planer (a rather small one). It's so quick and easy. It's worth it despite being more expensive than sandpaper (and a block). It will outlast all of your rackets, so you'll never have to worry about too big grip sizes again. Practice a little on some broken rackets and/or some other wood. Then you'll have one stroke on each side and you'll have taken the exact same thickness of wood. Just my opinion....
One can certainly use sandpaper and also a caliber to confirm the desired thickness of handle. If you don't have a lot to remove, if you do it might take awhile. It would be tricky to use a plane, even a small one, as you have to go with the grain, and the cone will be blocking the stroke as you use the plane. I would recommend using a wood rasp to take the bulk off and finish with sandpaper, using the calipers now and then to check the dimension. The handle may be hollow but not like an eggshell so it should not be weakened much when the excess is removed. That being said it would certainly alter the original balance of the racket as weight has now been taken of the handle end of it, rendering it head heavier. Note. I've carpentry experience, and I've done this before on a couple of rackets before. The rasp is a handbook not a power tool.
I dont mind the extra time to sand it down, what i want to know is after sand down then the handle will be smaller, will it affect the durability of the handle? Will it be easily broken? Because the different between g4 and g5 not only the outer length of the handle, also the size of the hollow inside the wood, if we sand down then the wood will be thinner and easier to break
Hi again. The handle would have been hollowed by being drilled through the middle. The handles I've worked still have a good 4-5mm thickness at least around the hollow, so it should not be that much more weaker when you sand the desired excess away. Maybe you can removed the plastic end cap and see how hollow the handle is. Let me correct a typo in my last reply. The rasp is a hand-tool, like a file, but for use on wood instead of metal.
