Custom Bats Cricket Forum
Equipment => Bats => Bat Care => Topic started by: Chompy9760 on October 14, 2020, 02:12:53 AM
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A bat I made seems to be always falling apart, and I'm wondering if there's anything else I could do, other than use it for firewood.
After I made it, it had 2-3 coats of oil, always had a scuff sheet of it, was well knocked, and never showed any seam marks.
A year on, I noticed a hollow sound while tapping the scuff with my fingers, and removal showed the wood peeling from itself in a narrow sheet. It was glued with PVA, clamped, sanded, oiled and came up fine.
Every time I had a hit with it from then on (without a scuff), it would bring up more delamination. Fix, repeat, same result.
Pictured below is one lot of delamination, which was repaired,
(https://i.imgur.com/6b2ptbq.jpg)
After yet another repair I faced 60 balls in the nets, and this is what it looks like.
(https://i.imgur.com/XnhPTeS.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/VyrnD6b.jpg)
I try hard to jam the slivers apart and push glue into the gaps with .9mm wire, but without breaking wood off it's hard to get glue deep into the seat of the crack, and the older glue jobs appear to be opening up as well as a heap of new ones.
What would you do?
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Yikes!!! :(
What kind of balls are you using in the nets?
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Wouldn't a scuff sheet take care of this, permanently?
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Yikes!!! :(
What kind of balls are you using in the nets?
In the top pic (and most of the time) old ex match balls, Kook tuff pitch, practice, bowled by my kids. Pics 2 and 3 are after 60 x GN bowling machine balls. Nothing my other bats don't handle x10 without a problem, and power hitting is not really my game :)
Wouldn't a scuff sheet take care of this, permanently?
The original scuff didn't prevent damage, it just contained it. As I tapped on the face of the bat with my fingers I could hear a hollow spot where the wood had lifted, yet the scuff was still firmly stuck to the face of the bat.
I was hoping to get things under control before putting another scuff on.
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That's happened with a B3 I once had.
Suggest you use a very sharp knife, run down the grains at the effective area, fill with super glue, premium brand, cover with baking paper, use the iron method (YouTube) then wack a fibre glass scuff on.
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Send it back to the maker! :D
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Is that actually English willow? It looks super brittle. Personally I think it is a gonner. I mean you could repair it like the guys have said, but really it isn't going to be the same quality of bat.
Looks as if it has had loads of really awful bowling machine balls fired in on the half volley.
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Thanks for the tip Churchy. Found the video - it looks do-able, and probably don't have much to lose other than a bit of superglue.
Buzz, yes is English willow. It was a lightweight cleft compared to the others, so probably drier. I tend to agree with you on the outcome of a repair, as it seems that once I fix it, it lifts up in another spot. I've probably glued it 4 times, with PVA, but perhaps superglue will do a better job.
Honestly, it's only seen minimal bowling machine balls. The marks you can see on the toe show up because it was sanded, oiled and waxed after the last repair.
Another bat I made at the same time from a more dense cleft has seen 1000's of bowling machine balls and shows zero damage. I guess you never quite know how any piece of wood will react to impact.
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Send it back to the maker! :D
I'm certainly glad I didn't make a hundred of them and sell them all over the world! Who'd want to be a bat maker, eh? :D
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I don't think any bats are ever the same once repaired after delamination personally. However with it being a new bat I'd have given the repair a go.
The only suggestion I'd have is to use Gorilla Wood glue and a syringe to make sure you're getting into the cracks.....
Or just make another 😁
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All for repairing bats if possible Unless they are gone in shoulder or handle. I'd follow Churchys idea and the you tube video with the iron!
Could be coincidence but the only time I had this on my own bat it had the same red wood colour running thru it.
For that reason I buy white wood regardless of grains as it seems to dent rather than splinter like yours.
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Doesn't look like the typical delams I usually see so could be something to do with the actual wood.
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@Chompy9760
http://custombats.co.uk/cbforum/index.php?topic=43853.0 (http://custombats.co.uk/cbforum/index.php?topic=43853.0)
Scroll down the page where my B3 had the same thing, I think it is the wood, but they couldn't be bothered to give me a new one so excited a fibreglass scuff over it.
Sold it to a kid at the club, he still uses it and his bombs.
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It’s a drying issue I believe.
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It is an odd form of delamination for sure. It appears that the grains aren't parallel with the face of the bat, so it peels up in thin wedges.
Churchy, thanks for the link. It does look like similar damage to mine, so perhaps there's hope that mine can be repaired with a good outcome.
I'm off to buy some superglue :)
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Thought I'd provide an update.
I bought some of the thin superglue as used in the video, prized apart the cracks, glued them, and very firmly taped and clamped them.
A few days later I gave it a sand, oil and polish, and this is what it looked like before fitting a scuff sheet.
(https://i.imgur.com/vbygFw3.jpg)
After facing less than 150 balls in the nets, it was obvious that it was falling apart under the scuff.
When I removed it, this was the result.
(https://i.imgur.com/Rs2Hy6y.jpg)
You can see some of the marks where the latest superglue job was done, and it hasn't failed there, but in all new spots.
As I mentioned in another post, it's a 'weakest link' scenario, where the playing area seems full of weak links.
So if you have delamination that looks like this, my suggestion is to not waste too much time and effort fixing it up
Interesting that if anything, there is more damage in the sapwood part of the bat than the heartwood part.
I guess most of us prefer sapwood, but in this case the durbility of the heartwood doesn't appear to be any worse.
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Great thread @Chompy9760 , very informative!
I had a similar situation with a bat once. After two glue jobs, I just gave up.
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I have faced similar delamination from a plain bat i had ordered from india. My conclusion is also that the cleft had the life dried out of it. Nothing much you can do to keep it together for long. Eventually it will just split diagonally like mine did
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Looks like a dry bit of wood and bowling machine balls on it which will create this issue with the type of cracks
Quite common with mega grain and heartwood sapwood mix and no scuff applied it seems with the marks on the 1st picture
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Looks like a dry bit of wood and bowling machine balls on it which will create this issue with the type of cracks
Quite common with mega grain and heartwood sapwood mix and no scuff applied it seems with the marks on the 1st picture
Fair points, but to be clear, it was scuffed from the day I finished making it. Once it was obvious that there was major delamination underneath, the scuff was removed, and kept off for a short time as I waited to see how 3-4 gluing jobs would hold up, as I didn't want to waste a good scuff sheet on something that was a lost cause. After the final superglue job it was scuffed again. I'd guess it was scuffed for 95% of the balls it faced in it's short lifetime.
I'm unconvinced about laying the blame on bowling machine balls, as I have other bats that have hit thousands of the same BM balls without a single crack, although there is one horizontal crack on the toe of this one, which was def caused by a bowling machine ball when unscuffed (can be seen in the last pictures), but this crack is well away from the main delamination area.
Perhaps I'm deluding myself and just don't want to admit there's something I could have done to prevent it. :)
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You had mentioned it’s a light weight cleft. That, plus this type of damage almost certainly proves that the cleft is over dried - ie it’s not actually a naturally light cleft, but a cleft that’s been made to look light via excessive drying. A naturally light cleft should have the same moisture content as a denser cleft.
Once you’ve given up on the bat, how about glueing down all the new cracks, and then giving it a few sprays of water (like you do prior to pressing)? Do that a few times (and keep weighing it to make sure it’s gaining a little weight), and then oil to seal in the new moisture, and try using again?
I would personally want to see at least a 2 oz gain (but perhaps up to 4oz) prior to oiling. Even normal bats lose 2oz here (North America) in the winters (heated homes are drier), so I assume an excessively dried cleft is prob 4 odd oz below its “natural” weight. Totally guessing these numbers but If I am right about the over dried thesis, the bat should quickly start gaining weight once you start spraying it.... the obvious challenge will be that the oil you’ve already put on the bat will repel the new moisture from the spraying !
Obviously a high risk strategy, but what do you have to lose ?
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That's an interesting thought, and I can see merit in getting some moisture into the bat, but I'm thinking that the cellular structure of the wood must already be shot to pieces, and wonder if water would be able to reverse the damage?
As you say, not a lot to lose.
Really interesting to hear that a bat could lose 2 oz in a heated home! I recently bought a bat that weighed 1 oz lighter than the sticker said, so I guess it's possible it could lose that much weight in air conditioned showroom over summer.