Rubbie

Guys I have one of those new "One Piece" all carbon and epoxy hockey sticks. I know they are heat and pressure cured in ovens, but what I want to do is apply heat to the blade and "adjust" the curve (like we use to do with the "old" wooden sticks). Considering it was 250.00 bucks CDN I don't want to try this then go out and end up breaking it on my next slap shot. Any suggestions ?

Sorry it isn't about planes but if the experts could chime in it would be appreciated.

TIA

ptxman

My Feedback: (2)

Im only guessing here, but if its made from pre-pregged carbon material, meaning the is cured at high temperature, you will therefore require corresponding high temperature to get beyond the heat distortion temp in order to make it move & attempt to reset it. We have done similar thing to CF propellers to adjust the pitch from the manufacturers molds. I noticed sometimes over time theytended to creep back.

What temp that level occurs at is hard to know without having access to the resin specs. Even ordinary ambient cure laminating epoxy resins have HTD's in the 200 deg range. The highest heat duty epoxies are good to about 475 deg F & are post cured to levels near that in order to obtain the heat rating. Im guessing if it is epoxy, you might be somewhere in between those 2, probably towards the high side. For that matter though, the layup could be with a non-epoxy resin like derakane because Ive seen prepregs listed with that resin (do a search here under carbon tune pipes, we had recent discussion). Do a net search on pre preg carbon & that might help.

The other issue is whether the stick has a core material like urethane foam or similar for mold shaping or composite sandwich impact issues etc. If it does, and the core has a much lower distortion temp than the CF shell, you might wreck it by debonding or cooking the cells.

I know some guys tried to do some bending of a CF racing bike (pedal bike) frame & it was a no go. Hope this helps. Good luck, eh?

Ohlsson

If you mean bending the blade of the stick it is important to consider that the carbon fiber is very stiff and will not easily be shortened (push-side of the stick). You may in worst case end up with "bubbles" of loosened carbon fibers on the inner radius of the curvature. This because fibers are strong in only one direction - pull and on the inside of the curvature the fibers will be too long. I have had similar problems when trying to bend carbon fiber molded boomerangs and it is not a pretty sight...

Regards,

Daniel Ohlsson

Rubbie

Guys thanks for your feedback, I guess I will have to live with the curve that I bought. I called the company (Graf) and they said that they couldn't tell me what temp it was cured at (trade secret) but they did say that there are inserts in the blade for dampening. And they strongly suggested that I don't try and change the shape of the curve cause it would surly break as you suggested.

They did offer to "copy" my preference curve and for a large sum of money produce a limited production run. It would turn out significantly more expensive than the retail price that I paid.

I guess I have to make the NHL to get my own curve. Oh well back to the work bench and to a Spitfire and Patriot