Hi, I would like to know what would be the best product to repair a crack that was occurred along the blades edge of my ice hockey stick. I need something that is extremely hard setting that can with-stand frequent impacts while playing.

CF and/or kevlar reinforcement in the damaged area using epoxy as the resin.
 do you have a photo of the patient?

CarbonFiberCreations

A picture would be good as it would help us to understand the depth of the damage and if it is merely a resin crack or more structural.

I’m confident we could supply you with materials and advice that would enable you to make your own hockey stick repair even if it was a structural problem.

There are some specialist techniques for certain aspects of hockey stick repair but in the main part the materials are very similar to other repair processes.

The resin to use would be our Rapid Repair Epoxy, it’s got a very high bond strength and a lot of flexural strength (good for taking impacts). The process you’ll be using mainly will be wet-lay and then binding the repair with shrink tape.

We don’t sell a hockey stick repair kit as such but the materials and products that will be of a lot of use to you are:

CarbonFibre Braided Sleeve (a type of tube/sleeve that can be slid over the stick).

EpoxyRapid Repair Resin (this is an extra high performance repair resin which bonds better and has more flexural strength).

CarbonFibre Unidirectional 250g (often used in hockey stick repairs).

CompositesHigh Shrink Tape (very useful for winding round the repair whilst the resin cures).

200g Plain Weave 3k Carbon Fibre (often used in repairs).

My suggestion would be to start with some resin, maybe an appropriate sized braid and also some  Unidirectional. I would paint resin onto the damaged area, position unidirectional material either side of the damaged area and then slide the braid over and stretch it tight. Wet the whole repair through with the epoxy and then bind it tight with the shrink tape.

Once the repair has cured, you can then sand and polish up the surface finish.

Hope this helps.


Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

cheers for the reply guys

Nice touch of pink behind your tekst warren 

ok, for a smaller crack i would suggest a slightly different repair. Same idea in that we need to build up some layers where the damage is, but limited to the area of the damage rather than the whole blade.

You would need some ProFinishCarbon Fibre 2/2 Twill to make repair patches and some Epoxy Rapid Repair Resin to wet out the laminate.

First of all cut some rectangles of the fabric in a stepped size. ie 3 rectangles each smaller than the one before it.This is so that as you build up the repair, the repair spreads evenly over the damaged area so the blade isnt too out of shape due to extra material. The smallest rectangle wants to be sized about 2 inchs bigger than the crack is long and about 2 inches either side of the blade edge meaning the rectangle will when folded over go 2 inches up each side of the blade.

Then you need to heavily key the surface you will be laminating on.  This is to ensure you get the best bond possible.  Then paint some of the resin over the initial repair area. It cures quicker than regular resins so you will need to keep a close eye on it.  As soon as it is tacky, apply the first layer of cloth using the tackyness to hold it in place as you fold it around the blade. Then wet out the fabric with some fresh resin.

Repeat this untill all patches have been applied.

You then want to put a thick coat of resin on top of the final fabric layer.  Apply some ReleaseFilm Unperforated to both sides of the blade. You then need to put some flat metal plates (or similar) either side of the blade then clamp them with G clamps.  This will squeeze the repair as flat as possible and squeeze any small excess of resin flat.

Once cured you should then have a relatively smooth finish which you can sand perfctly smooth and finish off to the required standard.

Is that stippled finish a rubberised coating?? if so it will need to be sanded off prior to any repairs.  Then you will obviously need to reapply it afterwards.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant