Rubberizing Contacts

My clubs (Bayteam and SMART) are working on getting all their contacts rubberized before our two big trial weekends coming up. A few of the north bay people worked on the tables in June. You can read about their adventures here.

I decided I wanted to also rubberize my equipment. I purchased a teeter kit and a table kit. I started with the Teeter this past weekend as it was the least amount of preparation required.

I started by preping the teeter. Sanded down the sand, cleaned it up and it was ready. If I really wanted to be complete, I would spay paint the teeter to match the rubber. But I'm not concerned about aesthetics.

Next I taped my grids on the ground. Ok, well really I didn't read the instructions and taped plastic, and started to tape grids on the plastic (fail). Then read the instructions and taped the floor with my grid. The instructions say to make it much wider, but I found no shrinkage happened on my rubber and would probably only do 13 inches for a 12 inch teeter next time.

I also had to make a run to the local Home Depot for a few supplies.

After thinking about everything, making a plan, reading the instructions, changing the plan, getting all my ducks in a row, I started the process.

The first results are a beautiful purple and blue sticky skin.

Very important to the process is the mineral spirits. If not for that, I could not have evened out the skin.

Day two found yellow contact zones drying in the garage.

Tonight my plan is to glue and trim. Overall it was alot easier than I thought it would be. Most difficult part was the spreading of the granules, making the rubber even, and of course, not knowing what to do.

On a side note, on Saturday, after finishing my first rubber skin, I was carrying laundry from the laundry room to my bedroom and tripped on a carpet runner. This resulted in a bruised toe, possibly broken, for sure will loose my nail :(

Today I find myself on one hand THRILLED with my rubber contact project, yet frustrated that I am not able to walk with two big trial weekend approaching. I guess I'll be visiting the doctor later today.