Clear contact grip

im currently planning to make a 1.5m polycarbonate tube & LED staff staff. i alway tend to the dark side of contact moves but generally my regular firestaffs have about 40cm of rubber based grip.

i really would like to see the LEDs all the way through rather than just the ends - any ideas for a vaguely sticky yet clear substance/material i can use for grip? is there some sort of silica based compound perhaps?

any ideas or links to thread where this has been discussed before would be appreciated.

cheerio!
E

yeah, silcone tubing, grippy, clear, flexible, comes in a variety of sizes, just get some thats a little too small, throw it in some near-boiling water to expand, slip it into place and let it cool, no glue marks!

T

^^ ooo, i've gotta try that some day. it seems so much nicer to do than smearing sillicon over my grips and hoping that it'll stay on. but would the sillicon tubing be as grippy as sillicon sealant from something like a caulking gun?

Nx where you get it from??? as my current sticks i use something slightly diffrent that i make my self, but......it degrades after a while.


oracle, in your case (if you took my orig idea) find some guse that is sticky on one side (where i dont know i still have to research that.
and then spread a thin layer over it, and wrap it around your stick, like you would do with tennis grip

either that or strugz found somewhere some clear tennis grips that he uses on his areotechs, and you can see the leds fine through that, and i think theres a thread about it somewhere :-)

ok i had a look on the net, and silicone tubing is really quite easy to get hold of (as long as its the right stuff that i have found, im gonna ask them for a sample)

usually from drink machine manufacturers.

i got a sample and its really good, can get it in either white or clear, but can order a min of 5m only, which isnt so good if you dont want to make lots of sticks, but the grip is really grippy, almost as much as silicone from a gun :-)

Weaow- gotta remember that one!

Please let me/us know about the long term experience with it!

Thx

Sorry, maybe Im blind, but I didnt see anywhere the diameter of the tubing. Can anyone tell me what it is?

inside diameter is 18mm outside is 25mm, its quite heavy, and to get it on, either takes a lot of effort or lubing it with lots of washing up liquid then it goes on really easy, so far use wise
its fine for spinning crosses, and contact is super gripy, any black marks on it just wipe off, and its really heat proof.
the bad thing about it, is that i havent yet worked out a way to mark a center point on it, other than my one idea, of a tube of black silicone, and mark the middle using that.

if any one wants the address of the site then just ask

so what's the address of the site?

ok coming up! :P www.silex.co.uk is it

Good stuff, cheers!

Yes thanks for the links great help !!

Nil problemo

if any ones at spitz, you can see the sticks:)

What I use is a grip tape which I get from a company called Heskins. They make grip tape that can be stuck onto practically any surface. I use their Aqua-Safe grip tape and the good thing is they say they can make it in any size,shape,grade,width or colour and they even do it in clear. You can contact them by their website at www.heskins.com and ask for a free samples pack.
Hope this helps.

Thanks beth i just ordered some grip for my uppgraded spangly tech

I ordered 6 packs of the clear racquet-tape. I hope they'll arrive soon and I hope they're worth $4.95 x 6...

I just bought a roll of this stuff - wish I'd gone for the free sample approach first. There is NO WAY I could use this on a staff - I'd lose all the skin off my hands inside a few hours, it's WAY too abrasive - it feels like heavy-grade sandpaper!

I strongly recommend people do not buy this stuff.

Looking around on their site, they do offer non-abrasive versions as well.

Maybe you got the wrong type by mistake?

I want the coarse resilient aqua tape.
It apparently has a ridiculously intense grip without the abrasiveness.

other than on a clear PVC staff I see no advantage of a clear grip...

anybody?

That *was* what the OP was about....

uh, oh - yea but but...

so now it morphed into "contact staff grip" (in general)?

Hence the emphasis on was.

But yes, unless you have decorated your staff nicely or it is PVC or similar I see little point to a clear grip either.

I've been using clear heatshrink over polycarbonate, it works pretty good, although is slippery when wet.

It does get expensive in the larger sizes, but I've yet to find anything to match. Hit up Maplin/Digikey/RS/Farnell for it, depending on what country you're in.

(I really should get round to writing up my Picaxe-controlled glowstaff...)

The stuff I got IS the version they describe as 'non-abrasive'. It's abrasive, believe me.

Fair 'nuff. Was just wondering.