REPAIRING A BROKEN RACQUET

Broken badminton racquets are not an uncommon occurrence. I’m sure many have one time or the other encountered this issue before. Even pricey branded racquets are not spared from this glitch. Why is this not surprising? If you go to any badminton courts centre and make friends with the care taker, he will show you all the broken racquets that have been thrown away in the bin. I sought them out because I wanted the recycled grommets and possibly freshly strung strings. 

Quite a while back, Ryan picked up a new Yonex Duora 10 (orange/green version) with SP authentication hologram dumped by his school friend after it suffered cracks at 2 o’clock and 10 o’clock on the frame. These are common spots in the racquet to develop stress fractures. A quick check at Sunrise Click, this Yonex model formerly retailed at RM399. (Note : you can tell if it’s new from the number of grommet indentations the strings has cut through.) So what did they say in the old adage? “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure...no?”

Ok since I have more time now after getting laid off from my job about a month back, (victim of the pandemic) I decided to explore from the Youtube, how to DIY repair broken racquets. There are loads of them in Youtube. The following pictorials with captions will somehow give a bit of my thought process while going through the repairs… Enjoy!

 

                    Its made in Japan… or is it?    

              Two inch stress fracture at 10 o’clock…

     

Crack right through at 2 o’clock.

Its easier to use old graphite material from unwanted frame. Its light and sturdy.

Grind it to size so as can slip into the cavity of the racquet frame.

Original Yonex has fillings in the cavity of damping materials that needs to be removed.

Trial fit to ensure it fits snugly.

I have to cut the other end to slide in the other longer graphite material in.

See how long the other side was? Around 4 inches!

Use Epoxy resin with hardener and clamp it down to keep the frame flat.

It takes 24 hours for the Epoxy resin to cure and reach its full strength.

Next, sand down following the profile shape of the frame.

The holes needed re-drilled using 2mm dia drill bit. 

Spray paint with a fresh coat of mat black and finish with a glossy clear coat.

Fit the grommets and the racquet is ready for stringing. It’s a tad heavier but not too bad.

At the date of this report, I have completed 3 racquet repairs using this same technique and the repaired racquet can be strung at string tension of 25 – 26 Ibs no problem. So now you don’t have to throw away your favourite broken racquets anymore.