Ok, here is what I experienced yesterday:
- Superglue is a NOgo - it dissolves the EPDM foam in the early stage of glueing (gets hot, then doesnt glue, only after some time has a glueing effect)
- The injection with needles only works well with glues that dont glue instant (I several times glued parts of the foam or alu to the needle)
- Marine griptape is useless on a handle, as it is not stretchable (maybe it could be applied to the board between the handle, or on the under side of the board where the grabrail is (like Tom Herbert), I think standard grip tapoe is better, my favourite is microfiber (tennis, thin, no slipping)
@ Toby: I now did one handle (Thick EPDM Foam glued with superglue and rubbergriptape/microfiber on top of it) I guess its a bit advanced of what you have, but very similar, Im sure you will love it (see picture), maybe you need to glue the top cover a bit with super glue, I also put mounting screws, washers, spare microfiber and glue in the box (after I saw what the heck you did to my last handle
, so lots of testing opportunities
I am now working on what I think could be the final product (I am not really happy with top layer grip tapes, due to optic, wearage and tactile issues).
It is a 1cm less wide and 1cm less high, 8mm alloy T-Handle with super rounded edges and extra thick EPDM foam, glued in a wood mold (see picture) with epoxy (JD weld).
Should be perfect, no slipping, not to hard, very precise and optically perfect, no issues with wearage either.
As soon as the second handle is done, I put both in a box and send them on to you, I really hope that we are now close to the ready product
, well as you can see on the picture I will send you lots of material to test and play - do you also want some marine grip tape (black, 5cm wide, selfsticking)?