# Prolonging band life with wrap sleeves



## mopper (Nov 17, 2012)

As we all know only too well flatbands tend to tear pretty quickly if you shoot a lot and they tear especially fast with heavily tapered bands. I actually like cutting and attaching bands but at the same time I am pretty cheap and I also like tinkering and fiddling with things to make them perform better, last longer, easier to produce and so on ^_^

I therefore took a good look at all those broken bands, and it became clear pretty quickly that they all broke at the pouch and to be even more precise they broke where the rubber strip from the wrap attachment had worked its way into the bands. The edges of the bands seemed to be especially vulnerable and the rubber also seemed to be especially vulnerable when stretched out a lot. Hence the much increased wear of tapered bands, as the narrow part near the pouch is stretched out much more than the part near the fork.

One remedy became clear pretty quickly: to protect the edges I folded the bands "inward" right in front of the pouch so I got a triple or, with narrower bands, at least a double layer of flat rubber that I could tie the short end of the band (that got pulled through the hole in the pouch) against. I also cut off the very tip of the short end at an angle (~45°), so it would not rub against the band with a relatively sharp 90° angle but with a much wider angle.

Next thing was to use wider rubber strips to tie the pouch to the bands to prevent them from slicing through them like a wire when under tension. I also used different, much thinner and softer rubber for strips than I used for the bands, for instance I used TB Blue strips to attach TB SIlver bands.

Then, when wrapping the strips round the band and the short end I used very little tension for the first two or three wraps so the first wraps would form a sort of protective layer against the following wraps under higher tension.

But all that still wasn't enough so i took the next step: I cut out small rectangular strips of rubber about the size of fingernail from the softest type of rubber I had available (TB Blue) and wrapped it around the bands like sleeves before then wrapping the rubber strip around the sleeve. Those little bits of rubber completely prevent the bands from coming into contact with the highly tensioned strips and thus form a sort of protective layer around the band.

I have by now fired several hundred shots with very cheap no name Thera band knock offs (which are notorious for breaking easily) with what I have termed "wrap sleeves" and so far the bands show no sign of wear. It seems to really improve bandlife but I would be really interested to find out if my method works for other people as well. I know that some of you shoot a LOT more than I do (and with more extreme band and ammo configurations).

So, next time you attach a pouch to your expensive TB Gold or even natural latex you might want to give my method ( or rather, all of my methods) a try and post whether it really had the positive effect that I have experienced. I am pretty sure that even lighter stuff than TB Blue (green, red, yellow) will work just as well and add even less weight than those already tiny little bits of rubber.


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## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

Sounds like an idea worth trying ... Thanks!

Cheers ....... Charles


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## ruthiexxxx (Sep 15, 2012)

I'm definitely going to give that a try...thanks for the tip


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## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)

you can always cuff them like tubes. and if you want, tie them after cuffing them .


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## DaveSteve (May 16, 2012)

Next time I will try to put on a wrap (cuff) before I tie my constrictor knot.

I noticed that my bands last much longer here in this tropical climate than in colder weather.


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## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

Thanks for posting this, Mopper. I will certainly do some experimenting.


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## crapshot (May 3, 2011)

katty condoms


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## kuime (Jan 11, 2013)

good method, it would be better if some images were attached. :naughty:


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## ruthiexxxx (Sep 15, 2012)

I have tried some of your band tying tips now...and they seem to work very well ! Thanks again


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## Xamllew (May 17, 2013)

Thanks for the useful tips. I'm all for saving bands, stuff's not easy to come by where I am.


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## danjk36 (Jan 9, 2013)

good idea  must try that as im using terra band knock offs and they tear easily


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## PorkChopSling (Jan 17, 2013)

Cool, great idea!! I will give it a go when I make bands. Thanks!!


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