# Another take on band life extension



## Frisky (Sep 13, 2020)

Earlier, I wrote about replacing thread wraps with superglue at the pouch. My slingshots have the stress point right in front of the wrap. That's where they break. If I could reduce that stress, I should get longer band life. The first photo shows the outside of the glued together bands. I put the bands through the pouch, in the normal fashion, but then just folded them over and glued. You want to have about 1 square centimeter of glue. I didn't clean the band surface but just glued and pressed the band together, holding for about a minute. Make sure you don't glue your fingers to the band! The second photo shows how it looks on the inside of the pouch. Wait at least 2 hours before shooting. With the band being flat, and not pinched tightly together as it is when tied, it should have less stress. Also, the area in front of the pouch, that usually breaks, is now double thick! So far, I've put 100 shots through the slingshot, with no loss of accuracy or increase in noise. I'll have to keep shooting to see how it holds up and report. I think this method might eliminate the use of thread wraps on latex bands. 

Joe


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## AppalachianFlipShooter (May 9, 2020)

It's gonna be interesting to see the result. I'm surprised that the glue didn't eat through the latex

Sent from my IN2025 using Tapatalk


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## Frisky (Sep 13, 2020)

The effect of superglue on latex was my biggest concern when I first started making slingshots, as I glued the silk wraps in place at the pouch. I'd wrap with pure silk thread and add a few drops of glue that would touch the latex. No problems occurred. Before I started making my own slingshots, I'd be out of luck when a band broke, if I didn't have a replacement handy. So, I'd superglue the bands back together and keep shooting until replacements came in the mail. Even back then, I found the glue didn't damage the band. Now, wraps work well, but if you can eliminate the process and get longer band life, it would be worth doing.

Joe


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## vince4242 (Jan 11, 2016)

Great tip! I will have to try... Not sure if I can wait 2 hours? 😄


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## ukj (Jan 10, 2021)

C A ,cyanocryate like batteries comes in many qualities.
Cheap from local stores is "watered down" whereas name brsnds are normally much more pure. 
Here in the EU can get very high quality
Almost pure as far as I can tell if you know where, The difference is known 
and seen easy.
As surface area of band section is small would seem one (1) drop of high quality CA should be tested.
Also cleaning, I would test alchol pure before and letting dry might aide strength as well. I glue a lot many things, preperation choice of product, clamping all are factors in getting strongest longest lasting bond.
THX for idea, I never would have thought strong enough, will sure test myself and post findings. 
ukj


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## ukj (Jan 10, 2021)

It also comes to
Mind that when dry CA is rigid and can
crack if used on flexable items.I would venture that bands glued with CA will
not stretch within the surface area of the bond contact. Could well be a polyurthane or other glue might work even better as has some "give" remains slightly flexable. There just might be the near perfect glue out there, maybe someone will find?
It might also be worth bonding bands chemically with some amount of prestretch?
Interesting...
ukj


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## Frisky (Sep 13, 2020)

Yes, the glue does harden and will not stretch. That transfers the stress to right in front of the glued together pieces. However, the stress point is over a larger area. So far, the glued test band has been shot 175 times without a problem. A normal retie lasts me about 200 shots, so we'll see how it does, tomorrow, when I go over 200 shots. I'm betting it goes over 500, but time will tell. I didn't bother to clean the bands before gluing, as I wanted to make a 1 minute or less process out of the job.


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## Frisky (Sep 13, 2020)

I'm now at about 250 shots taken with the glued together bands. No problems. I'll go over 300 today.

Joe


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## Frisky (Sep 13, 2020)

The glued band failed along the edge where I glued it together, after 400 shots. When I retie to 7", I get 200 shots, so the glued band lasted twice as long. That's what I was hoping for. It broke in the same spot as my tied bands, but the stress is distributed over a larger area. When my tied bands break, they begin to tear at the top of the band. This one began to tear, along the glue line and in the center of the band. I'm thinking glued together and re-glued bands should last for 2,100 shots, where my tied and retied bands last an average of 1,050 shots. For now, I'll re-glue at 6" and see if I can get 300 shots. Normally, retying at 6" gives me 150 shots max.


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## Trap1 (Apr 12, 2020)

CA glues have been used on rubbers & plastics for as long as I can remember.


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## Frisky (Sep 13, 2020)

Yes. They don't hurt it at all! CA glue is the way to go!


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