bought a bottom end werner paddle. I bought it thinking I could use it for now and convert it to a 2 or 3 peice breakdown paddle to stick in my boat later when I get a better paddle. Not that werner doesn't make great a paddle because this baby is durable, its just not the blade design I wanted.
THE QUESTION- how does one do this. I am to cheap to pay to have it done and would like to learn for myself, but do not wish to destroy a perfectly good paddle just to experiment. Anybody have any thoughts on this? My idea was to use the spring mechinisms on a pair of crutches to lock the shaft in place. attach it somehow to some tubing that will reinforce the inside of the blade about 12 inches down with some thin pipe tubing and coat it with some type of bondo stuff to secure it to the inside wall of the shaft. not sure if the typical fiberglass epoxy with a catalist is the way to go or if this will even work. any other ideas on how to do this?

Hey man

You can buy kits like this from various companies....lightning, harmony etc etc


http://www.paddles.com/catalog/bdsea.html

I have a p.o.s. paddle you could destroy for practice if you want. of course if it comes out all right.....

Sac.

I think I'll go with the kit instead of destroying my paddle, but maybe not. It's hard to spend money when you can create. You see I had a dream, no, an epipheny while laying in bed last night. I could cut the shaft in half, insert pipe tubing that fits snuggly on the inside, About 8 inches down from the cut, drill holes through the shaft and pipe on each side. then just use some bolts to lock it in place. stuff some foam inside for bouncy and bam! it's good to go. All i gotta do is duct tape the wrench and bolts to the shaft. It's just a paddle right. Anyway, When my master peice is complete all I have to do is jam it in the boat so it's ready when needed. I think it will work, just not sure if I am being red neck enough. It would probebly sink with the weight of the pipe, even with the foam. maybe i can saran wrap the outside to keep the water out. Yes, I am sure I am red neck enough now. I will be selling my kit's soon. Sorry, you must provide your own duct tape and wrench. Please only one customer at a time. I can not handle a heavy work load, it ruins my creativity.

find a piece of pvc pipe that fits inside the shaft with room to spare, wrap with foil then build up with glass till snug sand if needed, remove pvc pipe, (the foil and pipe will slide smoothly out) and use resin to secure male end into shaft. I cut shaft on a diagonal to help with torsional shifting then find or buy those relatively cheap button spring clips like those in a carlisle ducky paddle and with the male end firmly in place drill a hole the size of the button through both pieces (remember it is easy to make a hole bigger) I did this to my paddle years ago and it works great also I was able to take a few cm off and customize the blade angle. good luck

ps takes a couple hours and dry fit everything before you drill to make sure you got what you want

oh yeah i left out put the label of your favorite brown bottle in the glass layup early on so it is not removed during sanding. a wood dowel or any round insert will also work wrapped in foil

I would go with the foam idea and make it fit tight as a water seal. That should work better than the rubber stopper that's in my breakdown paddle. I found that old PFDs have great foam inside that mold to the surrounding even after fully compressed. Put a string on it, tampon-style, so that you get it back out in case you get water behind the foam.

Try these from NRS. In conjunction with the PVC think mentioned above, it works great.

Oops! Here's the link

http://www.nrsweb.com/shop/product.asp?pfid=1536.2&deptid=1120

Try these from NRS. In conjunction with the PVC thing mentioned above, it works great.

http://www.nrsweb.com/shop/product.asp?pfid=1536.2&deptid=1120