Shortening Bands

[Craig Thailand]

Hi all,
I just got back from a great weekend spearfishing on a WW2 ship wreck of pattaya, Thailand. I got a monster Parrot fish which was great on the BBQ. Thing is, I noticed that i can stretch the rubbers on my gun further than the notches in the shaft and was wondering/hopeing i could shorten them. Does anyone know how to do it or is it better just to get new bands from a shop. The problem is i have a big gun, and the spearguns pretty big toorofl , so getting rubbers the right size is a mail order job, 3 weeks or so.
Thanks Guys

 

[miles]

Hiya

What type of wish-bone do you have on the gun? Is it the all metal (articulated wish-bone) or is it the rope (dyneema) or thin cable type??

Regards
miles

 

[davidbugeja]

Coming to think of it which is best? An articulated wish-bone or dyneema?

 

[Craig Thailand]

Hi Miles,
I have the Thin Cable type on it. I have the articulated type on my small cressi and they are abit shorter, which would make a bit of diffrence. I thought about just shortening the cable of the wish bones but that would only make a slight diffrence, not enough to make any real effect. I think the bands are about one and a half inces to long.

 

[Spaniard]

Do you have screw-in rubbers or the circular sort? What gun are you using?

 

[Craig Thailand]

I am using a cavalero gun it has a barrel of about 100cm and the bands i want to shorten are the screw in type. It looks like the caps are on the bands so tight that if i do cut the bands there is no way it will thread through again! Or do i stretch the rubber in some way that will allow me to slide one of the threaded caps down the band an inch or so???
Like i said the shop told me it will take three weeks to get the size of bands i want and i NEED to get wet SOOOOON.:head

 

[Dobs]

If I understand correctly you have screw type bands. You can always cut the threaded caps from one side of the bands and tie your own dyneema wishbone. It's very easy and you can see the entire process in photos here: http://www.abellansub.com/bricolage.php

Just click on "galeria de imagenes"
Good luck!

 

[Craig Thailand]

Thanks, i was up last night cutting the bands and setting it up. I got it all sorted and now i have two screw in bands 20mm and a loop around type also 20mm.:martial I went for the steel wishbone style instead, it was so hard trying to squeeze it in the latex, nearly brkoe my thumb!!:crutch Anyway i'm off to do a wreck dive then some reef work this weekend, so i will keep you posted. Thanks for the help.

 

[Mr. X]

I recently changed my single Dyneema strand RA wishbone. It was straightforward & painless to do with the RA tool (which looks like a skateboard wrench) - & would prob. not be much harder w/o the tool. It's a good system, simple & effective:inlove. I opted not to shorten the bands but will do next time (unless I change the bands at the same time). How much to you recommend shortening them in a step, 2cm? [BTW RA do a double-strand wishbone too, presumably so that you have an instant spare and, I think, a steel cable version ... I think Huan already discussed the pros & cons of those on an earlier thread].

I notice on one of the threads somebody posted images of the steps they use to make rubbers. They performed an extra step which I have not seen elsewhere: they trimmed the edges of the rubbers on the wishbone-side on the cinch knots to remove their edges (to form a cone-like end on the rubbers). Perhaps only worthwhile for those with a tidiness/performance obsession?!