Making a C1 blade water tight

[Bommy]

Hey,
I've recently snapped a paddle and so I'm making myself a new C1 blade.
I've got a t-piece and was going to glue it in but realised that one way or another it's probably not going to be totally water tight and I don't want the shaft filling with water!
Whats the best way to prevent this? I though about filling the shaft with normal closed cell foam, or buying some builders expanding foam to try fill the shaft with. Are they any other ways or better ways of doing it?

[Mission]

if you do it right, it should be watertight

Don't use expanding foam. Absorbs water like a sponge and then can't be gotten out again!

[TheKrikkitWars]

repeatedly stab the open shaft through a piece of thin mincell if you want to fill it with foam, as niall said, expanding foam is a nightmare. I'd say if you epoxy the t-grip on properly you'll never have a problem with water ingress till the blade breaks.

[Adrian Cooper]

Polystyrene would be an excellent alternative. It is very light and easy to insert. You should be able to find some from packaging and do the same as Josh suggests, just stabbing the open end into the body of the foam. I also agree with Josh that if you are careful with the glueing you shouldn't have a problem.

[michielv]

Hey,
I've recently snapped a paddle and so I'm making myself a new C1 blade.
I've got a t-piece and was going to glue it in but realised that one way or another it's probably not going to be totally water tight and I don't want the shaft filling with water!
Whats the best way to prevent this? I though about filling the shaft with normal closed cell foam, or buying some builders expanding foam to try fill the shaft with. Are they any other ways or better ways of doing it?

The epoxy you use to glue it in will make it watertight. Simply make sure you use enough glue, tape the seam (cheap cellotape will do, you will remove it when the epoxy has dried) and turn the paddle upside down (in this case, t-grip down, otherwise, glued blade down). If you keep the paddle upright the glue might run down the (inside of the) shaft. This way it will fill any gaps between the grip and the shaft (as it cannot run out because you taped the seam).

I prefer to use the slower (1 - 2 hour) curing variants of epoxy glue for this sort of work, rather than the 5 minute Araldite type stuff.

Hope this helps,
Cheers,

Michiel