Try McMasters: http://www.mcmaster.com/
Have you seen any of it at local utility work sites? Seems like it's used here for gas lines and maybe electrical conduit.
I've always wondered though, is the 2.5" really all that great? seems like my shots (and everyone elses) carom off the edge - I'm thinking it's easier to hit the ball evenly with the smaller heads. I could be imagining it, but i think i notice people with smaller diameter mallet heads getting off much ore accurate shots.
Any thoughts/experiences?
Mallet head sizes
We're pretty much on our own over in podunk California so we've come up with stuff on our own so we wonder about how other areas are doing stuff. But what diameter pipe do you most commonly use in you area?
I think every mallet we have is 1 1/2 ABS, some guys are using SCH 80 (conduit) but no one has tried anything bigger that 1 1/2 piping.
I'm thinking about building some 2 inch heads in the next day or two but want some feedback on what you've been using and why?
kg
Looking at McMaster now I can't find 2.5 hdpe...
ethan (nyc - tournament shy) got some hdpe 2" in the mail that we built some mallets from. Here's what he says about it in the NYC forum:
I found some of the black material yesterday on the street. Written on it was the following:2" IPS DR 13.5 DRISCOPLEX(R) 3100 HDPE etc...Research indicates as such:1. Its gas pipe2. Driscoplex makes it for Con Ed. Only ConEd can have the red stripping3. DR-13.5 is the wall thickness ratio number. I'm not 100% but the lower the number, the thicker the wall.4. Its polyethylene (HDPE= High Density Polyethylene)5. It comes in 500' rolls. Thats 1000 heads. Also comes in 40ft straight lenths (preferable since they're already straight)6. There are different versions. Size, color, thickness, etc...When I called LeeSupply, I called the PA branch. I talked to a woman named Kim. She doesn't care what we're using the tubes for, although I did say that I was BK artist and had a project that focused on kinetic sculpture (BS!). Basically she is busy and we are not a priority because the tube is so cheap. Also, I think the max length that UPS will ship is 8ft. I had 6ft shipped to me and it cost ~$12.Be polite and don't fuck it up for the rest of us. http://www.leesupply.com/TechLibrary/PP%20151.pdf
Because of it's common use, ABS is usually listed by it's inside Diameter. So the 1 1/2" ABS pipe is 1 7/8" Ooutside Diameter. The 2" pipe will be somewhere between 2 3/8" and 2 5/8" O.D.
"Schedule 40" or "80" referrs to the wall thickness of the pipe (40 = thinner, 80 = thicker) and is some weird percentage of area or whatever. The wall thickness of schedule 40 1 1/2" pipe is thinner than the wall thickness of schedule 40 2" pipe. Which is why they sell the stuff by calling out the Inside Diameter.
What you would order from McMatster is raw material, not plumbing supplies, so they sell it by inside or outside diametr, wall thickness, or any other way they can cross-list it.
I have been using 1.5" HDPE heads for a while. However, I just got done building/playing with 2" ABS heads for the first time this week. I gave them an hour or so of practice and then a few real games. Here's my thoughts.
-When placed on the ground, the center line(CL) of the head is higher than the CL of the ball. This was frustrating for me because the mallet kept slipping over the ball while ball handling in close or out far.
-To help with this, I "squished" the ABS by stepping on it and then tightened the shit out of the bolt. This made a vertial oval and put a considerable more surface area to the ball. It didn't seem to affect the ends that much and did help with the CL issue. However, I didn't really go for that either.
-Shooting was straight and fast. This was definately the biggest pro.
-Overall, I think my distaste for 2"ABS was more of a material issue than a size one. For now, i'll stick with 1.5"HDPE and keep my eyes out for some in 2"dia.
MKE -> PDX | wednesday sundown @ ne14th & killingsworth | sunday 3pm alberta park @ ne22nd & killingsworth
so back to my first question, where can i find 2 inch inside diameter ABS or 2 5/8 outside?
This seems to be one of my concerns about a 2 inch mallet head, seems like you'd lose a bit of control of the ball when shuffling.
kg
http://www.trogspace.com/forums
http://www.myspace.com/turlockbikepolo
kevin seems to agree with that but i don't see it as much,
i love it for shuffling, especially because the ball doesn't roll over it as easily. all you've got to get used to is a little extra weight and a slightly different shot and i think 2" is the way to go. i'd never go back anyway, it's like a shovel.
just wanna say i love eric crandall! and his eye for details, only he even structures his internet comments like an architect.
when is the design for the best polo arena ever gonna be done?
no dice nyc...MKE!
When you guys mention ABS I assume you mean it's solid ABS, right? I've looked everywhere, and I can only find foam/cellular core pipe and it crushes like a rice cake. Where are you finding it?
I'm not, I'm talking about black plumbing pipe you get at the hardware store.
www.myspace.com/turlockbikepolo
A large head diameter makes for easier ball contact, but I think Johnny is right that a small diameter is more accurate. I prefer a large head myself.
seems like i got my source, i guess MGE keeps their gas tubing two blocks from my house. I'm fucking blind sometimes.
just got lucky's mallet in the mail. i think i can call it the three point specialist. Doesn't play defense, can't dribble much but if you stand out around the 3 point line it hits straight and fast as i have ever seen.
Tell me more. What makes this design less good for dribbling and defense?
I'm about to make another batch of these, so if anyone else wants to beta test, let me know.
i don't have my hand on it quite yet but i do think that some of the reason is that their is less surface area to control the ball with. What i mean is that because the caps are on their and take up a lot of room the ball seems to slip off the mallet heads around the are that the cap is attached. It would be nice to have mallet that the caps were filled from the inside. Also i found that i couldn't control the ball as well with the front of the mallets because of the closed ends. I'm not exactly sure why yet but i will try to detail this more. Tempting though because these things shoot rockets.
Although I have not had the same problems dribbling, I agree that these caps take up too much of the length of the mallet. You and I play really differently (speed, how far from the bike you play the ball, etc.) so I'm interested to hear about the limitations and effects of the design.
If I were to cast or mold my own caps (which would be way more do-able than manufacturing whole mallet heads) they would be half the length and have slightly concave faces, instead of the slight convex/dome shape that the store bought ones have.
It would be worth trying to make mallet ends that fit inside the pipe, too. So you get the closed faces and a smooth cylinder on the outside. I was thinking of the larger diameter ends as both a "trap" for shuffleing, and a weight savings by having a smaller diameter tube for the majority of the mallet.
A friend of mine and local polo player said he saw some new caps at the store that fit inside the pipe instead of around it. If I see him beofre this weeks game I'll try to find out more info.
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i was thinking about how to do caps on the inside and i think that i would use plastic from an old plastic cutting board. That would probably be cut to size, heated so that it molds to the inside and then drilled in with screw.
Also i find that the weight feels a little goofy to me. I'm not sure why but maybe the balance is a bit different then i'm used. Anyway, i'm really happy with red stuff i'm guessing that it is some type of hdpe, probably slightly more dense then the yellow.
J, I've done exactly what you described except I happen to have a piece of 3/8" thick UHMW that I used a 1 3/4" diameter holesaw to cut out plugs that just happens to fit in the end of the 1 1/2" dia. poly pipe I use for mallet heads. Works better for me than an open end pipe. Next I've got a machinist friend making me some plugs with a convex head. I guess it will look similar to Lucky's wicked machined head. I'll get some photos of the collection of mallets I've made in the last few weeks in an attempt to find what works best for me.
ride or die
yea , it shoots rockets, and works great for the super man shot, its just hard to get in that position though
2" HDPE pipe all the way. Just built up a new mallet last night out of it and used up the last of my reserve. Not sure what to use after this though...
Hey everyone,My first post here, but a topic area I've researched a little
ABS is Acronosomething Butadine Styrene, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylonitrile_butadiene_styrene
It's the same stuff that lego and stromtroopers suits are made out of. It's tough but not brittle like PVC (we all know this about PVC)
ABS is more popular for plumbing in colder climates. It's standard fare in Vancouver hardware stores and nowhere to be found in Australian hardware stores.
IPEX http://www.ipexinc.com make it in Canada (Black). I've found it at 2 wholesalers in Melbourne where it's grey. It's also used in the food industry because it doesnt leech chemicals back into whatever's in the pipe. Most plumbers here havn't heard of it, but I found a guy at the plumbing supplies who used to work in the Snowy Mountains. I had to buy 6 metres of 1.5"/40mm ABS as a minimum. There were 3 wall thicknesses available at that diameter
ABS comes in straight lengths, much of the HDPE we've found has come off really really big rolls.
The Grey ABS I got here is alot heavier than the ABS I got in local hardware stores in Vancouver... hrm.
Polyethylene is what many other people use, IPEX also make this "pipe with a stripe", I think they supply most of North America.
A player here (Ray) is a fitter and turner, every week he comes up with some new fangled creation. He's been making solid heads with a 1" diamater and an internal thread out of "Dalron" (which I think it just black HDPE) then he screws them straight onto the pole.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/petermason/2548653810/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hradcanska/2410299200/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21596026@N06/2475167593
We've scavenged pipe from construction sites and people are playing on 32mm, 40mm and 50mm (1 1/4", 1 1/2" and 2")Theres only 3 2" mallets here so far, 2 of them are direct rip-off/inspired by le Jackal's ice hockey stick style mallet. The other 50mm head has a super thick wall (8mm) and I had to use a holesaw to bring the weight down. (it's the only mallet here that looks like it belongs in New York.It's also the only mallet really suitable for a ball joint shuffle.
We're still fresh here and theres lots of people without their own mallets so people are still experimenting with different styles, T or L configurations. But overall the vast majority of mallets are 40mm - 1-1/2"
I find that a big swinging whack, almost horse polo style with the 2 inch is more accurate, but playing the ball is easier with the 1-1/2", but then again even easier with Jackals "broom" as the crew here have affectionately named it. It does take quite a bit of getting used to and theres things you can do better and things you cant do so well without re-learning with the new angle...
back to it...
Damon, Melbourne
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urbanbicyclist.org
L shaped mallets. Do you count shuffles for scores with the L shaped?
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Shuffles never count.
Pieter is the only person I know who has such a radical angle. He always calls himself out when it goes off the shuffle end.
and they dont count for a good reason. they would destroy the instiution of polo if we let all types of goals count. think about the familys that would be jepordized. perhaps we could come up with a nother stat for shuffles, equal but seprate
Just wondering how you would shoot with an L shaped mallet. Would you shoot from the end of the L or the corner?
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When I say L shaped mallet I mean "offset" like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanbicyclist/2550618126/
as opposed to these
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanbicyclist/873250520/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanbicyclist/873288164/
So an L still has 2 scoring ends. (as does Pieter's mallet)
Tho I'm not sure what letter this is... V?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanbicyclist/872452119/
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urbanbicyclist.org
What do you mean by 'playing the ball is easier with 1.5"?' More accurate shots than 2"?
How do you think the sizes compare for shooting? for shuffling?
yeah damon, you tell them where you learned to play polo. 
I believe ABS is the best material for our purposes. It's really just a cost/benifit thing. There are a handfull of materials that are some percentage better wearing, but above that percentage more expensive than ABS, so not worth it to me. They are also going to be a little heavier on account of the density that makes them tougher.
For reference those materials are/are likely to be:
Delrin. A brand name for a type of plastic called acetal copolymers.
Nylon 6/6. Other nylon formulations would be too soft and would go all pencil eraser crumble-y on cement.
Medium Density, High Density, or Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethelene. MDPE is what the yellow gas pipe NYC uses is. HDPE is something some of y'all have ordered from industrial supply. UHMW PE is the thick, white stuff that Chicago uses.
Casting and molding plastics used to be my job, so I know about some other materials and methods to try to create a better polo mallet. But people are playing at very high skill levels with scavenged plastic tube with exposed, hollow ends. So my opinion now (and this is after spending nearly 500 of my own dollars to try to develop an improved mallet head to sell to this community) is to just use what you can get and practce with it.
of all the mallet heads i have built the delrin was the best. But it is cost prohibative and too brittle and has shattered. I had one with 2.58 diameter and really thin walls. I loved the way it played and i was shooting rockets but it is 46 dollars a foot and one of them broke. Plus it was really hard to secure to the shaft and shattered a bit when i shot. I want to try again but i have to wait a bit for more cash flow in the polo land.
i prefer, for the record, the term "shovel".
The Mallets of Mayhem will have a website real soon. We will be offering things for sale on it. ABS in whatever diameter you need will be available. It is cheap. Something like a $1.55/ft CDN. Trick tip for you folks. Buy a hole saw. It looks like a drill bit. You can lighten up the larger mallet heads quite a bit by drilling out the excess material. I'll look for a picture as an example.
Also Lucky I'm curious about your end cap experiment. We played around with that idea a few years ago and found that the caps did not stay fixed. Have you had this problem? What adhesive are you using?
Brian
Solvent-based ABS cement. It should be right next to the ABS fittings in the hardware store.
I'd be interested in talking to you about selling heads or caps or plugs or something through your site. Cross materials are kind of a problem, though. ABS caps wouldn't glue to PE tubes, they would have to be fastened with screws or the like.
PM me an address and I'll send you one of the next batch of heads to mess around with.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanbicyclist/2623959735/
(This is Kyle from Chicago)
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urbanbicyclist.org
I forgot, Tubing diameter is a really what your preference is. 2 inch is not anymore accurate than 1.5 inch. What does make a big difference is how clean the ends are. When you see the head start to bevel or crack or just wear. Change it. Also filling the edges to make a nice square surface goes a long way in having a straight shot. I'd like to know what the clear tubing is made of that I saw this winter in NYC. Wangster?
Brian
Lucky, yes please on the beta. Would love to try it.That said, tried a mallet using the 2" ID black pipe i got from Ottawa (thanks Ange!) just yesterday and it was great. I'll be clearing out the shelves at the NSPIs if I don't find something better in the meantime.
yeah lexan i think your right. got a souurce for it?
b
Mcmaster-carr sells it, but they don't ship to Canada. We could do a swap at NSPI if you want some, since I can't find solid ABS anywhere.
We can take pre-orders leading up to the NSPI. 1.5 inch is $1.50/foot. 2 inch is $2. Go figure. So let us know what you want and we'll pick it up for you and have it ready.
mrfixedgear@trackbike.com
3...2...1...GO!
dudes, home depot sells abs piping all-sorts. how can this be only in canada? six feet is ten bucks or something.2" does not give a better shot, but it sure blocks shots well, and the ball never skips over when handling. i would never go back.
colder climate so they tend to prefer that market. I did find a store here that stocks 2" ID piping but now that i found where the utility company keeps all their piping i don't really care to buy it again.
If yer anywhere near a city in America, particularly in the East or Mid West, the building codes do not allow ABS supply, drain, waste, or vent plumbing. As such, harware stores do not sell it. I can only find the stuff I'm using now cos I work out in the sticks.
Chicago Bike Polo 2003-2008
St Louis Bike Polo 2008-now
Would it be wrong to build a mallet with a 2 foot long head and just play gollie all night?
Just asking?
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Yes. The first person who shows up to a tournament with a goalie mallet is getting their mallet thrown out when they're not looking.
I guess I better make a spare then. :)
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Ryan and I have already decided to build an oversized goalie mallet to stash near the goal.
T hat's exactly what my dad asked when he saw his first polo game.
any thoughts on wooden heads on mallets? There are a few old school peeps where we play who still use wooden shafts and heads, basically croquet mallets. Sorta scary actually when they're swinging hard... Also, based on the comment about the goalie mallet, is there a reasonable length limit to the head? One of the wooden mallet crew has a head that is about 8" which seems a bit long to me.
G etting hit by the hollow plastic mallets ain't no cup o' tea, neither.
Though solid wood would have a bit more inertia in its 'favor.'
Yah we all played with wooden mallets for a while. Cleveland has mostly switched over to ABS. I think the only holdout is Lt. Dan. He is still using wood and KILLING IT. We are all dreading the day he switches to ABS because we will be untouchable. We're hoping to get him to make the switch before the NACCC's
2" mallets have a few more benefits’ then just shuffling
and shooting. I find 2" mallets to give me a bit of an edge and if
anyone wants to know what I mean they will have to either come to Tour de Polo
or play with me sometime I'm not giving away my secrets.
ha... the old "cup the ball" trick? Would that fly in tournament play?
we've had great luck with the UHMWPE tubing (2"). It's a bit heavy, but it's also fun to drill the shit out of it to see who can get their mallet heads to look like a fucking lace doily before it's said and done.
I just built my first couple mallets with that stuff, it's definately got a lot of mass behind it. I'll be drilling it out this weekend.
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The consensus at tournaments I've been at has been that it's allowed for passing but not shooting.
Not to quote BPAA shit again, (Bike polo Assoc of America... just the first set of rules I ever found) but I've been going off of their 9" mallet head length rule. Every mallet I've made (and actually liked) is no longer than 6" though.
So with that, goalie mallets are only good for throwing out of the rink and/or breaking in half.
As for diameter, 2" OD, 1.5" ID... forever! First mallet was solid 1" wide. Never again.
I just upgraded from 5" to 6" and drilled out the head less than the previous ones. I found that the heavier, longer head allowed for harder and more accurate shots.
There's lots of talk on here about head diameter, but what about length? what do you folks find works best? Advantages/disadvantages to long or short heads?
7 inches wide, 43 inchs long. 1 1/2 inch diam ABS
I tried my new mallets made from the heavy white tubing recomended on the "how to build a mallet" page and I didn't like it.
Maybe it was all in my head but I couldn't tripod with it well, kept slipping out on me. Maybe it breaks in but the feel of it was different enough that I switch back to my ABS head mallet.
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I need to remove some mass from the heads. I'm not exactly sure where to remove the materail from, as I don't want to just random drill big holes.
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I need to remove some mass from the heads. I'm not exactly sure where to remove the materail from, as I don't want to just random drill big holes.
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drill everything! I just put 4 1" holes across the face (2 on each side) but considered putting a few more. I'm not really sure how much lighter it got, or if it was worth making it a little less strong, you just have to experiment. One thing I can say though, its a LOT easier to pick up if it ever gets hooked out of my hand. Just ride over, stick a finger into one of the big holes on the side, and I'm back in with the quickness.
Hmm, for some reason I was under the impression that smaller heads = worse. After reading all this, I am reconsidering...my first batch of mallets that I ever made used this tiny 1" OD orange and blue tubing. Everybody here is using those ones, until people start getting dedicated and making their own. They're small and light, but I recently made a mallet with a 2" PVC head and it has some nice heft to it. I know PVC sucks and it's gonna shatter soon, but I couldn't find ABS for some reason. Hafta do some more looking. Anyway, I felt guilty for being the only one playing with a "nice" mallet, but it doesn't seem to give me any sort of advantage. I think I prefer the 2", but I need to get some ABS and see if it's any lighter. Maybe get me a hole saw too...
Thanks ryand, and I'd love to hear what he had to say about polo and schrodinger's cat!
But back to boring... As for mallet construction, I've just switched to 2" and like it a lot. It is way easier for ball joints, it blocks better, and I haven't seen any major change in my shot other than the general increase in perfomance that comes with using a newly made mallet. Like jackal, I also ofset my mallet to a slightly angled L, but not as much as he does, and it is mostly a personal thing though I'm conviced that the geometry is better for backhand shots. A friend put a cap on his mallet head recently and his already dangerously hard shot is way faster. I wonder if it creates a drum effect - storing energy and releasing it to accelerate the shot? We just jammed it on and it hasn't come off yet, though the glue advice is appreciated. But I don't want the extra weight. We made a goalie mallet a while back that was about 18" long, and someone did well in it for a game or two, but in general it is more of an impediment in stickhandling, shooting and passing, than the help in blocking is worth. the only way I could see a goalie mallet working in game is if you widened the shaft by fastening a plate to it, like in hockey, but that might not be acceptable in many places. If we played on bigger rinks, (like a lacrosse court) with teams of 4 or 5, with subs, having players more dedicated to positioning would be helpful but for 3 on 3 I think keeping every player flexible is more crucial.
My one suggestion tough is to put a guard on you mallet, like swords do. It has saved my hands many times!
I just got a bunch of 2 1/4" outside diameter, 1 7/8" inside diameter P/E. It's a change from the P/E I've been using (2.0" OD, 1.4" ID), so I'm interested to see the effect. I think it's actually lighter, because the walls thinner on the new stuff. Considering how long my last P/E head has lasted, I don't imagine that there will be a noticable difference in durability.
I'll post a review after I build a new mallet or 2 this weekend.
If we're bringing physics into this, the general idea from what I understand is that a smaller point of impact will lead to greater energy transfer, like from mallet to ball. Especially, if the mallet is weighted, but not so much that it might affect your swing negatively.
So...smaller but heavier heads make for faster shots?
The problems I see with this: smaller diameter mallet heads finding their ways into more spokes, people waving around heavy-ass bone crusher clubs, and real, scientific research dedicated to a beer sport, even though it is awesome. I dunno.
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So... 2" inner diameter ABS coupled with 2" outer diameter UHMWPE.
Best of both worlds? Or worst of both worlds?
Not if you use lots of drillium.
does anyone know where i can find a 2.5 inch ABS online?