They just gave every player down at the Desert Polo Invite a free complete mallet to try to get the word out, if I heard right. Mallets still don't look like anything I would want to play with, though.
Eight Inch's new mallet
Looks like Eight Inch has a new mallet head out using new materials. It has a $5 replacement thing now.
Thoughts?
http://www.eighthinch.com/mallet_kit.html
http://eighthinch.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/5-eighthinch-polo-mallet-repl...
Yep. everyone got a head, two caps, and a shaft, and I think at least every team got a two piece shaft.
Head is still big and heavy, I'll never use it, but will eventually use the shaft. Teammate used the caps on some yellow pipe and they lasted a day of tourny play, so I guess the material is at least a little better.
yeah just used one black cap; it's lasted 5 or 6 nights of pickup without curving, cracking, or warping. it's wearing away at the bottom but seems to be doing so slower than normal hdpe. the guy said it's some kind of nylon. so far i like it, time will tell.
the head is heavy, havent used it but i dont think it'll have the cracking along the seam problems the first ones did.
yeah, they set me a couple to test out.
Tavel here in atlanta is a product tester, and that 2 piece shaft is one of the only ones he hasn't been able to easily break with his slap shot. It's pretty boss. As to the heads they needed more info before some stuff, but the black(white in prototype form) has been pretty stout in our games. The caps need more help though.
Well, I just bought the mallet kit...I will post up how it does.
I had one of the originals they sold at nationals, it got pretty fucked up through regular pick up use (never personally used it, but alot of the guys who needed a mallet seemed to like it). It was pretty jacked up by the time they recently offered the 5 dollar replacement deal ($5 plus the two something (2.40?) to get the old mallet head to them). Only time will tell how well they hold up. See how the pickup players like them and see how long they last. I was pleased that they did send a full replacement with 2 new caps and hardware.
Did they use 6061 on the first round too? Does the T6 designation make it any less shitty than normal 6061?
Yes, I'm pretty sure T6 implies heat treating and artificial aging. I don't really know what that means, but I do know that aluminum gets stronger over time. At the same time, I don't know if they used T6 last time or not. They did not mention switching materials.
7075-T6 sees tensile and yield strengths of over double 6061-T6. That is what fixcraft/MKE poles are made out of and what I have found to be necessary for a shaft that doesn't bend off a wheel, etc...
Aluminum work hardens to a certain extent but you have to understand the harder something is the more brittle it can get. That is why once a ski pole can bend back maybe once but if it has to be rebels in the same spot it'll most likely fail. 6061 is pretty standard stuff strengthwise but 7075 is where it's at. There is simply no reason to not use it. I pulled numers for a few of the alloys in another thread but I can't find it currently.
6061-T6: Max tensile - 290 MPa, Max yield - 241 MPa
7075-T6: Max tensile - 538 MPa, Max yield - 475 MPa
Although tensile strength isn't really applicable to polo.
Isn't shear strength the relevant number?
6061 T6: 207 MPa (30,000 lb)
7075 T6: 331 MPa (48,000 lb)
You are correct. Shear strength would be a more accurate gauge. The stiffness is also a relevant factor.
Sorry but no way. Mallets don't break in shear. They deform plastically under load (i.e. yield strength), crease, and snap at the crease. That's why it's pinched at the broken end. That's not shear. Shear is when the material slides past each other in the shear band. If it sheared, it would leave a perfectly round end.
Sorry but yes way.
"In general: ductile materials fail in shear (ex. aluminum), whereas brittle materials (ex. cast iron) fail in tension." Not always a perfectly round end. We're not hanging seeing polo players rip mallets apart. We see bends and pinches, which result in shearing points that cause critical deformations in shape that result in failure. That crease at the atomic level is shearing. Because aluminum is relatively ductile (and not nearly as much as say steel) it'd be out of round because it would shear to a certain point than snap suddenly.
Sorry, but no way. All mallet failures start as dents, even in the case where those dents are created milliseconds before failure. Those dents are plastic deformations in the aluminum. They are not caused by shear. The dent increases in size throughout the full delivery of the pressure and it increases to the point where there is a crease in the pole. The crease causes the mallet to fail completely and break into two pieces. Sorry brah, just because the delivery of the force is coming from the perpendicular does not mean the force is shear.
Go whack a piece of shit mallet against a really hard edge, like a square metal pole sticking out of the ground. Look at the pole. It's dented. That ain't shear force. It's plastic deformation due to a pressure that exceeds the yield strength of the aluminum. Now hit it against the same surface in the same place one more time. It breaks in two. That ain't shear force. It's a combination of 1) The original plastic deformation causing the dent due to yield strength, and 2) the crease that is formed and the tensile failure that results on a molecular level due to the crease.
P.S. yo' momma is ductile, bitch!!!!!!!
Truth be told, when any force parallel or perpendicular acts on a system like this there are both in effect. Yes, when you dent a cylinder there is going to obviously be a compressive side (where there will be the obvious indentation) and the side in tension. When you get into deformation modeling you'll see that every 3 dimensional system gets broken down into tensile forces and shear forces, with the only one have 0 shear forces being one directional forces acting on a sample which is not the case here. You dent that mallet from the side, it sets the system as described above, but also causes shearing forces throughout the rest of the body. But again, i'm trying to say that there are both in effect. I understand you want to prove someone wrong on the internet, but chill out, smoke a bowl.
P.S. Good job keeping it civil, you really showed me.
Why are we arguing again? Do we not both agree that 6061 when compared to 7075 is an inferior metal?
Pot is for hippies!!!!
No seriously, I just like talking about it and you made me think about it all in detail. I grabbed an old mallet and destroyed it step by step and watched it closely as I bent it into failure. Never done that and thought about it, it was cool. I just think that you can learn the most by taking a position and arguing about it concretely. Thanks. In truth I completely respect your mother.
Okay, I can not isolate one force as the cause of mallet failure. But I can say that shear force is low on the list of contributors. I was simply disputing the fact that "shear force is the most relevant number", because it absolutely is not.
And I was using "plastic deformation" because of the definition of yield strength, which states that it is the pressure at which a material will become plastic (I.E. A DENT). Yes I understand that something can become plastic in shear, but I think you can differentiate and understand the point I was making with regards to a shear force not creating a dent.
Yo momma's ductile, too.
Everyone above this post is a total nerd.
shh, don't reveal rory bear's secret weapon for next year
I think they put out a faulty product in the first place and the fact they're charging people $5 + outgoing shipping is stupid.
Have they sent these new heads to anyone for testing? Same with those two piece shafts... it's a cool idea, I guess... but it seems like there's very little r&d that goes into this shit.