[Superstitions]

Hi all. Team 39 did repair a 1.25" laceration in our ball with good success. Thought I would share this, cautions first. Try this at your own risk and with an otherwise ruined ball bladder and as a last resort. Although this repair holds pressure well and looks well patched, we have not extensively impact tested it. Do not inflate the bladder out of the canvas sac. Rubber tire repair patches and duct tape did not work for us.

So what we did:
1) One of a million trips to Home Depot to get a can of "Christy's Red Hot Blue Glue", yes that is the real name, located in the plumbing section for PVC pipe.
2) Found a thick skinned 12" "100% PVC" labelled ball in the kid's abandoned toy box as a donor. Try Toys-are-us.
3) Carefully impaled the donor ball and cut a 3" round patch out of it
4) Took the 40" bladder out of the canvas sac.
5) Took a new 120 grit sanding disk stuck on a 2" round can and scuffed up the 40" outer surface of the bladder in a 4" circle around the laceration and the inside of the patch then carefully washed and dried the area with water.
6) Cut out a 5" piece of a sandwich baggie and carefully shoved it through the laceration completely into the ball and flattened it out on the inside of the ball just inside the area of the laceration so the we would not glue one side of the ball to the other.
7) Put the blue PVC glue on the inside of the patch and on the outside of the ball by the laceration and quickly stuck and pressed them together, worked out the air bubbles. Do this in a well ventilated area.
8) Used another sheet of sandwich bag on the outside of the patch so the clamp wouldn't stick.
9) Gently clamped the repair with 2 pounds between a few round flats OVERNIGHT.
10) Unclamped the patch in the am and let it dry a few hours.
11) Put the bladder back in the sac and inflated it over 5 minutes.
12) Now if we could just get it to shoot further. Good Luck.
PS; we used an iron-on patch inside the canvas sac, worked well. Yes we also ordered a new bladder at $20.50.
Jeff, Mentor