Simple procedure for gluing table tennis rubber onto your bat

This is a simple step by step procedure for gluing a rubber onto a blade without the aid of any special tools or equipment. It can also be used to replace your existing rubbers with new ones.

All you need is some table tennis glue (VOC based glue or rubber cement), a ballpoint pen, a very sharp cutting knife or razor blade and a hard round tube-like roller (such as a wine bottle), a piece of cardboard and a stack of  heavy books.

Gluing procedure:

1. Place the rubber on the blade and with a pen draw (on the back on the sponge, NOT the top-sheet) around the edge of the bat to roughly indicate what parts of the rubber need to be glued (make sure the bit with the logo on the rubber is just above the handle.
2. Apply glue to one side of the blade spreading it out evenly. You can use a piece of rubber cut-off to spread it out, or wrap your finger inside a piece of plastic and spread it that way.
3. Similarly apply glue to the rubber spreading it out evenly within the lines drawn earlier.
4. Wait until the glue on the rubber is touch dry, usually at least 5mins. At this point it will look dry, but still feel very sticky.
5. Apply another thin layer of glue on the rubber as before (if your glue is already quite thick, this step is not required)
6. Wait until the glue on the rubber is touch dry again.
7. Pick up the rubber, gently put in onto the blade lining up the bottom part (logo end) first  (just above the handle), and then put down the rest.
8. Use a hard round object such as a wine bottle, and gently roll it over the rubber to make sure it’s pressed down onto the blade properly.
9. Put the blade and rubber onto a table with rubber at the bottom, and use a very sharp knife to cut off the excess rubber around the edge of the blade. Putting a piece of cardboard underneath the rubber makes it easier to cut, as the knife can actually cut into the paper a little. Do NOT try to cut through the rubber in one pass, go over each cut several times before it's cut through, which helps get a much cleaner cut.
10. Repeat for the rubber on the other side.
11. When finished roll down the rubbers again, and place it under a stack of books for a couple of hours or so to make sure it bonds properly. To keep the rubbers clean, you might want to put some plastic over them (like the plastic cover that came with the packaging) which also helps protect the surface.
12. Rub off any bits of rubber from the edges, and put on edge tape if required.