PoleVaultPower.com

Hey all,

The collection of poles I vault on is a rather disorganized hodgepodge of different brands and was left in bad shape by decathletes that are no longer around. Some poles are so beaten up the labels have been partially or totally scratched off, and sometimes the labels are covered with tape.

Most of the tape is old and stuck to the pole 'cause they used lighter fluid as stickum back in the day, and instead of removing the tape and retaping (like you're supposed to) there's often several layers of tape on top of old tape. The poles I'm on now are getting short and soft, so I'm trying to clean up the collection so I know what I have to vault on. Having spent over an hour de-taping a couple of nearly-fossilized Cata-poles, I figured I need some chemical help, especially since there was a sticky film left by the tape that'll get all dusty and gross.

What's a good chemical (soap, solvent--whatever) for removing tape from poles without damaging them (or me, for that matter)? I've heard baby oil works well but I can see that being kind of messy. Plus, what would you use to clean off the baby oil?

On another note, only about 30% of the poles have plugs. Some poles don't appear to have plug size marked anywhere, and others have been cut down so there's a new plug size. So I was wondering if there is a way to determine the size of the plug based on something like the circumference at the bottom of the pole. Are plug sizings standard across brands anyway?

As for determining plug sizes, the easiest thing to do is use the plugs you have and see what fits on the poles that don't have plugs. Use a sharpie to write the plug size on the bottom of the pole. You could also buy a bunch of swedish plugs, they come in three sizes and fit just about anything. Cal track and On track also sell plugs that don't mark floors like swedish plugs and fit on the outside of the pole.

As for the tape just about any solvent will work. I have heard of people using gasoline or paint stripper but make sure you use proper precautions when using any chemicals.

Maybe essx could shed some light on if there are any chemicals that would have an affect on the glass.

Stormvault has it right about makering the pole at the bottom but I would make the top of the pole with the plug size because you will cover the bottom with tape. I would also make a data base in excel so the next guy won't have to go through waht you are going through. Pay it forward.

Good luck. Jump high.

I've stripped and re-taped many an archaic pole, with many meathods. What I found to work best is to use pretty much any sticky-removal chemical in an aerisol or spray can. Spray the old tape (not dripping, but enough to get it wet) and let it sit for a few minutes. Then rip the tape off, and use more of the removal stuff to get the residue off. It takes time, but if you keep with it, and remove the tape when you're supposed to in the first place, you won't have to do it again.

At my high school, we used to strip EVERY pole after the season was done, and retape them at the beginning of the season. This keeps the tape fresh, and comes off much easier.

http://www.organize-everything.com/googone8oz.html

I used goo-gone on my poles about a week ago...the residue comes right off. I found it al wall-mart I do believe, but they probebly carry it everywhere.

One thing I forgot to mention is that if you use a solvent on Gill poles it will take the ink off the weight label. I learned that the hard way. One thing I found that worked really well is a gel solvent. It is thicker so it wont run off the pole and you can let it set to eat away the tape.

by the way, it would take some pretty nasty chemicals to damage the fiberglass. As long as you take the chemicals off in a timely manner (like shortly after removing the sticky stuff, and clean off with water) the pole will be fine.

Thanks for the ideas.

Is there no concrete standard for determining plug size or do I just have to mix and match? I did a google search and it seems that nordic plugs are sized by diameter, Gill and UCS are sized by some other kind of inverse scale that goes from 20-ish (very narrow) up to 2 (very wide), and others still are sized small/medium/large. Are the Gill and UCS scales, at least, the same?

Either way, it could be useful for us, as a vaulting community, to codify some sort of scale to that effect, relating the dimensions of each brand to measureable properties like circumference and/or diameter.

decanuck wrote:Are the Gill and UCS scales, at least, the same?

Yeah pretty much.

There is a list of diameters in relation to plug size but I don't think I have a copy anymore (or it is buried deeeeep in my Hotmail account) and I don't think it is online.

Call Gill or UCS and they can probably just tell you.