Making your own speargun rubber

 

Tying rubbers is thought to be trivial knowledge by many seasoned divers however for the new and upcoming diver getting good instructions on how to make rubbers can be difficult. Why would anyone want to make their own rubbers? Simply put it is much cheaper and more convenient. You can also tweak your guns to how you want and once you have made a few rubbers and tested them out you will eventually come up with lengths and spear combinations that shoot well for your needs. I will go over the basic power band with a single dyneema bridle. Making a rubber yourself can cost you as little as $15 and its made how YOU want it, now why would you pay $30 for someone to make a rubber up when you can do it yourself!

The first step is making the bridle for the rubber. There are several types of bridles out there including, single dyneema, double dyneema and quick change bridles made by Edge.



To make a simple single dyneema bridle you will need 7 inches of dyneema & two brass balls.



This is what I have worked out to be the best length for your bridles once they are made. With dyneema try to get Rob Allen or genuine South African dyneema not the cheaper Pelaj copy which won’t last more than a few dives.

Starting with your 7 inches of dyneema tie a figure of 8 knot in one end and then slide two brass balls onto the dyneema with the counter bore facing out and tie a figure of 8 knot on the other end.



Pull these knots tight and burn the ends of the dyneema. Now that’s all there is to making a bridle.



Now cut your rubber to the desired length. For a 1m gun I will use 55cm of 16mm Riffe amber rubber. I find this throws the pranger nicely and doesn’t blow the fish apart (don’t mention my state title mowie!) To cut the rubber you can either use a good sharp pair of scissors or roll the rubber back and forth with a sharp knife. I prefer the scissors personally as I have a good stainless long lining pair.

To insert the bridle into the rubber use a decent squirt of silicone spray down the core of the rubber. I find spraying the bridle doesn’t work nearly as good as spraying the rubber as it tends to have a powder on the inside which is very sticky. Using a bridle insertion tool simply put each end of the bridle into the rubbers. I made mine out of a bit of stainless tubing; it looks like crap but does the job.



If your using Edge bridle inserts you don’t need the tool and they are easier to put in the rubber, just another advantage of using them.

Once the bridle is in the rubber all that is left to do is tie them off.



Using some 2mm Dacron or VB cord tie a constrictor knot about 4mm from the end of the rubber. This is a very simple knot and a variant of the clove hitch knot. If tied properly it won’t come undone.






Now spray this knot with a good amount of silicone spray. With the two slack ends of the knot tie a loop in each end and grab two screw drivers or what not and pull the knot as tight as you can.



Cut off the long ends of the constrictor knot and give them a quick burn with a lighter. Remember to wipe excess silicon spray off the rubber before using a lighter, it is quite flammable. That’s it! You should now have something that resembles that $30 piece of equipment you bought a while back.



I personally use the Edge inserts on all my rubbers now as I find they are superior to brass ball bridles and Tony has fixed the problems with them breaking, they are made from a different material and thicker.