Building a Table Tennis Racket

We got a table tennis table at work and it revived my old enthusiasm for the sport.  I played in the 90's and I had a semi-custom paddle and everything.  I wasn't very good but I enjoyed the hell outta it.

So naturally, given that I have a bunch of raw materials left over from building my composite guitar neck, I decided to embark on a journey:  making my own wood/composite table tennis blade.  Naturally this is going to turn out more expensive than simply having bought one from a store.  But I guess that's not why I do this stuff.

First, a picture of a sandwich discovered on my little blue camera chip thing.  I got a message from my HP 735 3.2MP 15x Photosmart camera that I'm running low on solid state storage.

I don't want to lose this.  It's a metaphor for composite laminates:

Next, I assembled materials.  The black plastic sheeting is part of a garbage bag, laid on top of an old mirror which I hope will provide flatness.  The basswood sheets I have are only 4" wide and so I'm going to have to butt them against each other in a sort of alternating layer thing.  The book is to push down on top.  Good book, BTW, if you like solving "Mate in X" puzzles...lots and lots of them:

Next I put some wood down on the plastic, then a layer of fiberglass fabric on the wood:

Then I had a sandwich containing three layers of wood plus two of fiberglass, soaked in resin.  Yum:

I added weight:

I let it cure overnight and prepared to cut the shape of the blade:

And I ended up with a slightly-too-flexible paddle that has epoxy puddles in the gaps where the butt-joined layers meet:

Not good enough.  It's got enough rigidity in the long direction, I believe, but it flexes a bit too much across.  I think that's because there are two long joints in the middle.  I should have done two layers joined at the edges and only one joined in the middle, but I did it other way around.

I've ordered more wood and when it comes we'll use this one as a template.