Problem mounting Marsblade

[NiCnoK 61]

I took my Marsblade to Total Hockey to have them installed on my Easton Mako M8's. I had previously had them converted to a standard inline chassis, but the conversion to the Marsblade chassis is being problematic. There is a raised "vent" piece that sits along the bottom of the boot and is interfering with the chassis sitting flush with the toe of the boot. The gentleman from TH was hesitant to just crank down the rivets to close this gap, for fear that this would cause stress cracks in the chassis over time.

So my question is, I know I've seen Marsblades on Makos, how'd you guys overcome this issue? I appreciate your help with this, thanks in advance.

 

[krisdrum 223]

I haven't done a conversion to Marsblades or of Makos, but I'd think it would be better to slightly modify the "rubber wrap" on the boot than modify the chassis.  I'd probably try something like a Dremel sanding wheel at an angle, so I was removing as little material as possible from the boot, just enough to get the chassis to sit flatter on the sole.  Take that suggestion with a grain of salt. 

[IPv6Freely 2083]

What about a rubber shim?

[NiCnoK 61]

17 hours ago, krisdrum said:

I haven't done a conversion to Marsblades or of Makos, but I'd think it would be better to slightly modify the "rubber wrap" on the boot than modify the chassis.  I'd probably try something like a Dremel sanding wheel at an angle, so I was removing as little material as possible from the boot, just enough to get the chassis to sit flatter on the sole.  Take that suggestion with a grain of salt. 

 

Pers from Marsblade wrote me back and suggested trimming a bit of the chassis away, but I like your idea better. Has anyone ever tried to cut this rubbery material? I feel like I could trace the chassis and cut the boot much easier than the other way around.

I wonder the advantages of this fix vs. shimming the area. I've never used a skate with a shim, but it seems like I'd want to keep the pitch as forward as possible to replicate the feel of my Makos on the ice.

Thanks for both of your suggestions tho. I figured one of them would be the solution - I'll post results when I get them done.

[Kgbeast 195]

I would trim the chassis instead of messing with the boot. I am not sure what you will find under that rubber on the skate... maybe nothing and you make a gash in the boot. Chassis already pretty high, not sure if adding a shim is just a bit too much. If not, shim is the best solution I would say. Some hard plastic. McMaster-Carr sell small sheets of about anything. You'd need to shim both front and back of course though.

[althoma1 574]

I would also recommend trimming the chassis like Pers recommended. It doesn't like you'd have to trim off much of the chassis mounting plate at all. The problem with trying to trim the plastic off the boot is that it's glued right to the carbon fibre unibase. You would run the risk of cutting and damaging the carbon fibre while trying to cut it or damaging it when trying to pry it off after it's been cut. Either way risking boot damage doesn't seem to be the smart play when you could just trim the chassis plate before it goes on the boot as Pers suggested.

[DRR 112]

On second thought I'd also say trim the chassis. It doesn't look like you need to trim much to get it to fit, and it also looks far enough away from the mounting hole (to this layman at least) that it should not create a weak point that is more susceptible to cracking. 

The shim is still a good, workable solution, and should be non-destructive to both the chassis and the boot - but as OP brought up, it would alter the pitch of the skate. So if that's something that's important then I think the chassis could be trimmed up a bit with a dremel and a sanding disc.

[IPv6Freely 2083]

10 minutes ago, DRR said:

On second thought I'd also say trim the chassis. It doesn't look like you need to trim much to get it to fit, and it also looks far enough away from the mounting hole (to this layman at least) that it should not create a weak point that is more susceptible to cracking. 

The shim is still a good, workable solution, and should be non-destructive to both the chassis and the boot - but as OP brought up, it would alter the pitch of the skate. So if that's something that's important then I think the chassis could be trimmed up a bit with a dremel and a sanding disc.

It shouldn't change the pitch if its on both the front and back. I was thinking some kind of thin soft rubber to take up the gaps to keep anything from cracking. Not hard plastic.

[NiCnoK 61]

I appreciate all the feedback. Full disclosure, I paid more for the chassis than the boots, that was part of the reason I'd rather hack at the boots.

I'm going to talk to Jose tomorrow about the best option. I'm thinking I'll go with the consensus tho. Thanks again, guys.

BTW Pers is the man. Anyone with any concerns about ordering marsblades can rest assured that he'll be with you every step of the way.

[NiCnoK 61]

I picked them up Saturday morning and they are perfect. Total Hockey (Jose and Matt) in Novi did a great job trimming the chassis and mounting the blades. I am sooooo glad I didn't try to do this myself. For a very nominal fee, the fellas at TH handled it all, including the Dremel-ing. 

I used them a couple times this weekend, and can't say enough good about them. They took about two minutes to get used to, and feel like skating should. One note, I was trying to adjust the rocker amount using the screw at the bottom and loosened it too much. (going for that "pro" level difficulty) Without realizing it, I completely unscrewed the blue pad / nut group that sits at the top off the chassis from the bolt below it and had to spend about 20 minutes walking up and down my skate path looking for it, after it bounced out of the chassis. 

All in all, I couldn't be happier with the Marsblades or the people that mounted them. Also thanks again both to Pers and the people on the board who took an issue I had no idea how to move forward on, and presented a solution that solved a random, one-off problem.

 

[IPv6Freely 2083]

Nice. I'm going to need to have similar done as well so this helps a ton.