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@hockeyrules we saw your message above. It sounds like you're using the our ES100 (consumer) machine. Based on your description, we think we know what's up with your machine and we'll take care of you to get things going right again. Can you please shoot a message over to help@sparxhockey.com with your info so we can get started? Regarding the Sparx Commercial Vacuum, we do hear sometimes from customers that they feel the vacuum isn't working well.... this is because of confusion on how the vacuum system works with the Sparx Commercial Sharpener. The vacuum's purpose in the system is to keep negative pressure (lower pressure than that of the room around the sharpener) so that any airborne particulate and dust is drawn into the sharpener enclosure (rather than wanting to go into the room). The vacuum does not try to suck up all of the dust that is trapped inside the enclosure. Capturing the dust inside the Sparx enclosure is the responsibility of the Sparx Dust Tray. Heavy particulate will drop into the tray and we recommend users to pull the vacuum hose from the port on the side of the PS100 sharpener once per day and vacuum out the heavy particulate from the tray. People often see this dust in the tray and think that the vacuum isn't sucking/pulling hard enough and that's not how the system is designed. I hope this helps. Lastly, on the number of cycles. Most of our commercial users that are using ES100s (our consumer machine) claim that they nominally run 5 cycles per skate for a good sharpening. We have commercial customers sharpening many thousands of pairs of skates per year using this technique. It helps sometimes to use the marker test on the heel and toe to confirm that the sharpening got the whole blade surface. I personally use this visual indicator since it only takes a second to mark the blade and it is proof positive that your sharpening was complete... well worth the extra couple seconds. You could even drop down to 4 cycles per skate with the marker test and then up a cycle if needed. The marker test also helps your customers out because you wouldn't be removing more steel than necessary on their blades. Lastly, our commercial customers using our PS100 systems have the cross grinding ring which does help out the situation of sharpening brand new or severely damaged steel. The cross grinding wheel removes steel much faster than the standard Sparx Grinding Ring. The cross grinding ring is no longer available for the ES100 system - much to the dismay of our ES100 customers (us too). This is because the swarf coming off the cross grinding wheel is too hot for onboard filter of the ES100 vacuum system. If you have any more questions, please shoot us a note over at help@sparxhockey.com. Our customer service and tech support teams are here to help. Cheers, Russ Founder/CEO Sparx Hockey

If Westside did the scan and fitting I dont think they would "mess up" on baking them. They do enough True skates that they know what they are doing, especially if the first pair was not built quite right. However, we are mostly all human and there is always a margin for error 😉 Full disclosure, my first pair of True skates did not fit as I expected. Now, it's debatable if they fit right or wrong, as that could be considered objective, but for MY needs and how I prefer MY skates to fit they had too much volume. The first pair of skates I tried using the red insoles to take up the extra volume, toe inserts to make them snugger in the toe box, and switched to thicker tongues. Despite the changes, they still felt "sloppy" even though they were very comfortable. This led to True making me a second pair. The second pair were closer in proper fit, but still not exactly perfect. I personally had to make adjustments to the facing of the skates and add some foams to get them to fit the way I wanted. As mentioned, I did this myself, it obviously helps that I own a shop and also have experience customizing skates, but the work I did is far more involved than the typical consumer would put into a pair of skates. I am sure many would have considered the first or second pair to be a good fit, but for my personal preferences they didn't fit right and felt sloppy. Our shop does a lot of fitting for players requesting True skates. To be completely honest, there are times that the fit is not exactly spot on, but usually its pretty close. The most difficult players to fit are the ones coming from a skate like the Mako which has zero negative space and fit incredibly close to the foot. Those players usually complain about the fit, weight, or that the skates feel bulky. Usually, we make modifications to the skates for the customer if its easy enough to adjust. Cutting back the facing is relatively easy on the True skates compared to modifying other one-piece skates like the AS1. Have you talked to Westside? Baking them and using ratchet clamps will surely help the fit, and adding red insoles will take up the volume. You can even use a custom insole if you want, we have some players that prefer to do such as they prefer the CCM footbeds, Bauer Speed Plate or Super Feet. Usually, these players have a very high arch that needs more support than the skate can provide.