rachael7

Gold would likely have been TiN (titanium nitride coating, long used on industrial cutting tools and recently seen on drill bits). Would have been new to skate runners though.

$110 at Midwest Skate

Orange is a great wheel, but a lot of the guys that have time in on big machines seem to like the ruby (myself included).

Yes, I have both an X01 and a 3 head full sized Blademaster and there is a big difference. The smaller wheel, with it's lower surface speed cuts less aggressively. It takes more passes or pressure and final passes have to be slower to get the same qualiy of finish. Not knocking the X01 here at all - I love the machine - just the unavoidable difference between a light duty machine and a heavy duty machine. I haven't used the X02, but mathmatically, the surface speed should be similar to the big machine, so other than perhaps less torque, I expect it behaves more like the big machines.

Both FBV and ROH can be messed up by bent blades - spots with more bite and spots with less. There may be some truth to FBV being more sensitive to that though... would have to do some drawings, but off the top of my head, the geometry does make sense, actually.

Come in on a tangent (go back to your geometry book if need be), moving more along the length of the blade than toward the wheel, and make contact with the bottom of the blade, just after the heel. Don't worry about the actual heel at all, just do the working part of the blade and feather out as you approach the toe (basically just move the skate straight and let it come off the wheel as you reach the toe radius). Then, on your last one or two passes before your final, do complete passes, starting and finishing at the holder. Your pressure should be VERY light when doing the toe and heel radii and increase slightly as you come onto the working part of the blade. At least, that's how I do it - JR and other experts here might be able to explain it better.

I have both an X01 and a full size Blademaster, and while I don't have the Blackstone Spinner attachment for the big machine (I so want it, but $2000, ouch!), I can tell you that the ROH spinners on the X01 seem to produce edges consistent with big machine. If you have poor edges in places, that could be a sign of uneven hand motion, insufficient passes, or improper honing. While the basic process is straightforward, it does take a bit of practice to get the feel and produce uniformly razor sharp edges. Keep at it, you'll get it.

Ok, I've followed this thread for a while and I don't remember seeing this one yet, and now that I actually own a pro shop, I finally get to put in one of my own :-) So last night, guy drops his skates for sharpening before the high school game (his game is after) and leaves to watch the HS game. Nice guy, agrees if any HS players need work, they have priority, friendly patter and whatnot. So I do up the blades, and as I'm giving them the final look-over before putting them back on the counter, I notice a missing rivet. Yeah, I shoulda looked first, but I didn't. Anyway, closer look shows 5 out of 8 on the front post of one holder are either busted or missing, including all 4 on the inside, another one busted on the rear post of that skate and two more busted on the front post of the other skate. Fortunately, HS game was a double-header (tourney of some kind) and he popped in between games to pick up his skates. He's pulling out the wallet and I say "Hold on a second - before you pay and run, we gotta talk." He says, with a chummy laugh, "Oh, about the rivets, yeah I know about that." And the money is still coming out of the wallet to pay me for the sharpen. I try to tell him the skates are seriously messed up and must be fixed before being used. Told him it would be $8 ($1 a rivet, probably too cheap, but it's what the shops around here seem to charge). He's hemming and hawing about it, telling me he's getting new skates and he only needs to get one or two more games out of these. I said "Sir, you're not going to get one or two more STOPS out of that skate, let alone games." He laughed and said yeah, it'll probably bust. And I said "Yes, and it will take your ankle along with it." So finally he agrees to let me replace the rivets, but he starts telling me which ones, only do this one, ok that one too, etc, etc. I finally had enough and said "Look man, at a buck a rivet, I don't make any money on this kind of work - I'm only trying to keep you from breaking your leg and missing the rest of your season. I'll do whatever you want with them." With that, after confirming again that I can have them done before his game, he finally turns me loose to make my hot dog and chips money for the night. Whoohoo. It nearly took me longer to convince the guy to do the job than it did to actually do it. And it's not like he was hurting for the lousy 8 bucks either, just a moron. Anyway, happy ending, other than a bitch of a rivet job (fucking plastic piece of crap skates, brand not to be mentioned), just ridiculous that with me standing there showing him that I could nearly rip the holder off by hand, he was actually going to go out and play a game on them. Idiot.

Had to put my cat Figaro to sleep last night. One of the toughest things I've ever had to do in my life. It was the right thing and it had to be done, but I sure am gonna miss the little guy. Outside of blood relatives, I'd known him longer than anyone in my life :-( F*** cancer. Seriously, just effing find the cure for that crap already.

That's why they created crossgrinders ;-)

Your own or as a business? If just family/friends, I would think one or two pairs a night shouldn't be too bad. But for any sort of business, Chadd is quite right - go bigger.

Yeah, that's why. Sigh. Thanks for your kind thoughts.

Lost my partner of 6 1/2 years a week ago today. She was only 44. Life just sucks sometimes.

You could probably do it with one of these in a drill press, but that's pretty cost prohibitive. Short of that, if the steel is really hardened to any degree, you're better off trying to grind it out with a small cylindrical stone on a Dremel tool at low speed and just hope like heck you get it round.

Steve indicated you would be drilling hardened steel... probably just going to smoke up your bit, unless you have a carbide tipped one.