marka

Howdy, Keeping in mind that I've only used my machine now five times on 3 different pairs of skates... Using my crap ebay edge checker, I've seen some variance on edge heights. A couple clicks one way or the other on the ring alignment seems to change it a little. Using the alignment tool, its hard to see a difference with just one or two clicks, so I'm thinking that dialing it in is going to be more about the edge checker than the alignment tool. But in that process, I don't know if I need to run just a single cycle, 4 cycles, or whatever else to get the full radius reground & "moved" across the blade. I'd rather not waste ring or steel life I don't need to waste, of course. I also assume that something could change in the future and I'd need to re-dial it in. Presumably the clamp is good about centering the blade on the wheel, but I could also see that not being 100% so even if the clamp is repeatable, it might have a different setting for a different thickness blade. Mark

Howdy, Similar question... When I use an edge checker to fine tune my edge height, how many passes should I make after I adjust the wheel position? I.e. if I cut the skate normally (like, 4 passes or whatever), check edges, and decide to move the grinding ring a couple clicks on the adjuster, how many additional cycles should I run to ensure that the full width is cut so that I can get a true reading on the new edge heights? Mark

Howdy, So, browsing around the Sparx site, because I realized I want a dust cover for the sharpener and I noticed they have other honing stones. Needed? The Sparx came with a 240 grit stone. I'm only sharpening regular steel. Mark

Howdy, Merry xmas to me.... :-) Opened up my new Sparx and gave it a whirl today. Everything went as the manual suggested, though I did get a weird error when I was cutting my first skate again to get the edge checker happy... Got a 3-6-10 "Translation Error - Limit undetected" and the wheel didn't return to the home position after making a "back" pass. Turned it off and turned it back on and it cut the other skate fine. Hoping it was just a weird one time thing. Otherwise it was smooth sailing. The blades on my skates are pretty cut down, so I've got the height the highest it goes, but it seems to cut fine. I should have a chance to get on the ice in a couple days, but visually and edge-checker-wise (just a cheapo ebay one), they look the same as the sharpening JR did for me last weekend. I did have to give the adjuster a couple clicks after initial alignment with the tool to get the edges coming out even. Probably more down to my crap vision than anything else. I'm going to have to write down which way the grinding wheel moves when you turn the adjuster. Forgot to the do that the first time around. :-) It's just sitting here in our dining room for now, but it'll get a permanent home out in the (heated) garage with the other hockey gear soon. Crazy that something that throws as much dust as a skate sharpener can run in our dining room without my wife yelling at me! :-) Mark

Howdy, Yeah, people said that about my Makos too. And yet I still like having them on there. Mark

Howdy, The Ribcor thread reminded me about something I was curious about with True skates... Anyone know if they can incorporate lace locks? Yes, you can add them to a regular eyelet, but the lace lock is "further up" from the eyelet, so its nicer if the mounting point / eyelet for the lace locks isn't in line with the other eyelets. Mostly idle question until my Mako M8's fall apart, but I was still curious. Mark

Howdy, Older guys that get in fights in lower level beer league hockey. For fuck's sake, you're >40. Outside of another guy taking a two handed swing to your melon, nobody cares what he did and you're just being an ass. Mark

Howdy, Crazy. And thanks for the real info, I was hoping you'd jump in. :-) My guess had been that labor cost alone on a sharpening would make it break even at best, but my "time to sharpen" guess must be too high. Mark

Howdy, I would be really interested in knowing if skate services like sharpening or repair is a profit center for a LHS. Given the costs, I have a hard time thinking it is, but ?? Mark

Howdy, I think pros and cons are fine. I started where you are in terms of skepticism. But after getting a chance to see one, talk with a rep for a long time, and have my skates done by it, I was more convinced. Then after seeing what average good sharpening had done to one of my steel set's profile, plus factoring in "sharpen whenever I want", I bought one. In terms of volume of sharpening, Sparx seems to think 1600 sharpenings per year is fine for their home unit, so I think your assumptions on durability might be a little pessimistic. They've also been out since what, 2015 I think? So there are units out there with a lot of use on them and at least so far I havne't heard of wear / durability issues. Again, I think you might be a bit pessimistic. Maybe find someone that has one and check it out, since you're in the business? Mark

Howdy, https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2017/12/ictas-fivestarhockey.html Mark

Howdy, It doesn't make it ok in a pickup (because WTF dude?) but I will say as a novice guy that in a normal game I was surprised to learn that digging away for the puck under the goalie and all, before the whistle, was still illegal per the rules and that while its perhaps expected in various situations, its also expected that you'll get an earful / a shot for it. I mention it just because I truly didn't know that and maybe if the guy is new he doesn't know either? Mark

Howdy, Anyone whacking away at a covered puck at a pickup with no refs is a douche. Hell, I expect to take a push / shove or two or whatever when I try stuff like that (before the whistle) in a regular adult league game with refs. And when that happens, I'll just say "good save" or whatever and skate away. And if someone cross checked my goalie in the head on purpose the absolute best he could expect from me would be for me to knock him on his ass. Mark

Howdy, Acceleration by definition is a change in velocity over time. So while it it completely true that any helmet (or no helmet) won't have an effect on the starting velocity or the ending velocity of a head for a particular impact, it very well could have an effect on the time it takes for the head to change velocity. A longer time means less acceleration, which is better for your noggin. For example... If your head goes from 5 meters/second to 0 over .01 seconds, you experience ~50g. If you increase that time to .015 seconds, you experience ~33g. That's just 5 milliseconds different and my butt says that's within the realm of what different padding can do. Mark

Howdy, I had a hard time deciding to order the Sparx vs. a traditional sharpener. What ended up convincing me was that when I compared one set of steel on my skates to another set, the profile was fairly different. And that correlated to a difference I felt on the ice. They both started the same. The only real difference is one had been sharpened a little more. A machine that provides a consistent pressure and speed, optimized for good results, seems better to me than a system that relies on human technique. The guys sharpening my skates all have WAY more experience than I will ever get sharpening my own stuff. They act in conscientious manners. I had serious doubts that my results would be equal, let alone better. The Sparx is going to be awful if you need it to do something it hasn't been programmed or designed to do. Its going to suck if a proprietary part breaks and Sparx is out of business or just has bad support. Its going to be awful if they go under and you can no longer get their proprietary grinding rings. But if you stay within the Sparx "window", my take on it is that you will get at a minimum an equal sharpening to what a human can do and in many cases, better. YMMV. Mark

Howdy, If I'm ever forced to go on a cruise again, I'll keep that in mind. :-) Mark

Howdy, Yeah, that makes sense. This was on the Norwegian Breakaway. 7 day Bahamas cruise out of NYC. Not a base cruise, no real spring break feel. I will admit to the possibility that another cruise might be better, but the primary ways I can see improving on this one would be cut the # of people and the general volume level of everything to 1/4 of what it was. And after that, I'd still have the "not enough time in the port", "can never see any of the actual ship stuff", "motion sickness", "dry land sickness", etc. etc. etc. We went on a cruise not knowing if they'd be for us. Per your experience and others, some folks love them. Turns out I don't. I didn't put enough weight on the whole "casino/show/eat all the time/drink/nightclub" stuff vs. the "on a ship in the middle of the ocean" part. I was interested in the latter. Mark

Howdy, I'll certainly try it on. :-) But I will say that I'm pretty happy with my Re-Akt 200. Nice to see manufacturers making steps to make their helmets objectively better. Mark

Howdy, Just got back from a 7 day caribbean cruise out of NY this evening. My wife, 10 year old, and me. The good bit is that they seemed to have an ok time. As for me, basically I'll summarize as "I spent $4k to learn that I never, EVER, want to go on a cruise". Holy crap did that suck. Trapped on a boat jammed together with 4k people in a floating Vegas Casino. Noisy and crowded everywhere, at every hour of the day. Oh, and for the first time ever in my life managed to get motion sickness. Which is still fucking me up even now, ~12 hours after I got off the damn thing. There were some good parts. Two of the onboard restaurants were nice, seeing the Kennedy Space Center was cool, and riding a Segway for the first time in Nassau was fun. But that good stuff pile is pretty small compared to all the crap in the "holy fuck, I PAID for this?" pile. Now I'm sitting here at home with the weebly wobbles or whatever the hell and I'm wondering if I'm going to even be able to skate tomorrow. And I missed fucking Winterfest for it too. Tell your friends: Cruising. Not even once. Mark

Howdy, Any Black Friday or xmas deals planned on the Sparx? Mark

Howdy, Oh, cool. Yeah, at least some of those teams / guys are ones I've played against. A bunch of them switch between the league that plays here in Boardman (The Ice Zone) and Hess seemingly depending on the weather. :-) Normally the problem around here is "not enough folks", so its crazy to hear that there's a team with 20+. Hess remains the rink I always think of when I'm somewhere else and people are bitching about wherever that is being a shitty facility. I've yet to see anything as bad as the locker rooms at Hess. :-) Mark

Howdy, Where at / what division? That sounds pretty lame to be sure. I love having 13 skaters and that seems like a goal for teams I'm on over at Baierl. 10 is ok, but I'm old and slow and get pretty beat if its a quick game / against someone tough. At 8 I know I'm going to be slowly dying, its just a question of when I go into "ah, fuck it, I probably couldn't get there anyway" mode. :-) I can't imagine 20 guys though. That sounds awful. I don't think I've ever played with more than 15 and guys were bitching about that one. Mark

Howdy, My primary question re: Sparx at this point is "why are all the grinding rings on back order?" with a concern of "if Sparx goes out of business my cool Sparx machine that I love (really, I saw one at Summer Fest and thought it was great!) is a paperweight because I won't be able to get grinding rings. But your comment makes me wonder... are there pictures of the internal guts of a Sparx somewhere? And have you QC tested one _after_ the shipping company lauched it off a dock to a 4' fall? :-) I don't believe I've ever seen a piece of machinery with moving parts that has been unable to be whacked out of alignment. Mark

Howdy, Interesting to read a pro review. Is the clamp system the same as the home unit? On the home system, I'd have said that by design it would accommodate different thickness blades, since it clamps to a centered position, not one edge. Mark

Howdy, The new team my wife and I are playing on has a "locker room music guy" who also likes to give lots of advice and direction to others out on the ice. Sigh. Mark