psulion22

Yay for tearing the MCL in my other knee last night. That's both knees in just over 3 months.

I'll agree with that. Fire 1/2 has similar glide, but far less bite than FBV 95/75 or 100/50. The FBV may have more bite than the typical 1/2 ROH, so it may not be an exact comparison. I think I'll need Fire 3/8" to get the bite I'm used to.

I won a Sparx sharpener on EBay at the beginning of November. It took the seller almost a week to ship, and another 5 days to get. Totaling 11 days from purchase to receipt. That’s not horrible, but not great either. When I opened the box, I found that they hadn’t installed the travel support, nor included the alignment ring. That made the machine pretty much useless. I contacted the seller about the alignment ring the day I got the machine. They said they found it and would send it the next day. I waited another 10 days and no ring. I contacted them again, they said they sent it earlier in the week. Another week and the envelope finally shows up today. I say envelope because it was empty. There had been an alignment ring in it, you can see marks on it. But since the seller only used a plain regular envelope (also meaning they didn’t send it until earlier this week), the ring had torn through the paper and is since long gone. So now I have to order one from a Sparx, which is fine. But my skates need a cut and I’ll either have to pay $10 for a sharpening while I have a machine sitting here, or wing it the best I can to get it aligned.

Awesome. Thanks. I slid the carrier all the way over to the adjustment tool (it won’t let you run the alignment function with a grinding ring in) and the indicator on the tool lines up pretty much exactly at the crease between the stone and hub. I also used the alignment tool to magnify the hollow of the steel and it looked pretty even. The grinding marks went all the way to both edges. But after sharpening, I stood the steel up on the granite counter and put a speed square against it. The steel is definitely off by maybe 1/32” or less. It has a slight gap at the top. I tried adjusting the carriage as much as 4 clicks on the knob and it didn’t seem to make much difference. I gave up after that because it’s a waste of steel and ring at 4 passes each test. ill just have to wait for the alignment ring to be sure.

Ya, I know I can. But the seller had it and said they would send it, so why spend $40 on a ring? That was on 11/16. I do have the tool. So if you could give me the measurement I actually have a spare grinding ring I can use this time in a pinch. Hopefully it will come tomorrow and it won't matter as I don't need to skate until Sunday. The seller said they sent it last Wednesday (6 days after they said they would) and the unit took 8 days to get to me because the seller used the awful UPS Mail Innovations service which doubles the time because of the handoff. So with Thanksgiving, and BF/CM volume, it could take longer to get to me this time.

Is there any way to test the alignment of these machines without the alignment ring/tool? (or without an edge checker for that matter) I bought one of these used for a great price, but the seller forgot to include the alignment ring. It's supposed to be on its way, but it's been 8 days and still no show. Plus they didn't install the travel brace when they shipped it. I ran it on old steel and the edges seemed even and level. I lost an edge in my last game, and it's really going to suck to have to pay $10 to have a sharpening when I have this machine sitting there.

I won a roller championship (5v5) one season playing only 2 D the entire season. Not the same, and it was a long time ago. But if you have forwards that can help the D out and keep them from running around too much, it can work.

3 D is a different mindset. You're typically on the ice for 4 or 5 minutes straight at least, so you get more engaged in the game. Plus, since the pairings just rotate, it's more fluid and consistent when the same defenders are playing with all of the forwards, rather than switching as a unit of 5 as often happens at a stoppage in beer league. I find that a feel more like I'm "rolling" when we have 3 D. But at the same time, if the D is doing what they are supposed to be doing, 3 D can get tiring and lead to too much passive play.

It does require a long list of subs and only a few available spots on a regular basis. That team in particular has maybe 8-10 guys we can call, but maybe only one or two needed a game. So if they want the opportunity to play at some point, they'll have to come when we want them to not only when they want to.

One team I'm on remedies this by charging those who wanted to be "subs" $100 up front. That guarantees them 4 games during the season, and priority on the list. But if we call for a sub, and you turn it down, that counts as a game (with one freebie). This way you're really only charging that money to a couple guys and will get coverage for most games. If for some reason those guys still don't fill the roster, we'll go to individuals, but those guys probably aren't going to get many games, if any at all. We find that guys will show up if they have skin in the game. (just like how guys who are good enough to not pay to play won't show up if they find literally anything better to do). Another team goes by the 3 strike rule. If we call and you don't play 3 times, you don't get called again until everyone else does the same and list comes back around to the top.

I'm a little concerned about this myself. I just got an awesome deal on a used Sparx and I'm hoping I'll be ok with the Fire cut. I think I'm going to drop down in sharpness to 1/2F from 95/75 FBV (5/16 eq.) to try and maintain the glide. I figure the ability to keep the edges consistently sharp will offset the slight loss in bite. A fresh 1/2F *should* have the same bite as a 95/75 after 3 or 4 skates.

Awesome, thanks! It's not perfect yet, because a lot of the content still requires a tv provider. But I'm sure it will get there sooner or later.

It does? I asked the people at the Apple Store and they said not yet.

Yeah, I figured. No worries, that's why I clarified it. This is exactly where I'm at. I watch maybe 20-25 channels, plus the movie channels. I would very happily stop paying $200+ a month to drop the 500+ channels I don't watch and go to streaming services. But I'm a browser, I just flip on the guide and find something that I want to watch. Mostly, I don't want to have to invest my attention or time into something either. I watch a lot of syndicated sitcoms and Food/Cooking network because it's mindless entertainment. As it stands right now, there is no way I know of to compile the content from all of the various streaming services into one menu. I have less than zero interest in having to go in and out of each individual service app to have to pick something. I currently have subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon and don't use them because the process of filtering through everything is tedious. When AppleTV can pull all of the content out of the apps and put it in one list for me to scroll through, and all of those apps possibly add live tv streaming, I'll cut the cord. Until then, I'm stuck paying for satellite.

I'm not necessarily talking about piracy. I'm talking about things like sports highlights, or Hulu/Netflix, or youtube. As was posted in this thread - why pay to watch an NHL game when you can get highlights for free online? Why pay for cable when you can pay a fraction to get a streaming service? As the owners of the content lose revenue they will start getting it elsewhere. That means no more free highlights, or third party content on streaming services. If you want NBC content, you're going to either use an over air antenna or pay for NBC's streaming service. By the time you add up the cost of all of the individual services, you're going to have been close to better off sticking with cable. And cable rates will go down, possibly to include streaming only service, to make sure that's true. Heavy users like you may find ways around it. But for the average consumer who has cut the cord because the cost has outweighed the difficulty finding and compiling content, the total cost for all the a la carte services will exceed the cost of the package they were getting before.

I'd argue that the opposite is true. People cut the cord because they are receiving the content for *mostly* free elsewhere. As the content creators and providers lose revenue from traditional sources, they will start charging more and more for that content through non-traditional sources.

I'm similarly confused by this. OP- If you've played with this same group of people for 4 years, then why didn't you know that you don't do that in this group? And if it's never come up, then why did the guy who runs it say WE don't do that? If everyone is playing the same way as you were, then surely it would have happened before. It doesn't mesh. The bottom line is that you know that you did something that group doesn't want, and looking on here for us to tell you how wrong they are. You're continually trying to justify it, but everyone else paying at the same speed an intensity as you seem to avoid it. Even if they didn't care doesn't mean that they don't know not to do it. It's their ice, their rules. If the guy who runs it tells you that you're in the wrong, you're in the wrong. Period.

Let me guess, you always "play to the whistle" too.

Yay! Mild/moderate MCL tear last night! Puck battle in the corner, guy goes down, gets up pissed off, and cross checks me from behind awkwardly into the boards while I was battling his teammate. I bounce off the boards and go down with my foot under me. POP! No penalty because the ref didn't see it because he was "looking out for himself". Luckily it doesn't appear to be a grade 3, it hurts but I can still stand on it on one foot and bend it and there's no weakness . No pain anywhere except on the inside of the knee when bending, twisting, ot walking, so likely no other structures are damaged. Treatment is RICE until the pain goes away. If it's not marginally better by Friday, I'll go to a doc.

That's a common issue also. Typically, the guy paying for the whole team gets players well above the correct level because those players are good and won't pay to play. There's enough demand for them that they'll just find the best team that will let them play for free. The two players I mentioned that came from other teams left because of that. The problem with this is that because they didn't pay, they have no skin in the game, so they aren't committed and don't show up.

Surprise, surprise - the two teams in my league with all the players that don't beling will play in the Championship on Wednesday. One of the teams started the season 0-5, added 5 D2 players, and have now gone 9-0 since. The other is a new team that never belonged in this league, and went 11-3 with their losses coming early, going 9-1 to finish the season with the loss coming to the aforementioned team. The captain is a Johnny Tries Too Hard who thinks he's a good player (he isn't). He told everyone who would listen that he was starting a team of his friends and they would suck and he didn't care if they won a game at all. Then he proceeded to to "pay" for the entire team (you know what happens with guys like that) and loaded it with the highest level players we have (there's no D1 here), including stealing the best players from two other teams in the league. Unlike you, I have no faith that the league will do anything about it. For starters, as of the end of the season they still had an unpaid balance, which is why I put pay in quotes above. If you're going to allow a team to stay in the league when they haven't paid, I doubt you'll do anything about their talent level. Secondly, when we asked about the two teams with all the players that don't belong, the director said he was going to wait for the captain's meeting to see what they say. That was after telling a teammate from another league that he "f'in hates Wednesday nights because he keeps getting 3 page emails from captains". Well if you hate it that much, you probably wouldn't be taking a wait and see approach to resolving the problem. Last season, there were 5 teams and the difference between the first and last was 5 points. That indicates it was a really even league, especially since we finished first but picked up a ton of points because we didn't lose many games in regulation. In terms of straight win-loss record, I think one win separated all the teams. This season, the top team had double the points of the last. And the team that finished out of the playoffs last season is the one that added all the ringers in the middle of this season. It's clear what the issue is, but the director seems to be unwilling to fix it. What's worse is that it's just going to hurt the only league below us. Guys from this league that are too good for D6, but not good enough for the way D5 is shaping out, are going to play down, and make it tough for the beginner players that have no where else to go. And D6 is already too good to begin with, so this will make it even worse.

Does 2 or 3 shitty players mixed with a group of D2 guys make a D5 (with D6 being the lowest) team? Because that's what I have in my league.

Is there mention of a smaller sized (33/34") 1X locker bag in there?

Yes. Especially in IMAX. Fun fact: The character of Mr. Dawson was based on Charles Lightoller, the highest ranking officer to survive the Titanic sinking.

Have you done any testing about the longevity/durability of the edges with your Fire to a FBV to ROH? I find that my FBV doesn't seem to last as long. Using the math behind it, I'd suspect that's because the "fangs" are particularly thin on any FBV that starts with a 95 or 100. I had been using 100/50 but went to 95/75 to get a little bit stronger edge. So since the fangs are so thin, they wear out quickly. Since the Fire has a shorter "flat" and therefore thicker fangs, does the edge last longer? How does the Fire differ from FBV so that you can maintain the combinations of glide and bite when you have a shorter flat? How is it different than going to FBV 85/*, but having to go to a "1" depth, which would greatly sacrifice glide for bite?