chiefs17

I don't travel with my X01, but if I did I would get something like this for keeping my spinners organized. Mark each compartment with Sharpie to say what each spinner is. http://www.planomolding.com/product.php?BCCID=127&PID=938 As it is, I have some hanging hooks on my sharpening bench, each spot is marked with the number of the spinner. If you take one off, you put it back in the right spot. You always know which spinner is in the machine because it's the empty hook (with label). When changing spinners you put the old spinner back on the hook before you pull the new spinner off. Easy peasy.

Is the only place to buy 4" grinding wheels for an X-01 still direct from Blackstone, or has someone found another source? Shipping 2 wheels to the US is $27.55. I feel like that's a rip off. I ship stuff to Canada occasionally and it doesn't cost anywhere near that much. I thought I remembered someone mentioning a Minnesota Distributor. Thanks.

Awesome work Hot Ice, the nicest sharpener I've seen!

This is very true. I had a pair of Graf's that were a real pain to sharpen because of it. Goalie skates can be tough too. In my experience though, if the boot was touching the holder it would torque the whole boot and give you an uneven edge for the whole length of the blade. Not just one spot. Since it happens to all skates, it's definitely something to do with your holder, not the skates. Which direction (toe first or heel first) are you putting your skates in the holder so we can get an idea if it's too low or too high in that one spot? I would strongly suggest upgrading the holder to the newer style, but that's an opinion, and you shouldn't be having this problem, even with the old holder. Is the bad spot right where the holder is pushing on the blade? Maybe it's tightened too much causing a little bow in the blade. Let us know what you find.

bash - That's a bad wheel alright. Blackstone must have a batch of bad ones because I had an issue, and I've heard others with the same problem. Give them a call and they'll send you out a new wheel. I didn't bother with the ruby wheels anymore, they can't be trusted in my opinion. I went back to orange and all is well.

Hi Don, welcome to the forum, and the world of home sharpening. For the opening in the housing, I'm assuming you're talking about the top cover. Yeah, you can just leave that thing off the machine, it will never allow you to get full use out of your wheels. Plus it's easier to clean the machine if you don't have to remove the cover and re-install it every time you want to hit it with the vacuum. It is a safety device, so don't go sticking your digits in the spinning parts when she's running! And don't wear a tie or gold chains when sharpening. Seriously, it would look really odd. As far as the wheel not spinning perfectly level, you might have a bad Wheel Hub, or a bad grinding wheel. The hub that came with my machine was way out, and I had to have it machined to get it near perfect. I would call Blackstone, especially since you just bought the machine. They are helpful,so they will try to work with you. As far as the dressing taking place in a different spot than the sharpening, well the wheel is spinning so it doesn't matter. But if you have 1/16 of an inch runout, then you will never get a proper sharpening. Keep in mind, the total width of a player skate is about 1/8 of an inch. Can you take a video of this runout? A small dial indicator with a roller tip would be great, but I don't expect everyone to have that. Set it up so the tip is touching the grinding wheel, then rotate the wheel by hand to watch the runout on the dial. The build quality is so-so. I think most of the machine is decent, but the most important part, the wheel hub, is junk. They really need to improve/focus on the quality of this part. Yes, try to learn sharpening with ROH if you have a spinner for that. It is much more forgiving, especially if you are having an issue with "slight" wheel runout. You will also get a better understanding of what the adjustments on the holder are doing. When you say "a wide range of heights" how many clicks are we talking? I'm seeing about 3-4 clicks will equate to about 1 line on the Batgauge. You will not be able to tell if skates are even by using your thumb. But you can take something flat, like a credit card or drivers license, and place it on the blade while eyeing down the length of the blade. Look for 90 degree angle between the card and blade on both sides. Hope this makes sense, you're making a "T" using your card and the blade. This is what I used to do before I had my own machine. Then you can show the "sharpener" how bad they are off. It will give you a pretty good reference. Dressing the wheel once per skate is normal. Good luck and keep us posted!

Hi jaahaa, I am having exactly the same problem as you are with the ruby wheel I'm using now. Same situation, have had the X-01 since it first came out, was it really 4 years ago? Man, time flies, but anyway. I am finding that there seems to be soft spots in these ruby wheels. I'll be going along sharpening and all of the sudden during the middle of a pass you can hear the machine make a much different grinding noise than typical. Sure enough, look at the blade right after and it's ground flat. It's like the steel of the blade is harder than the ruby wheel, and it's actually removing the profile from of the grinding wheel. I'm going to contact Blackstone about it and see what they say. Anyone else having this issue? Thanks.

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AfftonDad is correct, you can take some of the wobble out by "tuning" as well.

Could be the arbor. I know my machine vibrated like crazy before I bolted it down. It ended up being a bad arbor, out of round and drilled off center. I received a replacement from Blackstone, but it was just as bad, so I ended up machining the imperfections out of it and it's better now, but I still get some vibration, which leads to chatter marks occasionally. I think this may be the arbor nut. Try this. You know what the machine sounds like with either wheel on it, and the machine not bolted to the table. Before bolting the machine to the bench, take the grinding wheel off and turn the machine on (make sure you re-install the arbor nut - left hand thread!). How does it sound? If there is major improvement, then it could be the grinding wheels. Now try taking the arbor off. There are 2 set screws, one behind another, that hold the arbor to the motor shaft. Now turn the machine on and notice how quiet it is. This was what led me to check the dimensions on the arbor. The machine alone will spin very smooth and quiet, no need to bolt it down. When I put the arbor on there the machine was trying to walk off the bench it had such a bad vibration.

Agreed. You have some serious equipment for a home setup. I see you are in CT too, welcome to the board!

OK, so what's the consensus here for grinding wheels. I see Blackstone now has Ruby and Pink, in addition to the original Orange. I'm buying some new wheels and want to know what everyone likes best. This is for an X01 machine. Thanks.

As far as the Batgage goes, don't concern yourself with getting the pointers to a certain line every time. The pointers need to match each other, that is what shows you that your edges are even. For example, if the left pointer is at line 2, the right pointer needs to be at line 2. You could push down a little harder and change which lines the pointers line up to, but they should still be at the same line relative to each other. You need to hold the skate completely upside down, then clamp the Batgage on the blade. I like to push down on the center portion of it (right where you see the 2 screws in your picture) a couple of times to make sure it's not getting hung up, this will re-seat the device and usually give you an accurate measurement. The black pointer section of the Batgage needs to be able to to slide freely on the posts, as well as against the body of the device. I oiled every part that needs to move freely. Don't over do it, just 1 or 2 drops of light machine oil is all that you need. Once it's oiled and moving freely, when you push down on the center portion it should snap back from the spring compression. Try doing this a couple of times as you are reading the Gage. That's how I know I'm getting an accurate measurement, and nothing is hanging up. Oh yeah, and I felt the same way growing up. I think you are not alone when it comes to your skates, especially in this forum. Good luck.

You were probably feeling the effects of using Fine Shine. I have yet to see a shop use any sort of dressing for the last pass. I believe it gives a superior finish compared to no dressing. This is likely the majority of the perceived increases in speed between using your own machine at home and getting your skates done at a high volume shop. (Except for Jimmy, I know he offers the service)

With thinner steel, a 100/75 could be nearing the edge of the blade, especially if the steel is a little bent. Have him try a 90/75, that will give him/you an extra .010" of total material to work with.

I made up this little jig for doing kids skates. I was going to buy a nice bolt that has a knob on one end and a swivel foot on the other end, but I haven't yet. It would make it nicer, especially if you care about the side of your blades getting a little scuff mark in them, which obviously I don't. I use a little wrench to tighten the bolt against the blade. This works good for the amount of time I need to do little skates. I think the skate in the jig is a size 11.

I've found that doing goalie skates requires about 10 clicks of the holder knobs, down of course.

Have you tried oiling it yet? That did the trick on my Bat Gage. I'm satisfied enough that I wouldn't bother drilling out the holes at this point.

I'd like to know what's new with the Bat Gage too please. Also, as you can tell from some of the posts in this thread, we have quite a few guys that are very technical and can probably modify their existing Bat Gage to work better if it's a minor change that BS made to it. So feel free to describe the mods in detail. OTOH, I have gotten used to using the old Bat Gage, and it's not as bad as I originally thought. You need to lightly lubricate the pins that hold the pointer. I also lightly oil the part of the pointer that slides on the body of the BG. While you have the oil out, it's not a bad idea to lube the spring loaded clamping mechanism too. Basically lube everything without over doing it. I also clamp the BG on the blade, then push down on the top part of it a couple of times which compresses the springs and re-sets it. You have to be holding the skate level when you do this. Works pretty good that way. The main thing is keeping it clean, as with everything else about the machine, and especially the holder and table top. I wipe the skate blades down before I put the BG on them.

When I first bought my X01, I was struggling with getting consistent results so I was checking out everything on the machine, including the spinners. I measured the spinners using an optical comparator, and found that they were way off from what they were stated to be. I also know that they vary a lot from the mini spinners used on X series machines, to the full size spinners used on shop machines, so it's not always easy to get consistency from machine to machine. This is disconcerting, but not the end of the world. I think jimmy said it best. They may not be the correct measurement from what BS says they are, but they provide a good edge that is preferable in most cases to a traditional ROH. I'm fine with the fact that they can't get the exact measurements that they publish the spinners to be, but I would like the spinners to be consistent, so when I order a new one it will feel just like my old one, and if I have 2 different spinners they should be relative to each other. That's to be determined. I would like to see the results from this study. Rachael7, you are correct. Measuring the shape of the dressed wheel would be the better way to get an accurate measurement. Then again, why not just sharpen a blade and measure that profile. That's the real result we're looking for anyway!

Maverick, I have some expereience with goalie skates, but not the Graf G50. I can tell you that the X-12 holder will work with Bauers, size 2.5 and bigger I would guess. I had a lot of trouble with the old holder and some Bauer size 1 goalie skates. I had to grind some material off the holder jaw so it would clear the cowling. Best bet is to call blackstone and explain your situation. They might know if it will work or not.

Grave77Digger, I wouldn't bother with FBV for your 5 year old unless it's the only spinner you have. I don't think a kid that young can appreciate the difference between an FBV and an ROH anyway.

I also should have mentioned in my post that I'm using FBV and will not go back to ROH. So definitely give it a try and see what your results are.

kevrocks, technically I suppose the FBV should last as long as an ROH sharpening, but it's been my experience that it does not. I also think it is a more fragile edge, so you are more susceptible to getting nicks and flat spots in the edge. I also think that once the edge is dull, it's a big drop off in sharpness. On an ROH edge you can get by with a less than perfect edge and not notice it as much. I think this is also dependent on all of the variables associated with skate blade sharpness. Things like which ROH vs which FBV, player weight/style, ice conditions, etc.

Can we get some feedback on this type of sharpening? Has anyone tried it and liked it?