Heat-Molding Shin Pads?

[theflash0000 0]

I have a pair of Jofa 5090 shins that are too wide for my skinny shins. I love them for their light weight and want to keep using them. I was thinking of attempting to heat-mold the outer shell to make it more rounded, i.e., so that it hugs my shins tighter.

I had two possible methods in mind:

1. Wearing thin but protective pants (as well as work gloves for safety), heat the shell along the mid/center line (going vertically) with a heat gun on low setting. Once heated, I would place the pad on my leg (not contacting the warm plastic) and then tightly tape the pad horizontally around my leg and let cool in that position for a while. I don't think it would be safe to reheat it while on my leg, so I'd probably have to remove all tape, then reheat if I needed to adjust.

2. Using a pair sliding wood clamps (like this: http://www.akcol.com/userfiles/image/KWIK.jpg), heat the shell on the midline with the heat gun, then slowly clamp down the sides of the shell, squeezing the two sides closer together. I feel like this might result in the shell folding flat, but it would allow me to slowly alternate between heating and applying pressure.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone else has tried heat-molding and has any suggestions. Thanks in advance!

[bandits_5 18]

I just cant see any good coming out of that.

But if you decide to give it a go , let us know how you make out. good luck!

[HattrickSwayze 3]

I did this to my Easton's just a week or two ago. All I did was take a heat gun and slowly applied heat to the outer shell where I wanted to make them smaller. Wait until it gets warm enough, and just bend it with your hands. It worked surprisingly well actually. I started at the bottom and worked my way up until I was happy with the results. This was the only picture I took during the process. The original is on the left, and the one on the right is after I started massaging it. You can see I mostly made it a little smaller at the bottom, but eventually I tweaked the whole shell to make it narrower. This was after only a few passes of heating and cooling and molding it with my hands.

[almack 0]

I use a heatgun to widen out the bottoms of my shins works great but it dosnt always stay were I want it too

[wetwilly17 6]

I did this to my Easton's just a week or two ago. All I did was take a heat gun and slowly applied heat to the outer shell where I wanted to make them smaller. Wait until it gets warm enough, and just bend it with your hands. It worked surprisingly well actually. I started at the bottom and worked my way up until I was happy with the results. This was the only picture I took during the process. The original is on the left, and the one on the right is after I started massaging it. You can see I mostly made it a little smaller at the bottom, but eventually I tweaked the whole shell to make it narrower. This was after only a few passes of heating and cooling and molding it with my hands.

i did the same thing to widen the bottom of my vapor shins. worked great. warm up material with heat gun, bend to likeing by hand. no need for gloves or anything since you don't need to get the plastic that hot.

[halfmoonyote 0]

I've heat molded every single pair of shins I've ever used. I like a nice, wide, and straight shin pad. Think: Pavol Demitra.

That said, I've never molded them smaller. Just wider.

Essentially, I put them in front of a heat gun or space heater until they get good and soft and just start working them with a pair of plyers. Pretty simple process actually.

[beth 0]

I just did this to my CCM shins a couple of weeks ago. I'm a girl with long legs, so I need 14" senior shinpads but they were just so wide.

What I did was get a big storage tub that could fit both shinguards in it laying down. First, I duct taped the shins to hold them in the desired width, putting tape all the way around the shin in three places cinched tight. Placed the taped-up shins hard side down in the tub. Then I boiled up a couple of big pots of water, and poured it in around the shins and weighted them down so they wouldn't be floating. Then I just left them until it was completely cool. It worked surprisingly well.

[HockeySavants 5]

I used a heat gun to my shins in order to break in the flexibility of bending the knee cap quicker, but I was very careful not to burn the padding itself

[theflash0000 0]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I tried it this morning using a combination of HattrickSwyaze and beth's methods:

First i gradually heated up the sides of each shell with my heat gun on low, maybe for about 30 seconds per turn, then worked the plastic a bit with my hands, then alternated back to some heat.

After about 4 heating-shaping sessions, I bound up the pad with tape in 3 places (under the knee cap, along the mid shin, and near the bottom). I tried to cinch it down just a little tighter than the shape I had already achieved, assuming there will be a little play left in it once it cools. I heated them up one more time while bound up and now I'm leaving them until the end of the day to cool and hopefully set.

It makes sense to me that using heat to widen the shells is likely to result in a better-holding shape than when the shell is made more narrow. At least on my Jofas with the ribbing pattern, it seems to want to return to the wider shape, so we'll see how it holds.

[Chadd 916]

You could also put a thin layer of padding between the shell and pads. That would tighten up the fit Android add a little more protection without compromising the structural integrity.

[interpathway 9]

The key to reforming your shin pads (especially making them smaller) is to make sure to keep them in the shape you desire the entire way through the cool-down process.

I have a three inch diameter PVC pipe laying around at my parent's house that I have always used. Heating the plastic up to the point where it is malleable is fairly easy. Once it is in this prime state I tightly wrap it around the pipe, using either twine/hockey laces/even tape to clamp it down snugly.

I have always found that the key to reforming the pads without allowing them to widen too much (aka return to their original shape) during the cooling is to leave them tied/taped up until the plastic has returned to room temperature. If you're smart, you'll let them sit twenty four hours, they'll be snug and tight when you finally unwrap them and get to skating.

[theflash0000 0]

Yeah I unwrapped mine last night, about 14 hours later and I'm pretty pleased with the results. I felt that I left one of them too wide, so I redid the procedure this morning and bound them up again. I'll try unwrapping again tomorrow.

[BehindTheMask 0]

I molded a pair of TPS Contour shin pads a little over a year ago. When they became warm enough I wrapped shin tape around the areas I wanted to contour. I then put a pair of "shin tights" over top and left them for a night. They have held up great.

[theflash0000 0]

I'm no plastics expert, but does anyone have any thoughts on rapid cooling? I was thinking of throwing mine in the freezer for a bit after forming, but decided against it. I wonder if it might be more effective than gradual cooling.

[IniNew 53]

I'm no plastics expert, but does anyone have any thoughts on rapid cooling? I was thinking of throwing mine in the freezer for a bit after forming, but decided against it. I wonder if it might be more effective than gradual cooling.

Being in the freezer in general will make the plastic more brittle. I wouldn't suggest it, but then again, I wouldn't suggest heating these either. Similar to a helmet it might weaken the plastic.

[interpathway 9]

I'm no plastics expert, but does anyone have any thoughts on rapid cooling? I was thinking of throwing mine in the freezer for a bit after forming, but decided against it. I wonder if it might be more effective than gradual cooling.

After heating, a rinse under cold water will be less traumatic than a freezer, could work better as it will not brittle the plastic.