Dremeling a skate

[kovalchuk71 212]

I am thinking of putting a humm'er chassis on my v-12's.....How and where can I get this done? I know MDE3 did this, how are they holding up? How much did it cost and is it worth it?

[Eazy_b97 1]

I think he did it himself and he had to dremel part of the boot so the wheels had enough room. His sons now gone to a Tour boot.

[MDE3 0]

The chassis list is $139.99 I think, the dremeling only took 5 - 10 minutes, and the skates are fine..they are being used by another guy on the NJ Werewolves now. My son got a chance to use some Beemers, and he loved them so he switched. Fickle....lol. Call Labeda if you need to find a dealer near you I guess.

He did like the HiHo's too. Up until he got to try the Beemers they were the most comfortable boot he had ever worn right out of the box. Went from a size 8 in the HiHo's to a 9 in the Beemers. The only concerns he really had with the HiHo's was that the boot was wearing thin at the edges of the balls of his feet from contact with the floor. The Beemers have a plastic guard in that location to help prevent this type of wear.

Be carefull if you order the Hum'er chassis to get the right size. The small and medium chassis have the same wheelbase but the smalls have the soleplates closer together. Use the mediums for size 8 Nike's and above to say size 10. We mounted a small and it took a bunch of extra work to get them to mount in the right place... By using a medium I could have avoided this.

[kovalchuk71 212]

Can I send them to you if I get the humm'er since uve dont it before...Ill pay ya for it too ;)

[MDE3 0]

So you understand..I had to go right through the outsole to the inner sole to make the recess deep enough...with shipping it would certainly be a lot cheaper to do it at a decent local LHS proshop. I would talk to him if he has any questions. Also the pitch created by attaching the Hum'er to the HiHo's is different from the pitch on the HiHo's with the stock chassis..not sure about the V12's. Even if I just bolted the correct sized Hum'er chassis on the HiHo's it would have changed the pitch of the skate quite a bit. The Tour boots are molded for this chassis pitch..as much as is possible.

My concern was that if the outsole had "taken a set" to the shape it had(my son had been already using them for 4 months before I switched them), and that when I dremeled through the outsole to give the wheel enough clearance, the outsole would now be forced into a different shape. My fear was that this might create some stress in the outsole causing a premature failure. Follow that?

So when I had to correct the mounting position problems..... from having too small a Hum'er chassis...... I also made the shims tapered in such a way as to keep the boot pitch the same. I made some very fancy, and very expensive shims($200.00 just for the specially machined high impact plastic) so that the boot outsole shape and overall pitch remained virtualy identical to what it had already been. I tend to look after my son..... B)

All the above to say...if you have already broken the skates in, I would be less inclined to do it. If they are unused, and you get the right sized chassis to start with, it shouldn't be so much of a problem. I do not want to do something to your skates and then have them come apart 6 months later. Due to the change in pitch, they will feel quite a bit different, but probably no more than any new pair of skates. I will send you pics to illustrate what I mean if you can pm me your email addy.

[Neo5370 132]

I know it would defeat the purpose but use all 76mm wheels.

No dremmeling needed.

[notquitedeadyet 13]

MDE3, What are you using for hardware these days? I remember in the summer you were trying to find a supplier for Graf stuff at a reasonable price. Find something else?

[MDE3 0]

I use the same old stuff I always did when I couldn't get Graf RMS..or refused to pay the $1.00 ea. fee... <_< for them.

I go to one of my local hardware stores and they have galvinized metal grommets for mounting handles on wooden drawers etc. I use the size 10/32's I believe, which have about a 1/2" or even 5/8" head and 3 "tangs" which are meant to bite into the wood to prevent the grommets from rotating when you tighten the screws. I grind off these tangs, and sometimes part of the flange, particularily for the heel mount screws when they are too close to the bootwall. Because of the nature of the inner boot sole, I never have much problem with these things rotating when I install...sometimes when I am removing them after a year or 6 months I do, but I get around it usually. I think It takes a 1/4" drill for the holes in the bootsole.(maybe 15/64"... I do not have one handy)

I just grab the flanges with a vice grip to shape them or remove the tangs on my bench grinder. You will need 5/8" or 1/2" screws for the front usually and 5/8" or 3/4" screws for the heel..the bootsole is usually thicker back there. It varies somewhat from skate to skate. You can use a thread locking compound like "locktite" if you want, but if you use allen head screws, then usually you do not need to use any thread locking compound..which adds to the difficulty when removing them, although it does prevent the threads from corroding from the sweat too. Try to use some epoxy to plug the old holes particularily for inlines, as the sweat can leak through onto the wheels causing you to slip.

[notquitedeadyet 13]

I've got some of those & was wondering if they would work. Thanks for comfirming, I was a little concerned if they were strong enough, since they're stamped from sheetmetal. Stainless screws are reasonable & easy to find. Might help removal problems. I'm kind of a hardware junkie; if I find something I think might work better, I'll run it by you.

Sorry Kov for hijacking your thread.

Now back to your regular program. :)

[MDE3 0]

Basically by the time they rotted out, so had the rest of the skate most of the time. The only reason I had to remove them was to swap the chassis from skate to skate. I preferred to use hardened Allen screws with washers for better purhase when tightening...could not necessarily find them in Stainless though.

[kovalchuk71 212]

MDE3, Where can I get the Graf RMS screws?

[MDE3 0]

.......from Graf.... <_< .....that's the only place I could find them or at least the grommets......the screws from almost any hardware store in their metric machine screw box. I have looked a lot elsewhere for the grommets, and I am sure they are standard in some obscure European catalogue, but that's why I use those other grommets....I could not find the RMS units.

[JR Boucicaut 3789]

A Graf retailer can order them up for ya.

[MDE3 0]

It's the $1.00 ea. for a $.07 unit that bothers me lol...just in principle.

[Eazy_b97 1]

That's how it generally is though. I got raped on some replacement axels a few years ago. Paid something like $40 for 8.

[MDE3 0]

At the discounted prices of 2 - 3 year old skates, they should have thrown the rest of the skate in with the axles lol.

[notquitedeadyet 13]

You might like these screws better than what you're using:

Button head SS socket headcap screws

They got a bigger footprint than regular allen screws, and they're stainless.

I've used them for other applications, & been able to find them locally.

[kovalchuk71 212]

would these be it? ;)

http://www.hockeyguys.com/detail.aspx?ID=50

[Chadd 916]

would these be it? ;)

http://www.hockeyguys.com/detail.aspx?ID=50

$20 for 16? screw that, so to speak

[kovalchuk71 212]

lol.....How much does Graf charge?

You can also use them multiple times I assume, so it's not that bad of a deal IMO

[Eazy_b97 1]

.......from Graf.... <_< .....that's the only place I could find them or at least the grommets......the screws from almost any hardware store in their metric machine screw box. I have looked a lot elsewhere for the grommets, and I am sure they are standard in some obscure European catalogue, but that's why I use those other grommets....I could not find the RMS units.

It's the $1.00 ea. for a $.07 unit that bothers me lol...just in principle.

[kovalchuk71 212]

whoops

[MDE3 0]

I rarely ever transact when I know I am being raped....I need to feel I am being made love to...the result is the same, but I have to have that respect in the morning.....(call me old fashioned)

As for them being re-used multiple times.....they was never enough left of them to re-use. About two months after I had mounted the Hum'er chassis I replaced some rivots with some RMS attachments I had lying around. Two months later the RMS collets actually pulled through the boot, they had corroded so much.

Inline is much hotter for the feet, so players generally will create more perspiration in a boot(with or without toe vents :P ). The causticity of this perspiration is tough on all the fasteners.