Sparx Skate Sharpener - At home sharpener

[stick9 890]

1 minute ago, 218hockey said:

Yes. 1/2" Fire.

But for sure would be doing a few other families skates so thought that's where the Starter Pack would be good.

My advice, get the 1/2" Fire for yourself along with a 1/2 & 5/8 ROH. 

[stick9 890]

20 minutes ago, pgeorgan said:

Haha ya that's what they want but there's no more bundle for them. Growing pains. 

bundle or not, that's what I would get, especially if I planned on sharpening for other people.

[lfc26 3]

Hi guys,

first of all happy new year to all of you and thanks for letting me contribute to this forum!

I've just received my Sparx sharpener and I'm really happy with it. You guys have already helped me a lot in making my final buying decision and apart from the costs of usage I'm really happy with it.  In the  last few days, my friends and I have sharpened about 10 pair of skates and so far our grinding ring usage is pretty high. On average it's around 8x2 cyles per pair. Unfortunately, the availability of grinding rings is quite limited in my area and the costs of shipping are high.

 

Costs per grinding ring in Europe are around 80$=73€ and shipping adds another 15$....

My question now is, is it somehow possible to use the PS100 grinding rings and XG Cross grinding rings on the the ES100 machine?

I'm asking this because for some odd reason the availability of PS100 grinding rings is far better at the moment than for ES 100 consumer version, and it would also save me around 5$ per ring. PS100 XG Cross Grinding rings are also available from this dealer... and I know the story some guys refused to clean the air filter so Sparx decided to stop producing them for the ES100 machines.....

 

And secondly, as a long time follower, I've read that most of you guys had great success with sharpening 5 cycles. In your experience, how many cycles does it take to sharpen skates with completely flat hollows?

At the moment it looks like one sharpening ring will last for 20 sharpenings of worn down blades at maximum...given the costs of 1300$ for the machine alone this is not really sustainable for a beer league team....

Thanks guys!

 

 

[VegasHockey 1280]

8 minutes ago, lfc26 said:

Hi guys,

first of all happy new year to all of you and thanks for letting me contribute to this forum!

I've just received my Sparx sharpener and I'm really happy with it. You guys have already helped me a lot in making my final buying decision and apart from the costs of usage I'm really happy with it.  In the  last few days, my friends and I have sharpened about 10 pair of skates and so far our grinding ring usage is pretty high. On average it's around 8x2 cyles per pair. Unfortunately, the availability of grinding rings is quite limited in my area and the costs of shipping are high.

 

Costs per grinding ring in Europe are around 80$=73€ and shipping adds another 15$....

My question now is, is it somehow possible to use the PS100 grinding rings and XG Cross grinding rings on the the ES100 machine?

I'm asking this because for some odd reason the availability of PS100 grinding rings is far better at the moment than for ES 100 consumer version, and it would also save me around 5$ per ring. PS100 XG Cross Grinding rings are also available from this dealer... and I know the story some guys refused to clean the air filter so Sparx decided to stop producing them for the ES100 machines.....

 

And secondly, as a long time follower, I've read that most of you guys had great success with sharpening 5 cycles. In your experience, how many cycles does it take to sharpen skates with completely flat hollows?

At the moment it looks like one sharpening ring will last for 20 sharpenings of worn down blades at maximum...given the costs of 1300$ for the machine alone this is not really sustainable for a beer league team....

Thanks guys!

 

 

The PS and ES use the same rings. 

The XG rings should not be used in the ES units and I am not sure if Sparx ever updated the firmware on the units or the encoding on the XG rings NFC to allow/disallow the use of them. You will likely have to email them to find out unless they reply here. I know their stance is to not use the XG rings in the ES units.

Also, the XG rings should only be used to remove large amounts of material or when you sharpen new skates. These should not be used constantly and the finish on them is not ideal. If you are sharpening skates that have already been sharpened previously you should not need more than 1 or 2 passes unless the blade has serious trauma. 

[lfc26 3]

1 hour ago, SkateWorksPNW said:

The PS and ES use the same rings. 

The XG rings should not be used in the ES units and I am not sure if Sparx ever updated the firmware on the units or the encoding on the XG rings NFC to allow/disallow the use of them. You will likely have to email them to find out unless they reply here. I know their stance is to not use the XG rings in the ES units.

Also, the XG rings should only be used to remove large amounts of material or when you sharpen new skates. These should not be used constantly and the finish on them is not ideal. If you are sharpening skates that have already been sharpened previously you should not need more than 1 or 2 passes unless the blade has serious trauma. 

thanks a lot for your help SkateWorksPNW! It's good to know that you only need 1-2 passes on average.

Your infos are really interesting because the Sparx support told me PS100 rings aren't compatible with the ES100 machine.

 

Anyways, most importantly for me is to make sure that the PS100 standard rings are compatible with the ES100 unit. Are you really sure about that?

I'm just curious because the Sparx team have already answered my email and told me otherwise..... given the similarities in both units I kinda trust your answer more:-)

 

Regarding the XG rings hopefully they didn't update their firmware:-). I'm really only doing this because prices for the rings are really overpriced over here. At least, I was able to import the unit for 200 dollars less than what the actual reseller is asking.

If anyone with a new Sparx ES100 unit has any further experience with the XG rings I'm glad to hear about it:-)

 

Nevertheless, the performance of the machine is incredible and far superior than any sharpening from a local shop. Most of them only know how to sharpen ski edges anyway:-)

My advice to Sparx would be to skip the resellers in Europe. As it stands, they are diminishing the potential of the Sparx product over here in Europe and only a few crazy people including myself are willing to pay 1500$ + 80$ per ring for the sharpener...

Edited December 31, 2019 by lfc26

[Leif 161]

I can only reiterate what has been said before, one pass is enough to sharpen blades with no damage. New blades may need 10 passes and when I bought some blades, I had the shop,  do them for me as the sharpen was free and it saved me wearing out my ring. Yes rings cost a small fortune for Europeans, but hey ho, such is life. I bought my machine from Sweden almost one year ago, and it is fricken amazing. We do pay a lot compared to Americans but the European alternative is the ProSharp Home and that costs even more. 

If you sharpen a lot of skates, a standard sharpening machine maybe the way to go as the cost per pass on a Sparx is about 50 pence UK. 

[lfc26 3]

1 minute ago, Leif said:

I can only reiterate what has been said before, one pass is enough to sharpen blades with no damage. New blades may need 10 passes and when I bought some blades, I had the shop,  do them for me as the sharpen was free and it saved me wearing out my ring. Yes rings cost a small fortune for Europeans, but hey ho, such is life. I bought my machine from Sweden almost one year ago, and it is fricken amazing. We do pay a lot compared to Americans but the European alternative is the ProSharp Home and that costs even more. 

If you sharpen a lot of skates, a standard sharpening machine maybe the way to go as the cost per pass on a Sparx is about 50 pence UK. 

thanks Leif. happy new year to you as well!^^

Don't get me wrong I'm really happy with the the Sparx machine, it solves so many problems with uneven edges and inconsistencies regarding the radius of hollow.

I also understand that that the costs for the machine are higher over here. But 80$ for the sharpening ring has become personal to me and my teammates... that's why I'm trying to find out whether or not I can use the very similarly looking PS100 Grinding rings on the ES100 machine.

[oldtrainerguy28 478]

10 hours ago, lfc26 said:

thanks a lot for your help SkateWorksPNW! It's good to know that you only need 1-2 passes on average.

Your infos are really interesting because the Sparx support told me PS100 rings aren't compatible with the ES100 machine.

 

Anyways, most importantly for me is to make sure that the PS100 standard rings are compatible with the ES100 unit. Are you really sure about that?

I'm just curious because the Sparx team have already answered my email and told me otherwise..... given the similarities in both units I kinda trust your answer more:-)

 

Regarding the XG rings hopefully they didn't update their firmware:-). I'm really only doing this because prices for the rings are really overpriced over here. At least, I was able to import the unit for 200 dollars less than what the actual reseller is asking.

If anyone with a new Sparx ES100 unit has any further experience with the XG rings I'm glad to hear about it:-)

 

Nevertheless, the performance of the machine is incredible and far superior than any sharpening from a local shop. Most of them only know how to sharpen ski edges anyway:-)

My advice to Sparx would be to skip the resellers in Europe. As it stands, they are diminishing the potential of the Sparx product over here in Europe and only a few crazy people including myself are willing to pay 1500$ + 80$ per ring for the sharpener...

Who is the reseller there??? Curious

[VegasHockey 1280]

49 minutes ago, oldtrainerguy28 said:

Who is the reseller there??? Curious

I think Hockey Monkey. Right? 

[Leif 161]

6 hours ago, SkateWorksPNW said:

I think Hockey Monkey. Right? 

That’s where I got mine. There was another but they must have stopped selling them. 

[lfc26 3]

yes it's hockeymonkey.eu and hps-sport-shop.de.

Don't get my wrong guys I love the Sparx.

I'm just a bit fed up with the resellers due to the fact that they for sure get favorable pricing from Sparx and all they have to pay is their local sales tax.

I've even imported the Sparx machine myself and there's basically no customs fee or tax on the sharpener (1,7%) and on the sharpening stones(0%). The high shipping costs for consumers, which of course are a given thing, are making it tough for me to order the rings directly from Sparx Hockey.

I do really hope Sparx will someday establish their own facility in Europe because the product is excellent and the whole team seems to be focused on making good skate sharpening available for everyone. As it stands, I do believe going the reseller route won't help them in the long term especially concerning accessories and spare parts like grinding rings:-)

Anyway, let's see the positive side of it , I now have even edges:D

 

Can you guys confirm that the PS grinding rings are working in the ES100 unit?

happy new year and thanks a lot!

 

Edited January 1, 2020 by lfc26

[stick9 890]

18 hours ago, Leif said:

I can only reiterate what has been said before, one pass is enough to sharpen blades with no damage. New blades may need 10 passes and when I bought some blades, I had the shop,  do them for me as the sharpen was free and it saved me wearing out my ring. Yes rings cost a small fortune for Europeans, but hey ho, such is life. I bought my machine from Sweden almost one year ago, and it is fricken amazing. We do pay a lot compared to Americans but the European alternative is the ProSharp Home and that costs even more. 

If you sharpen a lot of skates, a standard sharpening machine maybe the way to go as the cost per pass on a Sparx is about 50 pence UK. 

As long as you keeping the same hollow.

I usually done one or two passes to freshen up my edges. If I am cutting a new hollow, I start with four and work from there. My daughters skates (used, but never sharpened) took six passes.

The one or two passes after a few hours of ice time has yielded amazing ring life. I highly recommend this approach.

[lfc26 3]

7 minutes ago, stick9 said:

As long as you keeping the same hollow.

I usually done one or two passes to freshen up my edges. If I am cutting a new hollow, I start with four and work from there. My daughters skates (used, but never sharpened) took six passes.

The one or two passes after a few hours of ice time has yielded amazing ring life. I highly recommend this approach.

thanks stick really appreciate the fact that 1 or 2 passes after every few hours of ice time yielded good results. Some of my teammates refuse to sharpen their skates for half the season:-) that's why I had to use 8 cycles in order to rebuild the hollow on most of their skates.

Also good to know that 4 passes will be enough when changing the radius of hollow.👍 The manual states something like 10 passes...

Edited January 1, 2020 by lfc26

[Leif 161]

1 hour ago, lfc26 said:

thanks stick really appreciate the fact that 1 or 2 passes after every few hours of ice time yielded good results. Some of my teammates refuse to sharpen their skates for half the season:-) that's why I had to use 8 cycles in order to rebuild the hollow on most of their skates.

Also good to know that 4 passes will be enough when changing the radius of hollow.👍 The manual states something like 10 passes...

I’ve gotten away with two passes when changing the hollow. Obviously this is for going between very similar hollows. Just in case you’ve not read earlier posts, mark the hollow with a sharpie before sharpening, that way you’ll know if you haven’t done enough passes. 

[Leif 161]

3 hours ago, lfc26 said:

yes it's hockeymonkey.eu and hps-sport-shop.de.

Thanks, the German shop is much cheaper than t’other. Sadly they don’t have 1/2” rings which is what I use. 

[lfc26 3]

3 hours ago, Leif said:

Thanks, the German shop is much cheaper than t’other. Sadly they don’t have 1/2” rings which is what I use. 

thanks for the sharpie trick!.yes the german shop doesn't add the VAT tax rate that's why they are cheaper. During the order process it will be added unfortunately. same 80$ price...

Edited January 1, 2020 by lfc26

[lfc26 3]

here are the two links by the way. For some odd reason it seems like they are selling different rings for the ES100 and PS100 machines?

https://www.monkeysports.eu/sparx-60/sparx-es100-radius-ring

https://www.monkeysports.eu/sparx-60/sparx-ps100-radius-ring

[Vet88 674]

On 1/1/2020 at 6:28 AM, lfc26 said:

Costs per grinding ring in Europe are around 80$=73€ and shipping adds another 15$....

Have you considered using a reshipper like myus? For example it's around $15 for 2kgs to Europe and with a US drop box you can now shop at US local prices.

[lfc26 3]

1 hour ago, Vet88 said:

Have you considered using a reshipper like myus? For example it's around $15 for 2kgs to Europe and with a US drop box you can now shop at US local prices.

hey vet88 thanks for the idea. I've already considered it while buying the sharpener and it really saved me a few bucks. I just don't want to go through the whole process everytime I'm running out of grinding rings.

The pricing for the PS100 rings is about 6$ less on the monkeysports.eu website which would be acceptable given the additional sales tax of 20% and the costs of shipping to europe.

I just can't find any information anywhere on custom grinding rings specifically made for the PS100 machine. To me it looks like the reseller tries to establish two price policies for potential consumer and business orders.

https://www.monkeysports.eu/sparx-60/sparx-ps100-radius-ring

https://www.monkeysports.eu/sparx-60/sparx-es100-radius-ring

Don't get me wrong guys this is not really about a few bucks. It's about resellers messing with customers and Sparx officially telling me that these rings aren't compatible with the consumer ES100 unit, although there's no indication on the Sparx website for it. Maybe I'm on to something here...

If that turns out to be true, maybe there's also a difference in the number of doable cycles or the mileage between consumer and business grinding rings?😱

One thing is for sure, I'm curious now.

Edited January 2, 2020 by lfc26

[Vet88 674]

😲😲😲 the price of a sparx unit from ms europe, wtf.....

[lfc26 3]

17 hours ago, Vet88 said:

😲😲😲 the price of a sparx unit from ms europe, wtf.....

yes indeed:-) and then they are selling the rings for 80$ and you are left wondering whether or not your able to save at least 5 bucks per ring by buying the so called  "PS100 grinding rings"😋

[Leif 161]

20 hours ago, Vet88 said:

😲😲😲 the price of a sparx unit from ms europe, wtf.....

Tell me about it. However even at the extortionate price we pay, in my case this box will pay for itself in three years with one skater (me). Imagine if you have a family, it’s a real boon. And I get perfect edges and the profile is not ruined. 

[lfc26 3]

2 minutes ago, Leif said:

Tell me about it. However even at the extortionate price we pay, in my case this box will pay for itself in three years with one skater (me). Imagine if you have a family, it’s a real boon. And I get perfect edges and the profile is not ruined. 

true story. In my case, I hope the machine is going to last at least  for 3 years of team use:D

[lfc26 3]

hey guys I'm going to order the ES rings and PS rings tomorrow for testing purposes. I'm also going to try to decompile the code on the rings. I'm a bit triggered now...

Does anyone know if the PS100 rings will last for more cycles compared to the ES100 rings? Would save me some work! Thanks!

Edit: ok I've found something! looks like both versions are limited to around 320 cycles. I've found the packaging of the commercial rings which states 40 skate pair sharpenings as well. Let's try if they are compatible!:-)

commercial vs. consumer rings @ 2min 32sec

As it stands the packaging for the commercial version just seems a bit rougher. Don't think there's a difference atm! I'll keep you guys updated!

 

Edited January 4, 2020 by lfc26

[colins 246]

 

I don't think Sparx sells any Cross Grind rings for the consumer ES100 model in North America. They pulled that product from the market early in it's life after issues reported from the amount of swarf it created and the resulting fire hazard I believe.