Sparx Skate Sharpener - At home sharpener

[aintitthelife98 28]

I was happy to see that they've added some additional grinding ring options in the last week or so. I ordered an 11/16" ring which I think will be the sweet spot for me. 

[marka 526]

Howdy,

42 minutes ago, IPv6Freely said:

I’ve had mine for quite some time now, with no issues so far. Not sure if that’s long enough for you!

 

That's actually a good question...  How many pairs have you sharpened?  Of machines "in the wild", what are some of the higher sharpening counts out there?

Mark

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

2 hours ago, IPv6Freely said:

I’ve had mine for quite some time now, with no issues so far. Not sure if that’s long enough for you!

Haha it's a start and glad to hear that. Between coaching, officiating and playing, I'd be using my unit frequently. I can tolerate the expense(s) that come with ownership given the tax benefit and convenience. Durability would be my ONLY reason to pass on Sparx. Anyone using it for a family? Team?

Edited August 24, 2017 by 215BroadStBullies610

[IPv6Freely 2092]

9 hours ago, 215BroadStBullies610 said:

Haha it's a start and glad to hear that. Between coaching, officiating and playing, I'd be using my unit frequently. I can tolerate the expense(s) that come with ownership given the tax benefit and convenience. Durability would be my ONLY reason to pass on Sparx. Anyone using it for a family? Team?

I use mine once a week (two passes for touch ups).

Sadly I went about 5 months without using it because I was out with an injury. I’m about ready to buy my second ring at this point. 

After using it I’m not all that worried about durability. I mean, I understand that it’s an electronic box and will therefore likely have a much shorter lifespan than a mechanical tool you can replace almost every single part on, but I still imagine it will still be around for a long time. It’s a seriously solid unit. 

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

Thanks. I'll probably pull the trigger in November or December. Looking forward to it.

[aintitthelife98 28]

I've sharpened/touched up skates at least 3 times a week every week since February and I've run into no problems at all. 

[colins 246]

35 minutes ago, aintitthelife98 said:

I've sharpened/touched up skates at least 3 times a week every week since February and I've run into no problems at all. 

 

Just as another data point - I've been using mine since July 2016 and have not encountered any durability issues. I'm on my 4th grinding ring.

 

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

Good to hear boys!

[218hockey 50]

3 hours ago, colins said:

 

Just as another data point - I've been using mine since July 2016 and have not encountered any durability issues. I'm on my 4th grinding ring.

 

Still pretty early.

 

You'd think the manufacturer would have set a couple of them up to run indefinitely to find the weak points. I remember Honda used to test motorcycle engines by running them at redline for 24 hours at a time.

[aintitthelife98 28]

On page 10 of the thread Steve said the following: 

"We've tested it up to our "7 years of team use" standard which ends up being somewhere north of 15K normal sharpenings. That number roughly comes from one team of 20, sharpening twice a week, for 52 weeks a year. "

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

24 minutes ago, aintitthelife98 said:

On page 10 of the thread Steve said the following: 

"We've tested it up to our "7 years of team use" standard which ends up being somewhere north of 15K normal sharpenings. That number roughly comes from one team of 20, sharpening twice a week, for 52 weeks a year. "

Thanks. I'd rather have a customer tell me this though haha. 

[Dman692420 10]

I've had mine almost 1yr now & sharpen about 10 dif peoples skates, 1 of them being kid that was just skating last month at a ushl camp in Chicago. It's reliable, and an awesome sharpening! My only problem is the aligning ring can be tough to dial in with bad eye sight..

Edited August 25, 2017 by Dman692420

[colins 246]

13 hours ago, Dman692420 said:

I've had mine almost 1yr now & sharpen about 10 dif peoples skates, 1 of them being kid that was just skating last month at a ushl camp in Chicago. It's reliable, and an awesome sharpening! My only problem is the aligning ring can be tough to dial in with bad eye sight..

 

Yeah - I thought I had mine dialed in pretty good with the alignment ring, but when testing with the Edge Checker I was still off by about 1 tick mark. I'd recommend anyone with a Sparx to get a good Edge Checker, and use the instructions Sparx provides with theirs to really dial in your alignment so that you know you are getting perfect edges every time.

 

 

 

[JR Boucicaut 3795]

Sharpened my wife's skates on the Sparx yesterday and found the result to be extremely odd. 

She has SB Stainless steel on her skates (only sharpened one time and only skated on twice); the burr left on the skates was rough and didn't hone easily; the 240 grit honing stone and leather strop provided by Sparx (my spare honing stones are somewhere in this basement) wasn't removing it one bit.  Had to oil the stone and strop it several times to get rid of it.

The other sets of steel (Bauer) that I've sharpened on it wasn't causing this.

Anyone notice this on CCM steel?

[colins 246]

39 minutes ago, JR Boucicaut said:

Sharpened my wife's skates on the Sparx yesterday and found the result to be extremely odd. 

She has SB Stainless steel on her skates (only sharpened one time and only skated on twice); the burr left on the skates was rough and didn't hone easily; the 240 grit honing stone and leather strop provided by Sparx (my spare honing stones are somewhere in this basement) wasn't removing it one bit.  Had to oil the stone and strop it several times to get rid of it.

The other sets of steel (Bauer) that I've sharpened on it wasn't causing this.

Anyone notice this on CCM steel?

 

I was sharpening SB Stainless on my son's Jetspeeds when I first got my Sparx. I didn't have the burr issue, but I was annoyed that the SB Stainless measured very different front to back and back to front on the edge checker. Sidewall thickness consistency seems poor on these blades, or at least the two pairs I had (I had a backup set as well).

I've since switched to StepSteel and haven't seen any issues since.

colins

[oldtrainerguy28 478]

On 9/12/2017 at 9:43 AM, JR Boucicaut said:

Sharpened my wife's skates on the Sparx yesterday and found the result to be extremely odd. 

She has SB Stainless steel on her skates (only sharpened one time and only skated on twice); the burr left on the skates was rough and didn't hone easily; the 240 grit honing stone and leather strop provided by Sparx (my spare honing stones are somewhere in this basement) wasn't removing it one bit.  Had to oil the stone and strop it several times to get rid of it.

The other sets of steel (Bauer) that I've sharpened on it wasn't causing this.

Anyone notice this on CCM steel?

Variance of thickness of steel and quality seems to be an issue with these. I have seen it even in a regular sharpening. I just try and put them in Step.

[Axxion89 32]

On 9/12/2017 at 9:43 AM, JR Boucicaut said:

Sharpened my wife's skates on the Sparx yesterday and found the result to be extremely odd. 

She has SB Stainless steel on her skates (only sharpened one time and only skated on twice); the burr left on the skates was rough and didn't hone easily; the 240 grit honing stone and leather strop provided by Sparx (my spare honing stones are somewhere in this basement) wasn't removing it one bit.  Had to oil the stone and strop it several times to get rid of it.

The other sets of steel (Bauer) that I've sharpened on it wasn't causing this.

Anyone notice this on CCM steel?

When I had mine done at SJ they had a lot of burs but the hone they had was able to get rid of them. I can say I am not a fan of the SB steel, will likely get step steel sooner than later

[Swlabr11 69]

Just to kind of update how things are going with my sharpener after a month of doing my skates and buddies skates I’m still very pleased with the machine. I’ve had zero issues. The only thing that I find a little concerning is almost all of their grinding rings and many of the accessories are backorder for 10-15 days. This isn’t a big deal right now and I’m happy to wait for my order to be filled but if I ever absolutely needed something and had to wait 15 for it to ship I’d be very disappointed.

[marka 526]

Howdy,

On 9/24/2017 at 12:26 PM, Swlabr11 said:

Just to kind of update how things are going with my sharpener after a month of doing my skates and buddies skates I’m still very pleased with the machine. I’ve had zero issues. The only thing that I find a little concerning is almost all of their grinding rings and many of the accessories are backorder for 10-15 days. This isn’t a big deal right now and I’m happy to wait for my order to be filled but if I ever absolutely needed something and had to wait 15 for it to ship I’d be very disappointed.

 

1/2" Radius ring is still showing as being backordered 10-15 days today...

What's the scoop here?  Everything all right in Sparx land?

Mark

[Swlabr11 69]

My order was actually just filled. They told me they underestimated the demand and are doing everything they can to keep up with orders. 

[WhosUrDaddy 2]

Frustrated with mine.  Alignment becomes off no matter how centered it is at the beginning.  The machine goes through different brands of skates (CCM and Bauer) and different steel (Bauer, SpeedBlades, Stepsteel, etc.).  Every other pair, I need to re-adjust the centering wheel.  

Maybe the clamp or something is loose?  Is there anything to tighten?

Edit:  I check the edges with several edge checkers and even have an HDI gauge.  I know they are off...

Edited October 19, 2017 by WhosUrDaddy

[IPv6Freely 2092]

1 hour ago, WhosUrDaddy said:

Frustrated with mine.  Alignment becomes off no matter how centered it is at the beginning.  The machine goes through different brands of skates (CCM and Bauer) and different steel (Bauer, SpeedBlades, Stepsteel, etc.).  Every other pair, I need to re-adjust the centering wheel.  

Maybe the clamp or something is loose?  Is there anything to tighten?

Edit:  I check the edges with several edge checkers and even have an HDI gauge.  I know they are off...

Weird. I actually checked my alignment for the first time in months last weekend and it was still perfect. Maybe email them?

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

On 10/13/2017 at 11:01 PM, Swlabr11 said:

My order was actually just filled. They told me they underestimated the demand and are doing everything they can to keep up with orders. 

Hope they don't rush production. Regardless, it's a good problem to have.

[WhosUrDaddy 2]

On 18/10/2017 at 11:08 PM, IPv6Freely said:

Weird. I actually checked my alignment for the first time in months last weekend and it was still perfect. Maybe email them?

Thanks for responding.  Do you have an edge square to check to see if you're actually getting balanced edges?  

I kinda think it's the clamp that is not centering the blade properly.  But if so, need someone to tell me how to tighten the clamp nuts which are kinda inaccessible...

[IPv6Freely 2092]

4 hours ago, WhosUrDaddy said:

Thanks for responding.  Do you have an edge square to check to see if you're actually getting balanced edges?  

I kinda think it's the clamp that is not centering the blade properly.  But if so, need someone to tell me how to tighten the clamp nuts which are kinda inaccessible...

I do, and I am.

Again if you have an issue, email them.