Punching Plastic Toebox on Bauer Vapor 2X

[Laserz 1]

Hi Guys,

I bought a pair of Bauer Vapor 2x skates about a month ago. I started to notice some pain on the right pair right on the side of my big toe. I tried some toe sleeves and that helped a lot, but I'm trying to get more of a permanent fix. I've contacted multiple LHS in the South Florida area (where i live) and all of them have told me that it's not possible to punch out the plastic toebox or that they don't have the right tool. I know customskateworks develped a tool to do exactly this. I've attached a picture of the skate and drew a red circle where the problem seems to be. Do any of you know of any hockey shops in the southeast or midwest that has the right tool that could help me out with this? The skates fit perfectly except for this kink which is somewhat painful and annoying. Here is a link to the picture: https://imgur.com/usmMIoK

Edited February 13, 2020 by Laserz

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Picture not loading. What image hosting site did you use?

[Laserz 1]

Here is a link to the picture: https://imgur.com/usmMIoK

[VegasHockey 1280]

15 minutes ago, Laserz said:

Here is a link to the picture: https://imgur.com/usmMIoK

Thats a tough spot to modify, heat changes the composition of the toe box and can weaken it and its not really possible to "punch it" without heat. You may want to try and take a dremel and see if you can shave off a little of the inside of the to cap.

Proceed at our own risk. 

[Laserz 1]

12 minutes ago, SkateWorksPNW said:

Thats a tough spot to modify, heat changes the composition of the toe box and can weaken it and its not really possible to "punch it" without heat. You may want to try and take a dremel and see if you can shave off a little of the inside of the to cap.

Proceed at our own risk. 

Even with the Customskateworks special tool?

[VegasHockey 1280]

3 hours ago, Laserz said:

Even with the Customskateworks special tool?

Yup. We have that.

The main issue is the structural integrity of the cap is diminished when you heat and punch it as you are technically warping it. Do you have like a bunion or something on your toe rubbing? Crooked toe? I am trying to understand whats hitting. 

[caveman27 208]

10 hours ago, Laserz said:

Hi Guys,

I bought a pair of Bauer Vapor 2x skates about a month ago. I started to notice some pain on the right pair right on the side of my big toe. I tried some toe sleeves and that helped a lot, but I'm trying to get more of a permanent fix. I've contacted multiple LHS in the South Florida area (where i live) and all of them have told me that it's not possible to punch out the plastic toebox or that they don't have the right tool. I know customskateworks develped a tool to do exactly this. I've attached a picture of the skate and drew a red circle where the problem seems to be. Do any of you know of any hockey shops in the southeast or midwest that has the right tool that could help me out with this? The skates fit perfectly except for this kink which is somewhat painful and annoying. Here is a link to the picture: https://imgur.com/usmMIoK

What's your skate size and street shoe size?

Just curious. Kind of sounds like a size issue. The NHLers with this problem get a .25 size bigger.

[JR Boucicaut 3797]

Correct, CSW's boot punch will work on toecaps, but it requires quite a bit of heat and careful manipulation to get it to work.  

Another thing to do is to try to get a little bit more room out of that skate by heating up the heel.  The premise behind it is that you can get your foot to sit back further in the boot, therefore getting it off that spot on the toecap.  Seems that the skate may be a tad small.

That is a bit of a weird spot to be feeling that though.  Looking at it, I'm not so sure the CSW punch can hit that - might be in that area where it narrows.

[Laserz 1]

I don't think that the skate is too small. When I stand up straight I can barely feel the end of the toebox (feathering). When in hockey stance with knees bent, I don't feel the end of the toebox at all. I wear size 9 - 9 1/2 shoes depending on the brand, and my skates are size 7 1/2. When I push my feet all the way up front (skates not laced), there is about a 1/4 of an inch of space by my ankle with thicker socks, probably 1/3 of an inch of space with thinner socks. Also I've heard that skates get up to 1/4 of a size bigger as they are broken in so I think getting an 8 will be out of the question. At my local hockey shop they sized me on this device that tells you exactly what your skate size should be for bauer and it actually said I was a 7... When I tried it on it was a little too tight, so i opted for half a size bigger. Size shouldn't be an issue. 

My foot is pretty normal but I do however have a small bunion on the right side of my right foot below the pinky. Do you think that if I punch out that part of the boot maybe my foot will be able to shift/sit more to the right of the skate and will relieve the pressure of the side of my big toe pushing up against the toe cap? That's one idea that I had that might be causing the problem, since it would make sense that my foot might be sitting more to the left of the skate because of the bunion i have below my pinky toe. This is only a problem on my right foot though where my pinky bunion is slightly larger than the one on my left foot which I have 0 problems with the skates with. The part that rubs is on the left side of my big toe (right foot) its pushing against the side of the toebox.

I tried to be as detailed as possible, looking forward to some advise!

[caveman27 208]

Not sure if you want to get podiatrist to remove the bunion. That seems like it would get to the root cause and you can get into any skates now and into the future..

[Laserz 1]

6 hours ago, JR Boucicaut said:

Correct, CSW's boot punch will work on toecaps, but it requires quite a bit of heat and careful manipulation to get it to work.  

Another thing to do is to try to get a little bit more room out of that skate by heating up the heel.  The premise behind it is that you can get your foot to sit back further in the boot, therefore getting it off that spot on the toecap.  Seems that the skate may be a tad small.

That is a bit of a weird spot to be feeling that though.  Looking at it, I'm not so sure the CSW punch can hit that - might be in that area where it narrows.

Do you happen to have the CSW's boot punch, I noticed that you're in Florida

[JR Boucicaut 3797]

I had one of the first ones ever made at my old job - Joe and I used to work together.

I don’t have one now - not much use for one based on what I’m doing. 

[Above40 7]

Look like pretty new skates... after a while your heel will probably naturally sit deeper as the liners break in and might give enough relief then. How many hours you have on these skates so far? Also you could probably access the toe cap with a screwdriver handle or something similar just by stuffing your hand into the boot. I don't think you need a complicated vice grip action punch to pull off this mod. Just enough heat from the outside. Should be able to make something happen just try to sneak up on it or heat it up and see if you can feel that zone where it starts to get pliable without getting crazy. Hold pressure on the inside and then heat from the outside. Should cool rather quickly if you can hold it for a minute after removing heat. ///2 cents, ymmv

[Nastys 2]

My problem looks the same with my new 2s pro..it's 7.5, do you have your lenght size foot in cm? When I tried mine with hockey stance, no touching the cap, but I need to lace too tight. If I lace them more loose, it's pretty uncomfortable.My feet is 266, 267 cm and 7.5 seem to be 264. 

[Robertwil18 3]

Wanted to bring this one back to see if anyone is doing punching on the newer composite toe caps with the CSW punch?  I've got the slightest of hot spots on the inside of my right foot on my big toe and a small punch or moving of material would easily fix it, but i know this is difficult.  Was tempted to just do it with some heat, but don't want to risk wrecking a pair of skates in the middle of a season working games.  

[VegasHockey 1280]

22 hours ago, Robertwil18 said:

Wanted to bring this one back to see if anyone is doing punching on the newer composite toe caps with the CSW punch?  I've got the slightest of hot spots on the inside of my right foot on my big toe and a small punch or moving of material would easily fix it, but i know this is difficult.  Was tempted to just do it with some heat, but don't want to risk wrecking a pair of skates in the middle of a season working games.  

50% of the time the toe cap on the new Bauer doesn't respond well to punching. Where the cap attaches to the boot or the actual plastic itself can become compromised. Can you share a picture of the exact spot bothering you? 

[Jbear 113]

I had this problem on my left pinky toe when I got a pair of Ribcor 100k's a couple of months ago.  I thought the same size as my AS3 Pros would do it. Well...the toe box is about 2-3mm narrower in this model skate (my left foot is an 8...right is 7...7.5 is perfect for both feet historically).  Took a heat gun and slowly got to where I could take a puck and hammer into the cap.  Left it overnight...next day taped some Grolsh washers on the puck to increase diameter and did it again.  They are perfect now.

Honestly, if they don't last five years, I don't care. The modern skates are awesome in so many ways, but durability ain't even in the engineering conversation.  The 77 Super Tacks I had through my high school and college career lasted until 1986.  They were soaking wet for 9 years straight. Hacked, chopped...you name it. I didn't even use ProToe on them.  Eventually there just wasn't any blade left.  I don't expect any of these new skates to make that journey.  On the plus side...no break-in, dry in an hour, and both of them (either model) weigh about as much as one of my old Comp 5000's🏒🥅🇨🇦👍😎.

Anyway...that's what I did 😉

Edited November 26, 2021 by Jbear