Need blade measurements

[Bill_S]

I bought some hardwood to make a few more skate drying racks that I'll probably list for sale here when they are done. I have some cherry, walnut, and maple to work with over the summer. Here's mine in maple that I made a few years back and posted about here... http://skatingforums.com/index.php?topic=99.0



One measurement that I need is the length of most common adult skate blades in order to position the pegs on the rack. I know that the blades of most board members are likely to be smaller than my men's blades, I don't know HOW small. So I have a request...

If you are willing, measure from the blade opening just behind the toe picks to the tail of the blade. In the picture below (you might have to click to enlarge it), you can see that my blade measures 11-1/2 inches. This measurement will be different than the "official" blade size often stamped on the bottom of the boot mounting plate.

Just post the measurement to this thread. If you use dance blades, please make a note of it in your reply because they are likely to be shorter than typical blades for a given boot size.



Having a number of measurements available will make it more likely that I can size the racks to fit the majority of adult skaters. I'll consider smaller drying racks for kids if this goes well, but they will probably be painted MDF or plywood (think pink, lavender, etc.) rather than expensive hardwoods that require time-consuming finishes. They will likely be cheaper to make too.

[taka]

I'll give it a go...

Coronation Dance official blade size 10.5inches = 10.75 inches
Coronation Ace official blade size 11 inches = 12 inches

That difference in length took a lot of getting used to!

Hope this helps you!

[Query]

On my nominal 9-3/4" MK Dance blades (which are Dance blades), the indicated measure is 9-7/8". But the toe pick shape has been adjusted a bit, so it may have been a little shorter - maybe 9-3/4"?? (BTW, the length from the front of the front plate to the rear of the rear plate is 9-3/4", as it should be)

I also have a bunch of Ultima Matrix I (out of date) runners, nominal length 9-3/4".
  Surpremes (freestyle blade): 11"
  Synchro: 11"
  Dance: 10"

I think your racks sound like a great hanging display. Much better than a moose head.  But why only adult sizes? More kids skate, and proud parents will cheerfully display their kid's skates.

Have fun.

[Bill_S]

Thanks for the measurements in the posts above. I still need more, so everyone keep them coming if you are willing.

Query - You are absolutely right about the kids!  Being a woodworking hobbyist with my blinders on and charging ahead, I had already started laminating the boards together thinking about nice woodgrain and finish.  Then it hit me that kids could care less for nice hardwoods, and want lively colors instead. In many ways, that's much easier for me.

I'll finish this batch of hardwood racks this summer, then make some samples from MDF to paint for the younger skaters. However, weather is an issue for me when I spray paint. I use water-based paints, and I spray in my garage where my air compressor is located, and have the garage door open for ventilation. That can't be done in poor/cool weather with those paints. Soon, though.

Summer is when I have both time and cooperative weather.

[Bill_S]

But why only adult sizes? More kids skate, and proud parents will cheerfully display their kid's skates.

I took your advice to heart and created a different design than the "Premium" racks.

Goal #1 was to reduce cost. The largest cost of a "Premium" rack was fabricating the wide panel from which the backing board is made. I decided to use Baltic Birch plywood for now. I avoided the cheap, skanky stuff offered by Lowe's. Baltic birch costs much more, but I'm not using large quantities for each rack.



The next design challenge was to make the racks fit a range of skates. I traced the blades for a kid's size 11 boot, a teenager's boot, and mine - a man's size 8 Riedell. I modified the peg spacing to fit cutouts of the tracings for all the blade sizes that I had available. It worked!



The third design goal was to make finishing simpler. I decided to try brushed-on paints in different colors. I had these two colors available from past projects, so I tried them out...



The fourth challenge was to reduce the shipping cost. With a smaller size than before, I was still able to accommodate all sizes of skates from kids through adults and have it fit into a smaller box. It's still expensive for a flat-rate box, but it's better than before.

I'm even thinking about offering unfinished kits. That way if there's a favorite color someone wants, they can paint it themselves. Shipping on flat-pack kits could be very reasonable.

I'll call these the "Standard" skate racks to contrast them against the much larger and much more expensive "Premium" hardwood racks shown in the For Sale section here.

Now the next question for everyone - what colors would you prefer if you wanted a skate rack? I'm partial to General Finishes paints for furniture, and here are swatches for their current lineup...



If you really like one of the hues above but it's too dark for your taste, I can change it. I'd like to settle on four or five different colors to offer.

Fire away!

[fsk8r]

With regards to colors everyone seems to have gone very gender specific with everything aimed at kids, so it's blues for boys and pinks / lilacs for girls.
Personally (as an adult) I think I'd be picking a color which blended with the walls, although possibly a darker color to highlight the white boots and silver blades.

[Bill_S]

Because so few boys figure skate, I'd probably be safer with the pinks and lilacs. I do intend to pick up a light gray for adults that would go with just about any décor.

On a whim, I picked up these paint samples from Lowes today. I might even try using these if I make more racks. The colors are bold and different, and might even appeal to some kids.



I'm becoming a paint-color junkie.

[AgnesNitt]

Navajo White is the classic wall color for most new houses and apartments.

If you sold it as a kit, the customer could paint it themselves.

[ChristyRN]

I saw those when I was there the other day. I wanted a Sea Glass but they didn't have on. I'm hankering for a new color for my livingroom that isn't the white the previous owner painted everything in sight.

[PhysicsOnIce]

Are these available to order somewhere? I'd really love to hang up my last pair of skates since they were the ones that transitioned me from singles to doubles. It's kinda a memorable things that I'd like to display. Call me crazy.

[Bill_S]

Thanks for your thoughts Agnes and Christy.

Out of curiosity, I Googled "teenager's room", and found that many of the pictures showed white-painted rooms, with strong accent colors added. Here's an example...



It almost seems to be a formula. When there are exceptions, usually a third complementary color is added. I suspect that these pictures are designers' showcases, and probably not representative of most teenager's rooms.

I didn't have any actual women's skates around to make a photo showing how the smaller sized "standard" racks work with them, but I did have some measurements for a ladies size 6 boot. From these measurements, I scaled the skates proportionally in software.



Agnes, offering kits sounds more and more appealing. There are just too many color choices to make matching décor easy. I might still paint a few to have photos to show how they can look, then just do kits after that - when there's time. I'm running low on free hours.

[Bill_S]

Are these available to order somewhere? I'd really love to hang up my last pair of skates since they were the ones that transitioned me from singles to doubles. It's kinda a memorable things that I'd like to display. Call me crazy.

I have had the larger "Premium" skate racks for sale on this board in the "For Sale" section, but I haven't posted any notice/price about the smaller "standard" racks yet. (I'll do that very soon! Edit - done.)

For the painted "standard" racks, I was estimating $45 plus shipping (probably around $15 for the cardboard box + UPS), and for the unfinished kits maybe $35 plus shipping. Shipping the kits should be less because of the more compact size.

Shipping prices are for domestic shipments. I'd have to research prices for overseas shipping. If it's too high, I'd probably just seek a woodworker to make them locally.

I don't have any kits prepared, but if you're interested, I can make one in the next couple of days.

[Query]

So what did you eventually conclude? - something like:
  Freestyle/synchro length=nominal length+1" ??
  Dance length=nominal length ??

-------------------

I think if you look at a search engine for

  Kids colors

You will find that kids are most frequently associated with pure (e.g., saturated red, yellow, green, yellow, blue, violet) primary colors.

A lot of teenagers too.

I was once told that a general design principle is that as people become more mature, they move to less pure neutral earth tone (brownish orange, brownish green, brown, gray) colors, and off-white.

The people telling me laughed at me for creating false-color maps for image processing that had very distinctive pure colors. The implication was that, like Peter Pan, I never grew up.    They found my pure, distinctive color maps almost painful to look upon, and made me move to less pure, less distinctive colors.

(OTOH, I created a fiery mostly pure red/orange/yellow/white false color scheme for pictures from an orbital solar observatory that appealed to those customers - but they wanted those images to stand out and be noticed, and maybe to remind one of the heat of the sun.)

It is also possible that neutral colors, like off-white, blend without much notice with whatever a room already has.

Don't know if that is useful to you.

[Bill_S]

I didn't have a sample size large enough to make a conclusion about marked sizes vs. the length that I use for the racks. That would be interesting to do though.

I agree about color preferences changing as we age. As far as never "growing up", I skate which I suspect says something about me!