Wissota powered skate sharpener review

[tstop4me]

Wow - that IS cheap!

And waaay cheaper than the ProSharp toe pick protector:  $35 

https://prosharp.us/collections/consumeables/products/toe-pick-protector

[Bill_S]

Yep, just like using a flathead screw for a pointer for the diamond dresser.

Plain, common sense manufacturing.

[Query]

Bill: Do you suppose that "polishing fluid", or just a light oil, would be easier to use? In that I don't think you would need to re-dress the wheel. I know of at least a couple skate techs who use one or the other.

[Bill_S]

I'm taking the easy way out and omitting the wax. With the 100-grit wheel, the finish is very good without it. Perhaps with the coarser 80-grit wheel that comes standard with this unit, sharpening wax might make a more meaningful difference.

If I used a fluid or oil, I'd probably have a mess afterward to clean up. I'm not going to experiment with that.

[Bill_S]

I sharpened the skates of a young adult skater after today's freestyle session. She's the one who had terribly uneven edges from a rink sharpening.

The first that that I did was to measure her current ROH, and it looked to be 1/2". She's not a strong skater and she didn't request a different hollow, so I didn't change the ROH. I redressed the grinding wheel to 1/2" in about a minute. I previously had it set to 7/16" ROH for my own skates.



Here's the $100 tool checking the edge level. From my earlier calculations it looks like one edge is higher than the other by about 0.011".



To compare the expensive tool to a cheap alternative "edge checker", I held a piece of scrap 1/4" Masonite against the edge...



The zero-cost "tool" is certainly good enough to give a rough qualitative assessment of edge levelness. The advantage of the more expensive tool is that it tells me about how much to adjust the skate holder up or down to get close to a level edge.

Because I had so much grinding to do to repair the bad sharpening, it took about 8-10 passes on the sharpener. One bad sharpening wastes so much of a blade!

When I was done, I had this...



And this with the scrap piece of Masonite...



Pretty good! I hope that it works for her. The rink did the previous bad sharpening back in September, so I'm sure that this will feel different to her.

[tstop4me]

.011" high!  The last guy really butchered her blades. Good thing you corrected the misalignment in the edge checker before sharpening skates for others.

"The advantage of the more expensive tool is that it tells me about how much to adjust the skate holder up or down to get close to a level edge."

You lost me here, Bill.  I thought you would have just measured the thickness of her blades (at the position the skate holder clamps onto), and adjusted the height of the skate holder accordingly.  How does the initial state of the edges come into play?  Are you trying to level off the edges initially before the sharpening?

I hope your wife isn't the jealous type.  You'll be Big Man on Campus (at least at the rink); and girls and women (at least the figure skaters) will be clamoring for your attention.  :-)

[Bill_S]

You lost me here, Bill.  I thought you would have just measured the thickness of her blades (at the position the skate holder clamps onto), and adjusted the height of the skate holder accordingly.  How does the initial state of the edges come into play?  Are you trying to level off the edges initially before the sharpening?

You are correct. However measuring blade thickness and setting height gets you close, but not to perfection every time. A look at the gauge tells you how far you are off your are from your estimate for level edges, so you can tweak the height when you get close. That's what I meant by that sentence, not in the context of adjusting the holder to get rid of the whole amount in this case..

Beside that particular use of the tool, it's enlightening to quantify how far things are off.

One more thing - a photo that I didn't include in the previous post shows how rough the previous sharpening was, with recurring chatter marks. I easily beat its surface finish.

Edit: I decided that I'd include the photo anyway. After all, this is the definition of a bad sharpening from a hockey-oriented rink.

[tstop4me]

You are correct. However measuring blade thickness and setting height gets you close, but not to perfection every time. A look at the gauge tells you how far you are off your are from your estimate for level edges, so you can tweak the height when you get close. That's what I meant by that sentence, not in the context of adjusting the holder to get rid of the whole amount in this case..

Oh, I get you now.  You're using the edge checker to tweak the skate holder settings during your sharpening passes.  I misunderstood.  I thought you meant you were using the initial .011" offset as a factor in setting up your skate holder.

ETA:  A .011" high edge is a lot.  In grinding that down, did it create a groove in the wheel, causing you to redress multiple times?

[Bill_S]

None that I noticed. I did lightly dress between the two skates to be safe.

[Query]

It sounds like you are happy with your new toy. Great!

Did you take the machine to the rink to do the young lady's skates on site?

What do you feel you could do for her with the powered machine that you couldn't do with the Pro-Filer?

You are missing three measurements, that would make you look like a real expert:

1. How much metal are you removing? A good place to measure with your calipers is under the stanchion.
2. Are you removing about as much on the front as on the rear?
3. As far as you can tell, does the rocker profile still match a tracing from before? Or if it looks to you like the previous butcher removed the sweet spot (or whatever you want to call the rocker transition point), did you put one back, roughly under the ball of her foot?

I admit that 99.999% of skate techs would never measure any of these things. But think how much you will impress all those fine young ladies by taking out a precision calipers.

Also, a few of the real experts keep a file on each "customer". It might contain things like name, hollow, a tracing of their blade, and whether they wanted you to dull the blade (i.e., de-burr). It would make you look even more professional.

Don't forget to give all those fine young ladies your contact info!

(Of course, their parents will start getting worried about you.)

If your rink already has a pro shop or designated skate tech, they could get very mad at you. Typically, they pay a fee to the rink for exclusive rights. And if your rink doesn't, and rink management finds out, they might want to charge you for the privilege of sharpening other people's skates - even if you don't charge. 

[Bill_S]

The machine is mounted to the pedestal and is much too heavy to move in that configuration. I did it at home where it is permanently set up, and I have all sorts of tools at my fingertips.

I'm MUCH too old to worry about impressing the ladies. That time has passed. Besides, my wife would probably collar me if I started to frollick about.

I plan to take the time for measurements once a blade is stabilized. I did this job for free, so didn't put in the time for documentation. I am more curious how she will do on the skates after having been on bad edges for a couple of months.

Now, compared to the Pro-Filer, this machine:
1) Is WAY more expensive
2) Is much faster
3) Offers more ROH choices beside 3/8" and 1/2"
4) More fun to run (Think back to the old TV show Home Improvement with Tim Allen, and you'll get the idea.)
5) Can't sharpen right up to the toe pick like a Pro-Filer
6) Screw-ups can happen in a blink compared to the slow grind of the Pro-Filer
7) Reduces your cardio workout
8] I get to buy more blades over the years because it has more aggressive metal removal  [That was a joke, with an element of truth to it!]

Frankly, part of the reason I purchased the machine is because the local rink put up a sign stating that they will no longer sharpen figure skates. That's a bit unfair to figure skaters in the community, and I will offer sharpening to some of the serious skaters that I know through word-of-mouth. My wife prohibits me from starting a business and doing all the figure skates in town though, or we'd have a stream of tiny tots with parents showing up at the door. No thanks!

[Bill_S]

BTW, I do enjoy working with it and on getting to understand it inside and out. In that respect, it is very much a toy for me.

But a useful one.

When are you buying yours?

[tstop4me]

Frankly, part of the reason I purchased the machine is because the local rink put up a sign stating that they will no longer sharpen figure skates.  That's a bit unfair to figure skaters in the community, and I will offer sharpening to some of the serious skaters that I know through word-of-mouth.

<<Emphasis added>> If the blades you rescued are representative of the quality of sharpening they used to do, then they're doing the community a great favor by no longer accepting figure skates. 

[tstop4me]

..., and I will offer sharpening to some of the serious skaters that I know through word-of-mouth.  My wife prohibits me from starting a business and doing all the figure skates in town though, or we'd have a stream of tiny tots with parents showing up at the door. No thanks!

Wise wife.

BTW, I do enjoy working with it and on getting to understand it inside and out. In that respect, it is very much a toy for me.

But a useful one.

Now that you're retired, it's important to distinguish between a hobby and another job.   A hobby you pursue for your own personal satisfaction, and for the benefit of a select group of skaters (and you get to do the selecting).  It would stop being fun if you had a line of impatient customers at your garage, or a parent collecting skates from a group of kids and dropping off a batch of a dozen skates to be done pronto monto.  And with too many orders, you won't be able to be as meticulous as you want to be.

[Bill_S]

Just a note about location - I have it in my workshop which is UNDER the garage. It's cool in winter, but not frigid like in the garage itself.

I bring this up because Wissota has special precautions about using the unit in a very cold location...

[tstop4me]

It's great that Wissota uses a motor outfitted with ball bearings.  Getting less common in these days of aggressive cost cutting.

Do they specify a recommended minimum ambient operating temperature elsewhere?

[Bill_S]

The manual itself recommends that temperatures below freezing might cause slow starting. Startup times reaching 6 seconds require pre-heating of the motor.

[Query]

When I was a kid my parents kept their car engine warm with head bolt heaters. Could you create something similar for your workshop power tools? Or put the tools in a circle surrounding a small electric heater?

>When are you buying yours?

If the question was for me, I can't really afford it, and will be moving to a TBD location that might not have room.

I prefer hand-tools. I plan to experiment with a VERY coarse round stone, to see quickly I can do major re-shaping. But a minimalist power tool also appeals - e.g., a circular grinding wheel, whose radius matches the ROH, on an electric drill mounted in a horizontal drill guide, or a router, using the profile copying method you mentioned in another thread. Right now I am experimenting with looking at my edges with microscopes - kind of cool too.

I wish I could get as easy results out of skating. In my mid-60's jumping is mostly a lost cause, but even a few good spins would be nice.

>Reduces your cardio workout

If experimenting with sharpening and blades pushes you to skate more, you are increasing your cardio workout!

[Bill_S]

My mostly subterranean workshop has a couple of heat vents in it. The shop temperature might dip into the 50s F in  the dead of winter, but nothing severe. I don't have any worries there.

It's worlds better than an unheated garage.

There's nothing wrong with hand tools though. I'm keeping my Pro-Filer for now. It's the only tool I have that can sharpen right up to the picks.

[Bill_S]

I found another limitation of the Elite Edge Checker today. I mounted Eclipse dance blade and sharpened them to 1/2" ROH.

When I tried to mount the edge checker half that has a side magnet, I realized that it won't work well with dance blade "thinline" profiles. The blade thickness abruptly steps down near the edge to become a thin dance blade. The side of the blade is not flat, so the magnet couldn't hold the reference half of the checker square to the blade.

I reverted to eyeballing the other half of the edge checker to ensure that it's parallel to the skate holder surface. I should be fine, but wanted to point out that some blades without flat sides won't work with the edge checker kit in "Elite" mode.

[tstop4me]

I found another limitation of the Elite Edge Checker today. I mounted Eclipse dance blade and sharpened them to 1/2" ROH.

When I tried to mount the edge checker half that has a side magnet, I realized that it won't work well with dance blade "thinline" profiles. The blade thickness abruptly steps down near the edge to become a thin dance blade. The side of the blade is not flat, so the magnet couldn't hold the reference half of the checker square to the blade.

I reverted to eyeballing the other half of the edge checker to ensure that it's parallel to the skate holder surface. I should be fine, but wanted to point out that some blades without flat sides won't work with the edge checker kit in "Elite" mode.

How far down the side of the blade (from the edges) does the magnet of the reference horizon piece reach?  Does the full-width portion of the blade have flat reference surfaces?

[Bill_S]

The magnet block is 1/2" deep down the side of the blade. The magnet itself is around 3/8" diameter potted in a hole located in the center of the block. The Eclipse blade steps down to edge thickness just over 1/4" down. The edge checker reference piece can't go lower to stick to the flat side of the blade stock, but I can go up onto the flat relief. However, that gets really fussy because part of the magnet is above the blade and is not in contact with metal. It wants to be down where there's more metal. Then, if it rides down, it makes incorrect measurements.

Really though, the edge checker without the reference piece works just fine for skating purposes. Wissota's basic edge checker is exactly that anyway. You just have to realize the device's limitations or you could accidentally make things worse.

[Bill_S]

BTW, my first "customer" was extremely pleased with her newly sharpened blades today. She felt more confident at speed and could hold her basic edges much better.

[Loops]

BTW, my first "customer" was extremely pleased with her newly sharpened blades today. She felt more confident at speed and could hold her basic edges much better.

Nice!   

[Query]

When I tried to mount the edge checker half that has a side magnet, I realized that it won't work well with dance blade "thinline" profiles...

Another issue with that type of edge checker, as well as using a small square, occurs with blades that have a "twist warp". I believe you want the line across the edges to align with itself along different parts of the blade, as yours does - rather than to be at right angles to the side of the blade. However, I'm not sure what technique you would use to optimally sharpen a blade with twist warp. With Pro-Filer, there is enough play for a skilled person to compensate.