1 Get together your gear, face mask (respirator) beltsander, towel, vice, goggles, shaprie, and a ruler.
2 measure twice shave once, Measure the lip however many mm you think you what shaved. You only need to make a small mark, not all the way around.
3 setup, Place the towel over the vice and secure the beltsander belt facing up. The towell helps get a grip on the sander. Tighten down snuggly, but don't break anything. Put on your googles and respirator.
4 get going, Turn on the sander (most have a lock to keep the trigger down so you won't have to hold it) Firmly grab you wheel cause it can get away from you. Set the lip flat on the sander as it is spinning. Rotate the wheel every little bit. Also the wheel can get hot so you will need to take a break and let it cool down a bit. Keep a watch on your mark and keep at it til you have 4 newly trimmed wheels.
5 cleanup, Make sure you get all that nasty urethane dust WHICH IS TOXIC off of you, your tools, and your work area. Wash the clothes you had on immediatly after you are done. Good job, now go skate!
DISCLAIMER
This method is somewhat dangerous, so get a parents permission. If you are old enough to own a belt sander you probably have healthcare and want to see how good your coverage is.[/b]
awesome that helps so much!! you put it down flat right? there is no chance of chunking even with putting it down flat? also is the sand papaer you use very fine or corse
awesome that helps so much!! you put it down flat right? there is no chance of chunking even with putting it down flat? also is the sand papaer you use very fine or corse
Yes they go down flat, this is the 2nd set I've done. No chunking so far. Take it slow and rotate often to keep the shaving even.
when you trim a wheel-you get slightly more speed and you get more predictable slides when you get in those cases where your back end drifts out in a race.
i would only suggest doing this to slalom wheels
CANCER
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by lexx
3437 topics with the words "best for sliding" in... I am never coming back to this forum ever again.
Slalom skateboarders often trim their wheels. They do this for several reasons. The three most common are:
1. Because the original design of the wheel was too wide and/or the lips were too thin.
2. To square off a wheel that has rounded edges.
3. To make a lighter, narrower, more nimble wheel which will turn quicker.
Sometimes trimming means that as the wheel gets narrower, it's lips get thicker and therefore less flexible. This is a good thing if the wheel started off too wide and too thin lipped, but not so good if the wheel already has nice lips and trimming gives them a fat lip (pun intended).
One of the nice features of the upcoming Retro ZigZags, is that I have designed them in such a way as to maintain a fully functional shape, even after trimming the inside and/or outside edge a little. This means that they are great "right out of the box", and also great if you want to make them a bit lighter and/or more nimble. I think that trimmers, tweaks and tech-gear geeks are going to LOVE these wheels, and it certainly doesn't hurt that they will be available in at least 5 colors, at least 4 durometers, and at least two sizes.
For those who think that "less is more", you're going to get more...
...more or less!
p.s. I designed a special tool for my lathe that works great for trimming/shaping wheels. One part gets chucked up in the lathe and has a piece that is press-fit into the bearing seat on one side of the wheel. It has a hole in it that receives a smaller (mini-miser) sized bearing, spacer and 608 bearing combo from the other side. So rather than using a live center on that side, the wheel is support by the piece while spinning on the two skate bearings. With soft material, a utility knife and a steady hand is all it takes to cut off thin slices of urethane. In the picture above, you can see the smaller bearing being inserted into the solid piece that gets chucked up in the lathe.
Release date on the ZigZags is one month from now.
Thick lips release and hook back up more smoothly than thin lips. Thin lips feel fine until you push them beyond the level of traction, then they lose their predictability and control. There is a "sweet spot".
