Best material to use for best slide on sportcourt

[Ippo]

I was trying to explain the pressure vs friction thing using the needle bed example, but your explanation is much clearer.

What a great idea - now I want to try making an inline puck like that... wonder if the opposing teams would be unused to a faster sliding puck heh.

Now if we could only stop inline pucks from rolling so much...

[netminder9]

Ya know I made a set of these buttons in hopes of mass production, but the starting capitol was too high for my pocket books. I was hoping to make these with the idea of selling them as replacment's for other pucks. How many pucks do you have that are missing a few buttons? Would you spend $2 on a set of teflon/delrin buttons that give you more ice like action? (what a sales pitch) that was my edge anyhow.

[Huntster]

Originally posted by netminder9
The bigger the slide plate the better weight distribution, use a material with a low co-efficient of drag such as Delrin or Teflon, Delrin has the same physical properties as Teflon and is cheaper. Both can be purchased by the foot in different thickness.

Where can you purchase these?

[scweb13]

Originally posted by netminder9

scweb13- do you think those covers you have will fit a 32" pad, or would they be too big? How much$.

The covers consist of 3 pieces each. Toe part, shin part and thigh rise part. The wrap the top of the thigh rise and the boot part and the straps hold the the cover in place. The pieces velcro together, so it could be pretty easy to add some more velcro to make them even more adjustable.
I've heard that Battram pads run just a little big. Are those extra straps that hold the plastic plates in place?

[Ippo]

Maybe goalies would get scored on more with a faster inline puck.
I'd certainly like one when playing out.

[netminder9]

Hey guys sorry for the late response-
As a goalie yeah the faster puck may let a few more in the net but it makes for a better game (my opinion).
scweb13- those are extra straps that hold the plates in place, they weave into the pad straps so there are no addtional holds to the pad. Very time consuming to put on/off especially if you are playing ice/inline on the same night. This is why I want the Cordura covers.
hunster71- the material can be purchased from
http://www.mcmaster.com

the delrin comes in white and 6" wide strips average $1.75 (us) a ft. It comes in different thickness's part # 8738k45 if you happen to have a catalog #109 it can be found on page 3290.
Aslo teflon can be used it is available in the same widths and lengths and thickness it is a little more $. Both materials are easy to cut and form.
I received the 2 yards of snow white Cordura I purchased a couple of weeks ago with the intention of making my own pad covers Ok this seemed much easier on paper. Very time consuming so I will be purchasing the Eagle covers (made of Cordura)
I know this is the wrong forum but since we are on this subject I will sell the Cordura to anyone who wants it ($25 us), I will post an add in the Equip Classified.

Netminder9

[Ippo]

Faster puck would be better - agreed.
And maybe it won't roll as much if it slides more.

Thanks for the link - I gotta give this a shot one day.

Snow White Cordura eh? They'd get brown pretty fast maybe hehe.

Too bad - it is fun using something you make yourself. Hope you find someone who needs some cordura.

[Mystery13]

I'd like to chime in and give some observations on the mods that I'm currently working on. I'll remind everyone that I play outdoors on pretty rough concrete, so the plate mods that I came up with are more for durability issues rather than sliding, but I have come to discover that both have increased. I use Glenn Miller Icebreakers made of ballistic nylon and the concrete was beginning to wear holes in them after two uses. Anyway, I started out using Mont's coke bottle mod (using white gallon jugs) but found that wear was still an issue higher up on my pads. I noted that the wear was (of course) on the inside of the boot area, right near the ankle and higher up near my knee area. So, instead of making plates to cover the entire insides of my pads, I made templates of those areas and faxed them to Glenn Miller who sent me high-density plastic plates (3 plates for each pad). I heated them up with a heat gun and formed them to the contours of the areas that needed the protection. I then attached them with industrial strength sticky velcro. So far they have completely eliminated the wear problems and I do get a little bit of slide with them. The only thing I haven't resolved yet is the fact that the plates don't stay on very well in a scramble or if they get hooked on something: the sticky part of the velcro doesn't hold strong enough. I was going to sew the velcro on, but haven't figured out the best way to do that yet. I tried a curved needle but couldn't get one curved small enough to be of any use. My next thought is to glue the velcro on, but I'm not sure if I want to do that yet.
I did just get a free sheet of black ABS from a friend, so I'm thinking about trying that out as well, but again I'm confronted with attaching it to the pads. I think I'm going to try attaching them like netmindher's. I'll report back on what happens.

[Ippo]

Mystery - thanks for the update.

Please keep us posted.
I'm also hesistant on sewing on lips to my pads myself. Have an upholstery curved needle that I'd like to use.

I'm kind of curious as whether or not you used your actual pads to heat mold your plastic on, or used a curved model (like out of wood). I don't want to damage my pads with too much heat.

Industrial Strength velcro was pretty expensive at Home Depot.

[Mystery13]

To get the proper shape/curve, I'd heat the plates up in the area that needed bent and then bend a little bit at a time, lay them up against the area on the pad where they'd be going and keep bending until I got the shape that I needed. I didn't actually heat the plates up against the pad, though.
As for the industrial strength velcro, I picked it up at Wal-Mart. It was like $5.00 for five feet of it.

[netminder9]

Wow this turned out to be a long thread, interesting to see how many different approaches all of us are taking to try and overcome the difficulties of movement playing inline.
My latest attempt was replacing the Battram plastic slide plates with a new modifed pattern cut out of PTFE Teflon, I was very anxious to see how well they would slide on the sport court surface. I made these to use until I either make my own Cordura covers or order the Eagle covers.
I used the Battram plates as a rough pattern, from there I fit each peice to the pad to try try and cover the exposed areas where the original plates came up short. The teflon is very thin and easily fits to any contour, cuts easy with standard scissors. I was very happy with how they turned out.
Game time in a rec coed league that my wife plays on after strapping my pads on and doing some pre-game warm up on the painted cement I was really impressed at how well I was able to slide. As long as I bfly and the inside of the pads were hitting the ground it was great.
During the game I realized very quickly I had my pads on too tight My pads were not rotating correctly so when I would drop the teflon never touched the ground causing me to come to a sudden stop. This is really taking a toll on my knees. Since I have the nylon quick release straps they are very time consuming to adjust for (easy to remove hard to adjust) I ended up playing two games back to back this way and it sucked
I have two games tonight in a intermediate level and I will loosen my pads up to try and overcome this problem.
I will post a follow up tomorow for those that are interested.
Netminder9

[Ippo]

Wow - nice job. It must be nice to have the Battram pads all set up to receive a plastic plate.

I am very interested in their performance. Keep us posted.

Yes, this thread has been pretty busy. Besides sliding, I think that if I continue a few more games without plastic protection on the inner toe area, the already-fraying thread and nylon fabric will become even worse.

[Ippo]

Well, I ended up sewing a ballistic nylon "lip" with eyelets to tie on a bent piece of lucite.

First test on Kitchen floor - doesn't seem to slide that well compared to the pad itself (my pads are all nylon).

At least it will protect the wear on there if I play on cement. Maybe sportcourt will be different... who knows until I try it out.

Where's that follow-up? Anymore sudden stops? Does that wear down your pads in odd places?

[Mystery13]

I spent this past weekend getting the ABS skid plates fitted to my pads. I made templates of the 3 sections of the insides of my pads and cut out the plates from a sheet of black ABS using a roto-zip tool. I then heated up the ABS on a cookie sheet in a 250 degree oven for 6-7 minutes. The ABS became super pliable and I was able to lay the ABS directly onto my pads and form the plates to the actual contours I needed. However, I had to work fast as the ABS cooled rather quickly and I wasn't able to bend it after about 30-45 seconds. If I didn't get it just right, I just heated it back up and kept trying until I got it.
I ended up covering the entire insides of my pads, but I think it's overkill plus the plates tend to rub and push against each other at times. I'll be cutting them down some in the next few days.
I actually got to use them last night in a practice and I am super happy with them. Not only did they protect my pads, but the sliding was incredible! I easily got 6-8 inches (sometimes more) of additional slide when I dropped to a butterfly slide. Keep in mind that I play on concrete and the ABS plates I use are extremely hard, therefore the increased slide. Lateral movements while down were excellent as well as I was able to push off with a skate while already down in the butterfly and slide to the other side of the crease.
There are so far only two downsides to the ABS plates. I made the plates to wrap around the fronts of my pads about 1 inch to keep the edges of the plates from catching onto each other. With that, if a puck catches the edge of one of the plates, it sends some wicked rebounds at weird angles out. Nothing that can't be dealth with, but something to consider. The second problem is that I still haven't come up with a decent way to attach the plates to my pads. Again, the sticky velcro just isn't cutting it. I'm going to have to look at the "lip" mod previously mentioned. I'm also considering using a strong glue and gluing the velcro directly onto my pads. That way I can change out the plates when they become worn.
All in all though, the ABS so far is working better than expected in durability and slideability (if that's a word).

[moogy35]

Can you post some pics for us?