EGC Prototype Program Unveiled
March 22, 2008 by egc
On boot making:
The snow is still piled outside my window. The roads aren’t too bad, but I like to spend as little time on them as possible. The GTA is not a friendly place for cyclists. Motorists are vicious. Even the pedestrians wander about on the bike trails like they own the place. The temperature is -6 today.
Things have been pretty quiet around EGC all winter. After acquiring a few more tools and supplies, I’m anxious to get started. This winter, the plan was to get a business license, line up a few more suppliers, print some small promo materials (cool looking business cards), document my boot making process and spend a whole whack of time learning shoe making. Unfortunately, I’m way behind and nowhere near completing many of these tasks.
2008 is still a learning year for me. I’ve managed to:
- complete the baseline boot design and answer all the most critical design related questions as well as solve many of the engineering problems encountered so far.
- obtain an industrial sewing machine for under $1000
- document most of the process
I still have a lot on the “todo” list (which is growing daily) but I’ll be ready to start the prototype program in April.
So “what is this prototype program?”, you may be asking. I have this listed on the [info] page, but since it doesn’t get rss’ed or accessed all that often, I’ll reprint it here.
What is the Prototype Program?
This program allows me to thoroughly test current designs and manufacturing processes. It also gives local skaters the opportunity to try out custom boots for a fraction of the cost (as long as they meet certain requirements listed on the [info] page.)
There will be two programs offered on a first come, first served basis. The Inline program starts in April and the Short Track program begins in July. In April, the participants of the program, can request a casting interview, during which time they will be cast for EGC boots. Participants are then invited to contribute (and personalize) the design of the boot appearance and features.
So far I have one (1) confirmed and two (2) unconfirmed inline and three (3) unconfirmed short track participants in the program. I’m hoping to have at least five, up to a maximum of eight. If you meet the requirements - come talk to me on April 6th at the Toronto Inline Skating Club Open House.
As I mentioned on the [info] page there’s no cost to join the prototype program, but you must be willing to volunteer a bit of your time.
“No more racing in the rain, no more pushing until I puke, no more burning lungs. I’ve seen many athletes take a season off and come back stronger than ever the following year. Speed skating is my life. I’m interested in longer term goals and those are trained over years, not months.”
On training:
As you can see, I’ve updated the website (to something more reliable and with backup facilities) but I’m still working on a few minor tweaks. Kudos to WordPress.Com for a great (free) tool.
After spending most of ‘07 training for the 24h, the office work started piling up. I was playing catch-up all summer, but had a nice little break in the fall. Almost daily trips to the gym, spinning, weight training along with indoor inline and short track ice filled up my late autumn days and nights. When winter finally arrived, so too did several unfortunate incidents that left me weak and pretty much immobile.
One pulled groin, one squashed disc, one tennis elbow and one misaligned knee. The pulled groin made it hard to skate. The squashed disc made it impossible to stand or sit. The tennis elbow meant that I could barely find the strength to lift a book and the knee? That was due to an overly tight IT band from over compensating due to my weakened back. All this is not entirely behind me yet. I’ve been off skates since the beginning of January. It’s been nearly 3 months. I think it’s going to be hard getting back into shape again and the outdoor season begins in a couple of weeks!
I’m not all that worried though. I’m not a fast or strong skater any more and as I get older, it gets harder and harder to train. I do have a plan though and I’m hoping some of my experience will help.
My plan…is to take a vacation this summer. Lol. I’ve spent the last 15 years training and racing. I really have not taken an easy summer at all. This year’s training will all be easy. No more racing in the rain, no more pushing until I puke, no more burning lungs. I’ve seen many athletes take a season off and come back stronger than ever the following year. Speed skating is my life. I’m interested in longer term goals and those are trained over years, not months.
So one final word, then I’m off to finish up my todo list. This is my first attempt at making boots for other people, so I don’t expect that everything will work out exactly as planned. I am planning on running it again 2009, so if you missed out this time around, you can catch the second round next summer.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see some of you out on the track soon (I hope!)
Eric, I see you have no comments on your new website so maybe I can be the first. I have a new posting on my own blog about my latest boot making project. What I think I really need is something you have invested in and that is a boot patcher sewing machine. How is your experience with the Techsew so far? I see them on eBay for sale by a shop in Montreal. My question about that machine is how does it work without a motor? I see no motor in their ads or in your photos. Am I missing something? –John
John! Nice work on the figure skates! They look sweet! So yeah, no comments. The version of wordpress I was using didn’t have a compatible export feature so I had to manually move the data over to my new blog. It was a chore that took a lot of valuable time from my design work. So, here’s the deal with the Techsew. It appears to be a chinese version of what was originally an old Singer sewing machine. I did a bit of research, but nothing was obvious so I had to put two and two together to figure out what was going on.
I combined what I knew about this machine and the various iterations of it out there (I believe Adler and several other european versions are also out there) with an accidental discovery. I was flipping through my shoe/ortho supplier catalogue and saw that they sold parts for a Singer shoe patcher machine that had the exact same model number! Low and behold, from the drawings, they look identical.
My experiences so far:
a) the techsew had some alignment issues. I kept breaking the needle because of it. The problem was with the hole in the bobbin plate. I fixed it by using a fine Dremel grinding bit and gently widening it.
b) it was really heavy. I still have not permanently installed it. Unlike a regular sewing machine, this one needs to have clearance underneath the arm. I’m planning on mounting it on a wooden board, then clamping it onto the table with the arm sticking over the edge when I’m using it.
c) you can not mount a professional thread spool on this machine. I solved that problem by mounting the spool elsewhere. There’s actually a great device on ebay.
d) I bought it from Raphael’s in Montreal. Probably the same ad that you saw on ebay. Service was fast and painless.
e) the machine CAN be motorized, but you have to buy the table and motor. Since I’m looking for precision sewing, I wanted a manual machine. There’s a flywheel and handle that can be mounted on the front or side of the machine.
f) it sews quite well, but there’s no way it will sew 1/4 inch leather like it says. The needles won’t handle it. Even with the bigger needles, ensuring that the machine lock stitch is balanced requires some serious fine tuning of the thread tensions. Fortunately, most of the sewing on skates won’t really exceed 1/8 of an inch. I haven’t run into any problems with thickness (yet.)
g) it uses a machine lock stitch, which means, as you may already know, if one single stitch is damaged, the whole thread can come apart. The advantages of a true hand lock stitch is that no single point of failure will affect the rest of the assembly. While I do plan on using the machine to do most of the stitching, I’m still going to do the cuff by hand.
I can’t wait to see more of your work. Keep it up!