Powerslide Rant: Inline Skate Frame Axles, Boot & Frame Repair, Bolt Thread Repair, Expected Life of Skates

Here are some ideas... 

1. Check eBay for someone who has a single side frame instead of a pair. Any of us that have single undamaged frames might consider putting them out there. Too bad eBay fees make this perhaps not feasible over the long term it might take for the seeker to find.
2. You might be able to drill or drill and tap (put new threads into) the hole to a larger size and use some other kind of axle from a stock K2 or RB skate (Sun&Ski Sports at Duluth has 4 big multilevel tackleboxes full of skate hardware with some cool stuff like longer axles to use with brake assemblies) or if willing to Frankenstein further you could even use a carriage bolt and nut if buying a new frame kills ye (and it would me) and you don't mind funny looks (I loiks 'em mesef).
3. My favorite thought here: You might be able to fill the hole (at least partially) or at last cover the old threads on the frame with a metal mending epoxy then retap it the SAME size. Be sure to get the tap with the correct size (like the m6 part of m6x1.0) and pitch (like the x1.0 part). SEE * below for notes on that. (Either JBWeld or one of the putty stick kind with metal in it...Omnisteel?...marine epoxy with steel powder mixed in. I got Omnisteel or whatever similar name at walllofchina-mart in the boating and automotive section to fix my HP Pavilion laptop hinge problem). Also, I saw some aluminum repair epoxy (i think it was) in the Harbor Freight store last weekend. Harbor Freight has the tap & die sets cheap or you could perhaps find just the size you want in an automotive store like Auto-Zone (I know they have the thread inserts/helicoils). Mine was m6x1.0 metink. I retapped the threads in several old Verducci boots. Once, I got by with just cleaning the threads with the tap of the right size; other times I used thread inserts/helicoils.

[For those with stuck bolts who can't get them out no way whatsoever even with heat carefully applied, you can use a screw extractor (HF has these too). Drill a hole (try a reverse drill bit and you might get lucky) then insert the screw extractor and pray or hope or wish as you prefer.]

You probably know this but for those who don't, to do thread inserts, you drill the old threads out and make new, larger ones, then put an insert in that has the new larger size threads on the outside of it and the old smaller size threads on the inside. then you get a NEW bolt at a specialy shop (either a skate rink or usually an "automotive fasteners" store, but you might get lucky at Lowe's or Home Depot...but take your wrench with you if you want to be sure to get the right thing. I got some great m6x1.0 deep head allen bolts but when i got home they needed a wrench size other than the standard 4mm. I took them back because I only want to carry 1 size wrench (sometimes I have to carry 2 of these anyway to be sure to get things loose with the dual-bolt brake assembly.

* I seem to recall hearing the thread pitch (the part after the x in the thread description, like m7x1.0 or whatever) is different on the Powerslides, which keeps one from just swapping in standard hex (allen) head skate axles, but I don't recall where I saw it. They of course explained (Powerslide) why their axles are better. I think this is in a faq doc I ref'd on roadskater.net but I am not sure. If I find it I'll try to comment the link here later. I think it was from a powerslide.de site.

Oh yes. Some Loc-Tite blue (the temporary kind) should help with the bolts chattering loose. I'm trying Teflon pipe thread tape for sticking bolts and to see if it helps with chattering as well. I'll follow up on that later.

Those are what I can think of. I think I like the Omnisteel/JBWeld one best. A little on the threads, let it harden, tap it out. I'm willing to bet KenO is knowlegeable in this. I bet you are too.

Hope this helps.

It's impressive how much the cost of speed boots has come down in the past decade, and Powerslide seems to have had as much as anyone to do with this development. But I think that serves to show just how price-sensitive this market is. For sure you can still spend a many times more for a pair of boots, but my impression is that the premium in that case goes mainly to paying for features such as custom fitting and lighter weight. I'm not noticing anyone making a big noise about their super-bulletproof quality as justification for a several-times-higher price.

Re stripping axle bolts, I had this problem on a pair of Mogema M55 frames and never came up with fix that really fixed it. I didn't pay all that much for them myself (eBay purchase) but I thought of them as being positioned in the upper part of the market. My solution was to pull out a very old and very much loved pair of Mogema Diamond frames and put them on the newer boots instead. I've never had any problems with those frames and very much hope that the trend continues.

My general impression from goofing around with all sorts of mechanical devices over several decades is that threading one piece of aluminum into another piece of aluminum is for the most part a losing gamble. (Even threading steel into aluminum can be troublesome.) Aluminum tends to be sticky and not very strong, and it's very common for threads in aluminum to sieze and tear out. I think this is why there is such a well-developed market in thread insert and thread-repair kits!

But there's aluminum and then there's aluminum. That element is unbelievably sensitive to alloying and heat-treating, so any two pieces that weren't cut from the same piece of raw stock are pretty much unlikely to have exactly the same physical properties. The aerospace and Formula 1 folks go to enormous trouble to test and verify every piece that they use, but I don't think it'd be practical for skate frame makers to follow their lead. It seems that we'll get away with a not-so-great mechanical practice some of the time and other times we won't, and maybe there's not a lot more to say about it than that.

Nevertheless, I use blue Loctite religiously. It didn't help things on the M55 frames once the threads had gone away, but it definitely does help to keep good threads threaded. I even put a drop under the washers of the frame mounting bolts to keep my frames from slipping out of alignment (Katherine G's suggestion--she actually does this stuff for a living!) and so far so good there too.

Data point: My Hyper boots are probably about the same quality as Powerslides (maybe even from the same factory--we've noticed several mass-market boot brands with too-close-to-be-coincidence similarities) and they're mostly fine after a bit more than two seasons, skating regularly but not super high miles. The only real problem so far is one broken ratcheting buckle.

As for the loosening pleather upper, I wonder if that's just one of those Monday morning/Friday afternoon assembly-line things. Dunno what kind of glue the shoe repair place recommended but I'd be trying a general-purpose cement, Duco or the like. Follow instructions, make sure everything's nice and clean, give it the time it needs to set; it shouldn't be that tricky.

Thanks for starting the discussion! It's an interesting topic and something we all deal with. (Your comment about your cross-country motorcycle ride in this context reminds me of Robert Pirsig.) And good luck with the skates.