Sparx Hockey Blog Properly Setting Grinding Ring Height

Setting the correct grinding ring height is a crucial step in ensuring your Sparx Sharpener delivers the best possible sharpening results.  We often receive questions from customers asking why their sharpener is making a strange noise, or wondering why their machine suddenly shut down. More often than not, the answer to these common questions is very simple – the grinding ring height is not set correctly. As a built-in feature to protect the machine, if the grinding ring is set too high, it will make contact with the steel, shut down and flash error code 3-5-10, “Grinding Ring Overcurrent.” If you experience this code, simply cancel out of the error code and reset your grinding ring height as outlined below. If your ring is set too high, you will also sometimes hear a louder-than-typical noise when the ring first makes contact with the steel, followed by a quick stutter as the grinding ring starts to move downs the steel. If you experience this scenario, immediately cancel the cycle and ensure your grinding wheel is set correctly. If your ring is set to low, you will not experience an error code or a difference in sound, but you will not be sharpening the full length of your blade.  To ensure your grinding ring is set to the appropriate height, follow these simple steps. It is important to know that the contact point does not have to be pin-point accurate – as long as the grinding ring is making contact with the steel within the suggested contact zone, the ring is set correctly. It is also important to point out that while the machine works with the skate toe facing either direction, we recommend placing the skate in the machine with toe facing right. In determining the correct contact point zone, envision the toe of the skate and the blade creating a square, 90° angle as shown below:   Once you envision the toe of the skate and blade creating a 90° angle, you simply want to cut that angle in half and make sure that the wheel is making contact with the blade at approximately the 45° angle point as shown below.