Simmons UL7 & Vaughn V3 7000 Catcher Refurbish

[ArdeFIN]

As the ongoing project to refurbish Brians Zero G is about to be ready, heres a topic for the next one.

Catchers are what I mostly do, they are available and with reasonable amount of work can be restored to atleast useable form.

So as the topic says Simmons is the next on the line. New to me, no Simmons ever before. This one is in quite good condition, not treated very nicely but nothing broken.

Is there any way to identify the model? Only things I found are Simmons and made in Canada tags.

Whats going to happen here:

Dismantle the thing to pieces

Wash with winegar and some detergent

See through what needs repairing and modification

Rebuild

Feel free to comment, ask and suggest. I'm still on a learning curve and don't know everything about anything yet. Every project gives some knowledge for the next one. 

 

This project is continued with Vaughn V3 7000 glove that is in major parts exactly the same glove. There are some differences though. Vaughn starts on page 3.

Edited July 17, 2020 by ArdeFIN
Topic change.

[ArdeFIN]

And here we go

What is it that makes the finger plate curve like this? How you do it? It's very common thing on these but why is it?

Plastic it is, some heat treatment and return to almost flat. Almost, because I've seen it to be better with a little curvature.

[ArdeFIN]

Cuff plate is almost in two pieces. It was clued to the Jenpro pocket and made some extra work to get it out. I don't think clueing the plate in would do any good to durability. Instead it may stress parts as they cannot adapt to pressure etc.

Urethane glue, water, wooden stick and clamp. Some drops of glue in to the split, the a little water and mess it around inside the split with stick.

Put the plate on a flat (or fitting shape when needed) surface and use the clamp to secure. Water will react with the PUR glue and form nice tacky foam that will fill the split throughly and then harden over night.

[ArdeFIN]

The glove is filhty, smells like something that would easiest be described as used sports gear. 

People, if you don't yet, please start now! To wash your hands before you to the ice. It'll keep your precious gloves tidy for longer time.

One image of the inside, coloring, salty deposits, and the smell. My hands still have little odor after few washups with load of soap and its already some hours since.

So lets get rid of the smell. Large enough bucket, cold tap water and vinegar. All the smelly and washable parts go in, add water so that it's got all covered and add a large spoon or two of winegar. Put a lid over so the winegar don't escape (the smell )

I'll let it cook up for 12 to 24 hours and some stirring for few times. After this treatment it's time to rinse throughly with clean water and then use some detergent and good old hand wash procedure.

Those stainless parts are to keep things underwaters. Vinegar is acidic so no materials that react with it.

Edited June 1, 2020 by ArdeFIN
Vinegar

[MangoRhinehart]

This is a good instructional. I have taken apart and rebuilt pads, but never a catcher so good information for me.

[SaveByRichter35]

Washing my hands before I leave the locker room for the ice is something I adopted a few years ago as well.  It certainly helps that is for sure.  Less shit on your hands to transmit to the gloves.  I also wear wristbands to keep underarm sweat from trickling down my arms and into my gloves.  

[Smeds35]

This is awesome please keep updating us on the progress! Stoked to see the final product

[ArdeFIN]

12h later the soup is doing fine. Some stirring and rubbing around and the result is promising. 

Next was the T part, as everything else is in the wash. The plastic support seemed deformed alot and lip of T needed some redo too so disassembly and here we are.

This is a work that requires machine to sew back together, and in many cases T part does not require any repairs at all. 

Edited June 2, 2020 by ArdeFIN
Textype

[ArdeFIN]

In the picture above theres a thing I've never seen before. A non cracked plastic from the T lip connecting to the glove.

That plastic is always split in two just where it bends. And that plastic is one reason for new glove to be so tight. I've been thinking of buying a new glove, open it up and cut those plastics right away. I don't se any reason for them to go inside the glove, and while I refurbish gloves and make a new plastics there I never extend them to the edges. And the T has every time worked like a charm.

[ser33]

Good work. This glove is a clone of the Vaughn v3 glove. I have one and soon I will be engaged in its restoration

Edited June 28, 2020 by ser33

[ArdeFIN]

I've a 7500 waiting for its turn, but atleast that one has very little in common to this Simmons unit. Inside the glove there are similarities.

Little bit forward with Simmons, plastic repairs, a few starting cracks melted together with electronics welder and reshaping with a heat gun/blower. Whats the correct name for it?

The finger plate has been curved in for so long that it's getting curved again after heating, bending and cold water cooling. Have to heat it up once more.

Washing is in slow progress. Four times clean water rinse and then into warm water bathe with a little detergent. Hand washing, rubbing and toothbrush in good use.

One hour of bath and the water is getting foggy, so still something is washed out.

Edited June 2, 2020 by ArdeFIN

[dreadlocked1]

The finger curling appears to be prominent on older models, while in more recent years, they beefed it up some and it does not curl as easily anymore.

[ArdeFIN]

Just before the Zero G I made a SLR Carbon. It had the same as not even worse curling and it was the hoity toity carbon induced plastic. Actually two layers of it, about 2mm of each layer at the edge.

There has to be a huge force to that plastic as it needs quite a lot of heat to make it flat again. Of course it's long time to curl it badly and then in minutes to get it back.

Nothing special to include so a pic of the nearly completed Zero G.

Edited June 2, 2020 by ArdeFIN
Rotated images

[ArdeFIN]

Got a reply from Simmons about the model that would most probably be UL7. 

The cuff plate is ready to rock.

Only small dots of urethane came out so maybe a bit more clue would've been good. But it's very firm so that's about it. Cleaned those small pops off with a knife as they are hard and pointy which could damage the Jenpro from inside over some time.

[ArdeFIN]

Washing procedure complete! Now is the waiting time to get the parts dry.

Few repair spots came up while washing.

Basic repair job for the edge caused by the curved plastic.

Finger protection has taken it quite hard. It's not easy to rip Jenpro like that, and three spots. Ofcourse it might've been three different hits.

Edited June 2, 2020 by ArdeFIN
Textype

[ser33]

funny, but I have very similar damage on the V3. apparently, a design feature

[ArdeFIN]

24 minutes ago, ser33 said:

funny, but I have very similar damage on the V3. apparently, a design feature

Took a photo of them before beginning, thought I would ask which of them I should do first. But the Vaughn is next.

There is similar deforming on them. 

But in techincal and structural terms they are very different.

[ser33]

the Vaughn I'm talking about is a different model and it’s really almost identical to your Simmons

[ArdeFIN]

That sure is one-to-one copy. But which is the original? Vaughn is designing their own as far as I know. Simmons isn't that familiar to me but wouldn't it be self destruction to copy a design like this? Would it be some sort of co-design, but why? And as this Simmons is UL7 -series, the base model has been there for a while. For what I got from query to Simmons, the UL series has gone through with minor modifications between model generations.

Interesting it is.

Edited June 3, 2020 by ArdeFIN

[ser33]

23 hours ago, ArdeFIN said:

Just before the Zero G I made a SLR Carbon. It had the same as not even worse curling and it was the hoity toity carbon induced plastic. Actually two layers of it, about 2mm of each layer at the edge.

There has to be a huge force to that plastic as it needs quite a lot of heat to make it flat again. Of course it's long time to curl it badly and then in minutes to get it back.

Nothing special to include so a pic of the nearly completed Zero G.

If you have such an opportunity, could you please make the same detailed report on the restoration of the Brians catcher that you showed above. It would be very interesting. Thank you

[dreadlocked1]

40 minutes ago, ArdeFIN said:

That sure is one-to-one copy. But which is the original? Vaughn is designing their own as far as I know. Simmons isn't that familiar to me but wouldn't it be self destruction to copy a design like this? Would it be some sort of co-design, but why? And as this Simmons is UL7 -series, the base model has been there for a while. For what I got from query to Simmons, the UL series has gone through with minor modifications between model generations.

Interesting it is.

From what I remember, Simmons had the UL series, which was a Vaughn copy, and the 99* series, which copied RBK/Reebok.  At least the pads were that way.  I thought they mixed the gloves up though between series, but maybe it was the glove and blocker being mixed vs gloveset vs pads.

[ArdeFIN]

3 hours ago, ser33 said:

If you have such an opportunity, could you please make the same detailed report on the restoration of the Brians catcher that you showed above. It would be very interesting. Thank you

I'll see to the photo album if I have something useful to report. Most of whats done with this Simmons applies to the Brians also.

Edit: sorry nothing really useable was in the photos, just some dismantling remarks to remember what was where originally.

Edited June 3, 2020 by ArdeFIN
Update.

[ArdeFIN]

Repairs day. First the easy one, after a little thinking I decided to add a new Jenpro slice inside the glove and punch the holes through. It'll be a little more fiddling when installing the finger protection, but also a lot more strength in the structure this way.

Made a zig-zag run to fix the rippid part for the looks, not so much for durability. 3mm holes but I don't know the name for the tool in English. Used with a hammer though.

[ArdeFIN]

Then to the inside part which is torn at the finger end because of the curved plastic. Undo the binding (don't cut, just undo) and measure new Jenpro part. Sew around the new Jenpro (damn I hate it when it goes to the edge, unrepairable!) and sew back the binding. Nice and clean. Then 3mm holes again. There were those metal rings, but I don't have them available and I don't see them necessary. Atleast now as there is double Jenpro at edge.

Here's the result and also an another part at the palm where there was a rubbed area that was soon going to be through. The outlook of that piece isn't what I prefer but I'm a little short of Jenpro and that was nicely available.

[dreadlocked1]

Use a bottle of Lectric Shave on these things and the white will be brand new again I promise. They will need another wash though or it will be extra fresh for wuite sometime.