ArdeFIN

Got a chance to touch and feel this unit and compare it to 5.9. The arm paddings are so thin. Almost no soft materials there and not that much of the harder either. Can't just believe it would sting through. And the comparison between gave me very little in differences, like 3DO is there but what else. Maybe some millimeters of thickness in some paddings but couldn't really measure that. Not really impressed about these C/As at all, maybe even less than the Eflex 2 series. Just to mention, I'm not telling these couldn't perform IRL, just that the feeling of these aren't impressive.

I only have Quick Slide in my possession ATM so I cannot compare directly but in pictures they look identical.

Is the thread on the top binding cut through too? That should also be stiched with some new thread. The main lace should work with knots if you can make them. Lighter will do the ends too if you don't want to use super glue.

I'm in the same range at FTK 20 and 5'11" and I have Warrior, Vaughn (V7) and Rbk pads in 33 and I do land very well on the block.

Trying to save as much of the AB as I can as it is so fresh. But the rib protectors are awfully small, easy to compare M size AB vs L size Premier. The buckle on the backplate would be a bit difficult to use atleast with my stiff arms not bending really well behind my back. I even struggle with my Browns side buckles. Hopefully this will become easier one. I strap pretty tight (too tight maybe, I should try to loosen those a bit. I feels just that much tight at my belly and the pants over that all too. And tucked in. Premier floaters are awkward design so I'm opting for AB floaters with a little mod at the neck area to get them a little closer to cover clavicle bones. Here's a standing test for the shoulder area to see if will work at all. Looks pretty wide atleast and the cups are too much in and should be atleast an inch outwards. I try to sew those only from the top part where the clamp are and strap the bottoms to the eyelets with some elastic lace. So that they would stay down and protect nice and tight but when I need to raise my arm or bring arms forward then the cups would allow me to do so. Then I started the part I wasn't really happy about but it has to be done anyway. Open up the chest part, move the loop for the pants higher and attach the floaters (the elastics were destroyed for some reason so I cut them out earlier) But then a few thoughts more and I decided to add jenpro loops for the floaters as the floaters are still waiting to be modded and were not actually attachable. I didn't want to sew these through all the layers as it would've flattened the airbag for the chest area and weaken the protection. The chest area is super thick in AB with two separate layers of foam (20+5mm) and densier foam of 5mm and then the blocks. That's even more than inside of the Brown! But no plastic sheet here...

And then to the progress. Updated the worn out elastics to nylon straps and buckles from the AB Pro. Premiers were broken surprisingly. I cut the padding under the straps to half of the original thickness so the straps won't bend so much at the attachment point. And should last longer now. I also sewed them through all the materials to so they hopefully are more durable now. Assembly mockup of the side protection. Atleast the buckles should be safe in this unit... Still have to figure out some attachment for the two flaps to keep them together as the outer AB flap isn't connected to the inner flap. Maybe some velcro or just elastic. There has to be room for me to handle the buckles. Then few pictures of the shoulder parts. First with only the Premier parts. And then with the second cup. Still with all the extra material. Shoulders should be protected and big.

To start with, one more pic of the shoulder parts of the AB. Hold together with a clamp so that the cups are aligned, the rest of them won't line up at all. Then a mock up of my plan to combine these two CCM chestys. Missing the second shoulder cups and I rejected the Premier chest plate as it's useless as it is. If I update it with a plastic sheet then maybe it would be useful. One of the both shoulder cups. I'll cut out the excess material from the AB ones and attach them with lace like Warrior has them done. More flexibility and can be changed easier later on.

@Chenner29 Your Kenesky is the base of my thoughts of what I'm going to do . I got the AB Pro for reasonable price as it is almost new, and as said happened to get the old Premier for donator. Premier Pros are near non-existent in 2nd hand market and most that is available is so worn out that it's basically no use. I think that the AB Pro body will be very good when I get the Premier shoulder parts installed. I was also to swap the straps to nylon ones as both of my samples are with dead elastics (already and the AB Pro is only ~15 ice times old). I'm used to nylon straps with my Brown too. Arms are what concerns me more in this project. I have no spare parts and have to make do with the originals, only modifying them where needed. I'm yet to start with them at all so I don't really have a clue what I'm up against. But my Brown and VE8 projects were a good success and those arms do work pretty well so hopefully this one will become a good one too. A few pictures of whats happenin. Drying the back parts from Premier. The C/A sucks in filth have to say. Should've had them weighted before - after... Comparison between hanging from the neck and back plate. The size of the head opening is enormous. No wonder this design never could keep up. Also the line over shoulders where there is a "break towards back is far behind. The padding on shoulders is made in a way that it won't allow the line to be moved without modifying things. Last one is from the Premier arm as I had a R1.9 for a short time before realizing I would never be able to make it work, or better say I got my money out of it when sold in original form and unused. I was fiddling with that previous Premier and wondered all the time that when I bent my arms something digged into my elbows in the front side. Couldn't figure it out and never really started to look after as said I sold the unit. The yellow padding is the problem with the mobility here. It's meant to be the softer padding below the elbow floaters when puck hits. But it's still very stiff platelike foam and won't give up too much. Even with this unit was already pretty worn out one. For what I looked over to the AB arms it looked like there was a similar padding in there which might have negative effect on bending the arm. (Maybe I should go to the Mods area with a new topic?)

So coming from the previous post and added some parts and lace we have a glove without a pocket. Pocket has grown a lot of size but still the perimeter is only just over 113cm. It is big enough to keep the T rigid even without double plastics inside. And then I reused the black skate laces that were still almost like new and propably were installed by the previous owner. They are waxed type I think and I made this pocket as open as possible with pretty tight lacing. It is pretty soft and comfortable to use and the usual tennisball catching is really easy task. Before the first on ice test it feels really nice addition to the collection. The blocker is still under work but soon I'll have a nice matching pair of gloves. The cuff plate looks odd but I didn't glue the materials together as they were originally and now there isn't anything holding the jenpro against the plate. If it turns out looking bad after some settling in I'll add a lace in the bend to hold it together.

Few images of it to give someone idea of what's up. It has a shape of sort of 580 on the palm and pocket area, finger side is longish just like the 580 have. Yet still the cuff is really close angled towards the break at 45 degrees maybe. The break is not working at all actually and is awkwardly off. But nothing that couln't be fixed. Colorway of this one is what I like, black&white.

I'm really not needing any more back protection, but it would be straight forward of just changing the back plate from the Premier. Other choice is to decide a part which I want to reserve from the AB and only add the top part of the Premier back plate. That is to take advantage of the velcro adjustments on shoulders in the Premier chesty. Are those nylon straps from shoulders down on the back any good on the AB pro?

An old one appeared within search for info. I'm planning on next project where the CCM AB Pro is going to get some franken parts from a CCM Premier (SR version) chesty. What I'm after is fixing the "hanging low" of the AB Pro. Add better adjustments for the arms and shoulder area. Add shoulder cups from the Premier to cover more over the AB Pro cups. Add some extra beef to AB Pro if it is needed? Is the back plate of the AB Pro good or should I just replace it as a whole for the Premier one. Reading this topic through I see many of you have added extra padding under the shoulder floaters, is that an area in the AB Pro where you need more protection? The original floaters appear pretty thick to start from. How any of you having experience of the AB Pro find the protection in the arms and especially elbow floaters? I take stingers there with my Brown, Vaughn VE8, Warrior GT, to say all I've used so far as a goalie. That also comes from my style of trying to make saves in certain situations. Any other suggestions on upgrading the AB Pro to a new level? Pictures of both things involved here.

Got the plastic done and then to the most exiting phase, getting the glove back together. How do things work out and how big of a pocket will it be. Only the base lace is new and final one yet, all the others are just to mock up the thing and see if everything is as they should be. The boot of the T isn't actually even looking like offset from this view. This is close to the final size of the glove and perimeter length will be about 114cm. Once again the pocket is gaining few centimeters of extra lip and a lot of extra covering area. Not very far from finish line now! The two pictures from the Keeps33 method topic, showing how loose the boot can be if needed to be soft and flexible. And moving the knots just one hole to the fingerside it releases the break line to operate smooth and naturally just as it should be. It really is the smallest details that can either make or spoil the whole glove.

Here's a good example of a minimal change in lacing that results a very noticeable change on the behavior and not only being softer but also the break area works a lot better. First it is laced as usual to the boot of the T and bottom of the pocket. The break line is actually under the right knot and a little towards right from that point. This setup made the break to twist ie. feel really weird to close the glove and being a bit stiff altogether. Then I moved the knots one step towards right (in the picture) and what a difference. Break line folds really nicely, is soft and feels natural. Here the lacing is loose but I actually did tighten it to test the effect and with overly tightening I could make it tight to operate the glove. The T is originally "offset" to this position if I remember it right from the beginning of this project. (the whole project can be found under 'mods' - 'Total One NXG')

Lets give it a try with one of the few Eflex3 pics I have. Areas that should be as loose as possible are inside the green circles. The perimeter lace in CCM is usually one piece from cuff to cuff. So open up both end knots and re-tie them as close to the end of the lace as possible. Then start to pull the lace towards the break areas, the boot of the T is the main target. Heel of the break is secondary if you have a lot of extra to use. Ofcourse if you have the genuine lace you can cut the T off and tie the lace ends a few loops away. And then replace the opened loops with a new lace and leave it a bit more loose. You can try the effect while doing thisand if it doesn't work the way you want it the re-tighten things back. The lace running in the middle of the palm can also help a little here and most extra lace would benefit in the heel area. The fingers and thumb areas are against plastic and won't have a lot of use for extra lace. If you have a possibility to visit a stire stocking catchers try them out and compare how tight the lacing is on them. Warrior and CCM gloves have laces really like a reeds on a guitar.

As said I cannot explain the reasons in this because I've never started from a new glove. I only assume that it has a lot to do with water "lubricating" the lacing and other materials so that they can adjust to each other better than without water. Many of us have done the break in by watching TV and manipulate the glove for a long time, lots of good movies. The water involved makes the same thing a lot faster with less work. As said a friend of mine does the break in trick to CCM gloves by just letting all the possible amount of extra lace to the break area of the glove in perimeter and inner lacing. (Extra lace means all there is that you can let in and still make the knot to hold the end on place.) And he says that it changes the glove completely and I'm in no doubt about it. Actually from my glove refurbishments I remember a few occasions where I tightened the laces too much and letting them out somewhat made things a lot more soft and flexible. Just to say as I have two Warriors on my table at the moment, Warriors perimeter lacing is known to be tight and yet the gloves are pretty flexible. So it's not only the lacing but the whole structure too. Edit: Now that I think of it, the lace itself also does stretch a little, and that might be one thing involved here. Watering the lace will definitely help the lace to stretch out. And it isn't that much you need to open soften up the glove. Another thing that I might be able to find an answer is that will the Jenpro shrink at all with water? I've been having this feeling a few times after dismantling and washing gloves. There has been some times when the fabrics must've been shrunk a little because the original plastics seem way too big to fit in. That is something for me to look up the next time. Measure before and after washing. If this happens it might do the trick the other way around, wetting the glove with hot water broadens the fabric just that much.

Tell me something more about this glove. I was tempted to it right away when one came available near me and was only 30 euros. It's in decent condition but ofcourse needs some repairs. It is from 2010 about so it's an old timer already but it looks like the model never got to any huge popularity as there is very little to find out in google. Vaughn brochure from that time didn't tell anything about the specifics of the glove like break angle etc.

Just to note you. Jenpro itself is very soft material, doesn't need any "break in". Felt is softish material and is not going to change to anything with watering. It is made of some sort of plastic I assume because it melts with too much heat (lighter, heat gun at hot setting, ...) Plastics aren't gonna change to anything unless cracked or heated to melting degrees. At that point the jenpro is already dead. One really quick way to help break in a new glove is to open all the lace knots and let in all the lace there is extra. Especially CCM gloves soften up a lot when you give a little more lace to where the T meets the boot of the break. Then what happens when using different methods of breaking the glove in. I can't really tell as I've never bought a new glove to find out. Propably the most of it is that all the material get settled to each other, lacing is loosened where needs to (CCM mentioned above) and gets settled to the holes through materials. Loss of protection is also not that straight conclusion of breaking in. As said the felt isn't really changing to anything with watering or working it in. You can check my refurbish projects and in most of them if not all the felt is the same as in new glove. That said ofcourse there is a change in felt too, it permeates with filth and salt from hands over time that makes the felt stiff and firm. But it softens up really well when dismantled and throughly washed. Did this text make any sense? Great topic though and makes me wanna buy one new glove to find out.

Only a little progress with this one for now as I've had some other projects to make. The T is following the already tried and proofed route of little extension and new main piece to fix all the worn areas. Pretty simple to do now that I've learned it. Here's one picture of it halfway done. The "custom" sewing can be seen in this picture too, the length of a sew step (correct term?) is about 6mm on the lip where as the other sewing is done with 4mm stepping. And that is what my machine can do and is mostly used.

Very interestin project. Keep up the good work! Funny to see that minimal piece of XRD in the knee flap. That hitech material isn't that expensive that they couldn't afford to have atleast half of the flap covered with it. Not sure it would make any difference but that small tab isn't doing much either if your knee isn't hitting the center of it. You are not planning to bend the thigh lift at all like the Brians are? That would help the most with 5-hole coverage...

The edge on the fingerside got a little piece from T to the inside to reinforce things and take rubbing of the edge of the plastic. The outside came out really nice in my opinion one of the best I've managed so far. The jenpro to this also came from the T so only original jenpro from the glove used here. As it would matter at all but just to mention.

Skip the dismantling and washing part that was the same old, really dark brown water and a nice clean soft and scentless end result. Then the findings. Felt was just like the NXG but a little better as was the closure. Still some bunching was there. Propably the holes are lined somewhat off and so on... The T; three pictures. 1. 2. 3. The second reinforcing layer of plastic was added after the normal production and that needs some more space inside. The Jenpro slice is propably a little bigger and the stiching of the removed jenpro was different than all of the others on the glove. Fingerside plastics are readily cut from the factory here as well as was on the NXG and the thumb side has only bent yet.

A few pictures to start with, I'll just continue this topic while this glove isn't NXG but Total One. Maybe later on (or if any mod will) this part will be moved to under it's own topic. Pro returns sort of and after the Pro use these have been used by a young Finnish goalie so there is a lot of wear and some tear too. You can easily find things from these pictures. Takes some time to do but nothing really bad or hard to accomplish. And one of the catcher itself, the blocker will follow later on. I really like the color scheme Black base with white accents. Would be lovely if it was stiched with white thread. I already gave it a short thought but after a little thinking I decided not to. These look good even without. Some things to note from the start. Reinforced T means double the 3mm plastic and that's it. I don't remember the price for this option but seems to me that it's not worth it anyways. The T is folding in now that the plastic have been "broken" in. And still the closure is really stiff but easies a lot with just pressing the T's break together. And opening the glove to wide open with only one hand is desperate. "Alivecomposite" on the cuff. The only composite part I could find from the glove is the edge on the finger side. It's not like the Curv material is but more like the one that Vaughn uses as Pro Carbon. This is the only glove I've seen this name on. The white-blue Total One had the same emblem but it was already so worn out that I couldn't see any clear text on it. First glove with such a heavy history of use and not a single stiching is worn out. Only Jenpro damages are the T and the edge on the finger side. Pretty amazing.

Got to play with this one a week ago and if it wasn't a real pleasure then again it was nothing short of convenient. The glove is a bit stiff but with a few uses and wrapping it closed a few times and pin it open in the between might do the trick to make it soft enough. Other than that the glove felt just as good as it should. Easy to catch pucks and nice feel in it when the puck hits the pocket. And very decent feel of a puck hitting in the palm area. I'll hold this for a few more tryouts but after that this one might go to someone elses possession. That's it and then one picture of what is coming compared to what is already done. Top left is the NXG, top right is the other Total One and black one is the to be refurbished. You can easily compare them and notice that the NXG is in different angle, thumb side is shorter and the closure is index to thumb. The Total Ones have a bit more 590ish style closure and longer thumb side.

Smooth closure and the glove feels ready to go so just a few things left to do. 4mm lace for the pocket and the backhand protection. The jenpro I use seems a lot brighter in pictures but IRL it is really close to the original Bauer jenpro in color. Seeing it against the sun light Bauer material looks white while the jenpro I use looks greyish. Hopefully it'll blend in better with some use and puck marks. The mid lane wants to close but there is enough lace for it to open up to 40mm wide. Soft and stretchy lacing to kill the puck entering in. Atleast with tennis ball it seems to do the trick pretty well. Next up might be the Bauer Total One set from former Pro Riku Helenius.