How to Make Roller Skates Out of Tennis Shoes
- 1). Choose a pair of comfortable, durable tennis shoes to serve as your skate boots. The tennis shoes you select should have fairly flat soles or you won't be able to attach the skate plates.
- 2). Purchase a pair of skate plates. For a project like this, you'll likely want to opt for plastic plates; they tend to be cheaper and lighter. You want to make sure the plate is not longer than the shoes; one that is one to two inches shorter than the skate will be just fine.
- 3). Coat the flat side of your skate plates with your adhesive. Some DIY mounters recommend "Shoe Goo"; an alternative is "Gorilla Glue."
- 4). Position one skate plate where you'd like it to sit on the bottom of your shoe. If your plates are the same size as the shoe, it's a bit easier. For plates that are shorter, you can either center the skate plate -- which offers the most stability -- or do a "short forward" mount, which allows for more agility.
- 5). Make sure that you position the skate plates in the same place on both shoes or the skates will be too unsteady.
- 6). Wipe away any excess glue.
- 7). Clamp your plates to your shoes to make sure that they'll be firmly attached when the glue has dried. Wait until the glue is completely dry before handling your skates.
- 8). Screw the toe stop into the toe-stop hole at the bottom of the toe area of your plates. You can opt for jam plugs instead of toe stops if you plan on jam skating.
- 9). Select a set of wheels that's compatible with the surface on which you plan to skate. Skate shops stock wheels meant for indoor skating and outdoor skating.
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Push the bearings into your wheels; you can do this manually by pressing your index finger into the wheel, or can use a simple bearing-press tool. - 11
Places the wheels on the skate axles, and screw on the nuts to keep each wheel in place. Turn the nuts until the wheels don't move from side to side. The wheels should be able to rotate freely; if spinning is impeded, loosen the nuts a turn or two. Now you're ready to roll.
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