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Pablo's Weekly Workshop Diary: 4th October 2026

Writer: Pablo
Pablo
Oct 5
5 min read

Another week done at Pabloskates, and this one has been a proper mixture. We've been back at Rollerworld, finished the German Vapor build, fought with the 3D printer over our new slotted heels, worked on skates belonging to people we actually skate with, resurrected some seriously old gear and somehow acquired a pair of never-worn N-Dorfins still in their original box.


Oh, and after all the testing, breaking, tweaking and redesigning, Pablo's Jam & Dance Plugs have officially gone public. COME GET SOME! 😂🛼


🛼 Back at Rollerworld

Of course we were back at Rollerworld Derby again this week. It's where a lot of this madness ultimately ends up being used, and it's always good to actually get some skating in rather than spending every waking hour drilling holes in other people's skates.

There's something quite satisfying about sitting at the side of the rink, looking around and realising that a fair few of the skaters, and most of the staff, are wearing skates you've built. It's a pretty cool feeling seeing Pabloskates builds out there being properly used rather than sitting on the workshop shelf gathering dust. 🛼


📦 More Customer Orders Through the Workshop

Another collection of customer orders came through this week, including yet more Bauer boots waiting for their turn on the bench. There's always something slightly amusing about the workshop slowly filling up with hockey boots that are destined never to see a piece of ice again. Blades off. Quad plates on. Much better. 😎


🇩🇪 The Bauer Vapor X2.5s Are Off to Germany!

The Bauer Vapor X2.5 build for our customer in Germany is finally complete. These were sourced specifically for the customer in EU 44.5 and received the full Pabloskates treatment: full carbon fibre reinforcement, eight rivets per boot, Playmaker plates, clear red Air Waves 65mm 78A wheels and ABEC 7 bearings. The red and black combination came together brilliantly, and those clear red Air Waves look spot on against the Vapors. One finished custom Pabloskates build heading from Derby to Germany. 🇬🇧➡️🇩🇪


😤 Those Bloody 3D Printed Heels...

This week's apparently simple job that turned into considerably more work than expected: Tweaking the print quality and print speed on our Pabloskates Quad Roller Skate Heels.

The idea behind our new slotted heels is simple. Instead of fixed mounting holes deciding where your heel has to sit, elongated slots allow the heel to be adjusted around the correct plate position. The reality of designing and 3D printing something that actually prints properly, looks good and doesn't take forever to produce is slightly less simple. There were tweaks. Then tweaks to the tweaks. Then more tweaks because apparently the previous tweaks weren't quite tweaky enough. We absolutely love 3D printing and the learning curve that comes with it. There's something incredibly satisfying about designing something, printing it, finding a problem and figuring out how to make the next one better. But sometimes, after the 47th test print, some language unsuitable for this blog is required! 😂


We got there in the end though, and the heels are now printing beautifully. 🛼🔥 And just as importantly, we've added a fair bit more to our 3D printing knowledge along the way. Every failed print, tweak and test teaches us something for the next thing we decide to make!


The finished design of our new slotted heels gives loads of mounting flexibility without having to butcher heel holes just because your plate hardware sits a few millimetres away from where somebody decided the holes should be.


❤️ Bauer Supreme One20s for a Very Dear Customer

This one was a little more personal. A pair of Bauer Supreme One20s converted for a very dear customer who also happens to skate with me at Rollerworld. There's always something particularly nice about building skates for somebody you know, especially when you're then going to see those skates being used on the rink rather than disappearing into the back of a courier van. The One20s make a cracking base for a quad conversion, and this pair came out looking properly purposeful. Hopefully I'll be watching these flying around Rollerworld very soon. 🛼


🕰️ Bringing Some Proper Old-School Skates Back

Then we went considerably further back in time. A customer brought us these old Skater boots and plates and asked us to remount them. No unnecessary modernisation and no turning them into something they're not. Just getting the existing setup mounted back together as requested. We work on plenty of modern Bauer conversions, but it's always interesting when something like this turns up at the workshop. They've clearly already lived a life, and now they're ready for another one.


🛹 Park Skate Plate Swap

Another job this week was a plate swap on a pair of very well-used park skates.

We went with Playmaker plates for the replacement setup. The boots themselves have clearly seen some action, complete with mismatched wheels, plenty of battle scars and absolutely no attempt to pretend otherwise. Exactly how park skates should look, really. 😂

Sometimes a skate doesn't need making pretty. It just needs sorting out and putting back into service.


🔴 Bauer NSX Size 8 For Sale

We've also got another pair available: Bauer NSX boots in UK size 8.

Black and red Bauer styling and ready for somebody who wants to turn them into their own custom quad setup. These could make a cracking conversion, particularly with the right red or black hardware underneath them. If you've been waiting for a size 8 Bauer project, these are worth a look.


🤯 Never-Worn N-Dorfins... In Their Original Box!

And then there's this week's slightly ridiculous arrival. We've just taken delivery of a pair of N-Dorfins in size 5 that have NEVER BEEN WORN and are still sitting in their original box.

Considering the age of these things, finding a pair is interesting enough. Finding them unused and still with the original packaging is something else entirely. They've basically been sitting around for years waiting for somebody at Pabloskates to eventually get their hands on them. 😂 What happens to these next? We'll see...


🔥 PABLO'S JAM & DANCE PLUGS ARE LIVE!

And finally, after designing them, printing prototypes, skating them, breaking them, changing them and printing some more...

Pablo's Custom Jam & Dance Plugs are officially available to buy!

They're hard plastic, low-friction plugs designed for jam, rhythm and dance skating, available in our Standard, Hex and Ice Gem designs with loads of colour options. And the important bit? They're £1 a pair. Jam plugs get scraped across floors. They wear out. They get battered. So we've deliberately made ours cheap enough to be treated as disposable skate parts. Use them. Abuse them. Wear them out. Replace them. They're a quid. COME GET SOME! 🛼🔥


🛠️ Another Week at Pabloskates

So that's another week done. Rollerworld, customer builds, international orders, 3D printed parts, old-school skates, park skate repairs, rare boots and yet more Bauer conversions.

As always, a massive thank you to everyone who's ordered something, trusted us with their skates, recommended Pabloskates or simply followed what we're doing. For a tiny workshop, there's an increasingly ridiculous amount going on in here.



See you next week for another workshop update!


Paul – Owner, Pabloskates



Every retro skate featured in our Workshop Diary is individually hand-built in the Pabloskates workshop. Since we use pre-owned hockey boots, each pair is unique and no two builds are ever exactly the same.



Browse our latest converted skates or get in touch to discuss your dream setup only at Pabloskates.com.


Pre-Built Retro Skates - https://www.pabloskates.com/skates

Skate Parts & Accessories - https://www.pabloskates.com/parts 

Custom Build Enquiries - https://www.pabloskates.com/services


Phone/WhatsApp - 00447848287929


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