Curling Broom Heads and supplies
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Curling Broom Heads and supplies Experimenting broom head temperature The first broom head is a regular broom head and cloth the second one is one that I have recovered and I have a hole in the middle of it to let it breathe, the third one is one that I have recoverd like the second one but I have placed a piece of tin foil between the fabric and the foam.
So I took a lazer temp gun to see what I could prove. In rubbing my hand over each one at the same speed to create friction to a count of 10 and taking a reading. The first one was 94 F the second one was 92 F and the third was 91 F.
Now this is where my theory comes in. The first broom head is made of cotton and it does create friction and we know this because it gets wet from sweeping and it takes moisture out of the ice.
The third one with the foil does not let the warmth from my hand into the foam so it stays one degree colder than the second broom head.
The second one is one degree warmer (92 F) than the third broom head, but I was creating warmth with my hand. These broom heads are used on "ice" and it is a negitive temperature, and when sweeping you are moving down the ice so it is next to impossible to create heat. What you want to do is keep your broom head cold to be more effective. I do not believe that the tin foil works because it is not letting the cold from the ice go into the foam. That it is more to do with the fabric used and putting a hole in the plastic to keep the broom head cold, and the benifits from sweeping are increased for you and your team.
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117607192Ultimate Curling Broom Head Colours available: Green, Gold, White, Red, Burgundy, Teal, Blue, Pink, Yellow, Black, John Deere Green.
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107167241Ultimate Curling Broom Heads I thought I would show the back of the broom heads to show you how to staple them if you purchase just the fabric to recover the broom heads yourself. On the left (green) has been stapled with a heavy duty staple gun. The staples do not go in all the way because the plastic is so hard and a lot of staples were not used so the plastic head can be reused over and over again. The red one in the middle I have used an air stapler (the staples go in flush). The blue one on the right is one that I produce, it is a 1/2 inch thick lightweight plastic 1/8 of an inch thicker then the black plastic heads. The nuts will not pull through on my broom heads if the bolts have been overtightened.
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58266441Ultimate Broom Sleeve All skips want is a brightly coloured broom head so their players can see it. So we have made the Broom Sleeve. It is a narrower and brighter target. It has been made 11 inches long so it can now be seen over the rocks that are in play. We have removed the need for the skip to go out in front of the house for his teamates to see the broom if there are rocks in play. Now all he needs to do is judge the rock that is being thrown. No more running around the rocks that are in play. It slides over the handle of the broom. My teamates have given it a slogan of (Slide this on and you will score all day)
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57851108Delivery Device To show people how to deliver the rock properly. If you are not able to remove the device from the back of the handle cleanly it shows you that you are turning it or flaring the stone and the light bulb comes on in your head what you are doing wrong. It is that simple!
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57543499Delivery Device This shows the Delivery Device on the handle of the rock pointing at 10 o'clock.
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57543504Delivery Device This shows the Delivery Device on the handle of the rock pointing at 2 o'clock.
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57543505Curling Rock Practice Aid A simple tie-down strap tightened up around three curling rocks with the handles in different directions shows the player how much they have to control the stones with the muscles in their arm. If you can deliver the three stones then you can go back to one stone and control that rock better.
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57543503Ultimate Ice Mop/Pad I have created this Mop/Pad to aid curling clubs to help them clean their ice. It removes the frost before the game is played and it removes dirt and debris from the ice better than conventional mops used. It doesn't leave any fibers or other material particles behind it on the ice. I have recently changed the design of the mop/pad making it easier and less expensive. In covering the white mop that is already used. To staple it over top of the white mop to the wooden frame.
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57543501Dirt from using the mop/pad This is the dirt we removed from the mpo/pad after going over the ice sheet 14 tymes. Notice the broom he does not use a staw broom it keeps dirt in it. this broom can be washed to keep it clean.
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57851971Ultimate Ice Mop/Pad This shows the frost and dirt the Mop/Pad picks up as it travels over the ice surface.
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57543502Rock Cleaning\ Broom Cleaning This is what I use to clean my rock. A simple nail brush. I have seen so many people clean their rocks in different ways and they complain about the dirty ice if their rock picks. I have see so much dirt fly off the rock when I clean my stone with this brush. I don't believe others get their stone clean when they use their hand or broom. Have you ever heard of a soft pick this is when the stone just seems to want to start to curl prematurely. If you do not get the lint out of the granites fine crevices you might get a soft pick.
I also use this brush to clean the Ultimate Broom Heads that I make until recently. When I was using a white broom head to see how much visable dirt was on the ice. I was suprised to see all of the dirt on it, especially the tiny fibers from regular broom heads. These tiny fibers did not brush off as easily as the other dirt. But what I did find was if I cleaned it on the carpet on the bench or the carpet on the end boards it came perfectly clean. When we now clean our brooms we no longer clean them on the ice surface we go to the carpet. Why put the dirt back on the ice just to remove it again and complain about the DIRT.
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57852599Reflective blanket I wanted to show a picture of the reflective blanket in our curling club. Everyone believes it has helped in keeping a constant temperature in our club. We have little to no frost on our ice.
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60419725Dirt We all have heard curler's complain about dirt from grippers. But everyone thinks the dirt comes from the outside of the gripper, I wanted to show the dirt that accumulates on the inside of the gripper. All I did was rub my fingers on the inside of this gripper to loosen the dirt. This is what is on the inside of most grippers that curler's take out onto the ice.
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60419726Air staple gun Tools of the trade.
The air stapler I use has 21 guage wire and each staple is 1/2 inch wide 1/4 deep. They sell them at different places eg. Home Hdwe. For $50.00-$60.00
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67925914staple puller, pliers stapler Tools of the trade for beginners.
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67925930Stapling techniques Brownie broomhead recovered without sewing so both sides of the material can be used. Performance broom head recovered using 16 staples. The fewer staples that are used the longer the plastic will last you.
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67925932Ultimate "Max" Broom Head Bigger experimental Pad made because a friend Steve put the idea back into my head. He said why not make something to link two brooms together when sweeping, I had it planned out to make a device to attach to each persons broom to link them together, but it just will not work. The different angles,speed that sweepers use does not make this work. Too large of a risk of burning the rock. So I just decided to double the width of the pad and believe it or not it works! I don't expect this experiment to take off but if you don't try something you will never know. If you happen to have an idea on a broom head design I can make it for you and I might have already made one to tell you how it has worked for the sweepers.
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67925933Different broom heads recovered matrix/podium broom head, used performance oval broom head, my new ultimate broom head with hole in the middle to keep the broom head cold, hammer broom head, brownie broom head. Sorry I do not have a Olsen or 8-ender to show you as of this time.
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67925934Spray Silicone We have used spray silicone for over 12 years. We apply it to the top of the trailing curling shoe this helps to decrease the drag on the trailing foot. Apply it so that it will have 24 hours to dry.
We also use it on the pivot point on our swivel brooms, it is used to stop friction in the joint when sweeping. If you can reduce the friction in the sweeping motion more sweeping action is acheived.
We have also applied to the slider of our curling shoes, let it dry for 24 hours before using. This increases the speed of the slide and gives less resistance on the ice. We have never noticed any problem or effect with this being used " to the ice".
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69847296Experimental Broom Heads The first broom head seen here I tested to see if the head was lighter and if there was a difference when sweeping and there was no difference in sweeping.
The second broom head here I was asked to see if there was 4 edges in hollowing it out if there would be a difference and there was no difference found in sweeping.
The third broom head is "The Max"it is 1/2 inch wider all the way around making it 50% larger. I put in extra air holes to let it breathe. We wanted to see if a larger head would be able to cross over the previous stroke of the broom head when sweeping. It works well but the jury is still out making a decision. The jury is back and this does work better.
The Forth broom head is 2.5 times larger in area and it was just fun to make.
If you have an idea for a different shape of a broom head just ask.
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105474129Delivery Stabilizing Crutch Device I would like to show you a curling delivery device that I have made and you can make them too.
Our sport of Curling has just had a tremendous amount of publicity this year (2010) with the Olympics. I would like to encourage every curling club to make some delivery devices for new members and junior curlers to use. Any new person who wishes to try the sport of curling has a fear of falling and second a fear of looking bad and being embarrased. If we can make the first time they go to slide on the ice enjoyable for them and to take the fear of falling away. Because they want to slide like people on TV. We will be able to open up new oppurtunities and increase membership in your curling clubs.
Directions for you to make these are:
I use white plastic PVC pipe from any store that sells plumbing suplies and your club might be lucky to have the pipe donated to you. You need PVC contact cement, 2 tee's, 3-90 degee angle, 2 caps, 1-10 ft length of pipe and a package of chair giders. The length of the pipe to be cut is 1-11 3/8", 1-11 1/4", 1-2", 2-3 1/2", 2-4 3/4". When glueing the delivery device together do not glue the pieces of pipe that are 3 1/2 into the TEE. The reason for this is so they can be adjusted to be flush with the ice and if the delivery device comes into contact with the hack it will give and will not break the gliders off. If you wish you can also recommend putting a pin in the pipe where the TEE's are to keep them from breaking loose and moving. There are also many different delivery slides and the shape can be made smaller or larger to suit your body shape.
Good Curling
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105474130A new way to sweep What I am I am trying to demonstrate here with the "The Max" broom head is when you sweep to have the broom head turned to be in this position when sweeping.
My theory is when we sweep with a regular broom head we are just going over the pebble once. That it is less effective becuse of the sweeping motion.
With the" The MAX" you now are going over the same pebble twice with the same broom head, that you are now like 2 sweepers polishing the ice. Also the sweeping stroke that you have can now be shorter to have have greater broom speed.
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117607193Comparing Broom Heads This picture shows what the 2 different broom heads look like together compared to the running surface of the stone.
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117607194Over Sized Broom Head "The Max" This picture shows what the extra size looks like compared to the running surface of the stone.
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117607195Regular Broom Head This picture shows the size of the broom head compared to the running surface. The broom head is on the outer edge of the running surface. I hope you can see the running surface that the rock glides on.
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117607196Practice Delivery Device Make your own practice delivery device. Instead of buying my delivery device and having to pay shipping. I wish to tell people and show them how to possibly improve the release of the stone if you are struggling with your release. This is cut from the tubes that are used to seperate your golf clubs and costs about $1.50. (this is a lighter weight plastic). It is approximatly 5 inches long. You put it on the handle of the stone and deliver it the same way by holding the handle of the rock at either 10 or 2 oclock. As you start to put the handle on you need to slide it off the back of the handle cleanly when you are releasing it . So it wants to slide off the back of the handle cleanly. It will show you if you are turning the rock in or out if you are not able to slide it off the back of the handle cleanly and smoothly. It is like having a light come on to what you might be doing wrong in the release of the stone. It also shows that you need to have your hand off the handle before it gets to 12 oclock. Good Luck.
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142687389Broom Sleeve This is another picture of my florescent broom sleeve that we make. I have heard to many complaints from people throwing the stone through the years that they cannot see the broom of the skip or the vice at the other end. Do you see that it stands above the rock in the picture. So the broom can be held behind the stone when rocks are in play and it still can be seen by your player when they are throwing the stone.
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154826053Extra Grip Yes I had to show this. A person told me that they used elastics to go over the shoes of new junior curlers in their club untill they bought curling shoes. That the elastics gave the person extra grip (traction) on the ice. So I I had to try it out and she was right. It does give a little extra traction compared to your gripper shoe. But I can never see it being used on TV. But it is better than just your running shoes.
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