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• 4 new pairs

  lion mclionhead • 05/05/2026 at 01:28 • 0 comments

  Converting sandals to bare toe areas revealed E6000 bonds quite well to metal.  The black toenail situation remaned fluid but seemed to be manely solved.  The problem is if the toenails are already gone, there's no way to know if bare EVA has had any effect.

  With higher humidity, stopped drying out in the heels so went to just vaseline on the toes & no moisturizer on the heels, at least more often.  Still got cracked heels if the heels were dry too long.  It could be some vaseline gets in the heel area, preventing cracking & some moisturizer gets in the toe area, causing blisters.

  Starting 4 new pairs was quite labor intensive.  It would be less labor intensive if the number was higher.  Lions could make jigs.  The glue has doubled in price since 2018.  100% inflation every 6 years pretty much rules out any accumulation of wealth.

  $60 gone in 1 fell swoop.  This too is doubling every 10 years.  1 of the most amusing lines of the last 20 years was after every panic buying event before a lockdown, tariff, or 1 time balance sheet expansion, the government promptly said inflation expectations were grounded.

  Noted because EVA comes in rolls, the blank sandals are curved which makes the soles fit improperly.  Mixed black & white EVA to try to observe differences in compression.

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  Pondering cord lock improvements led to much delay, with the same cord locks used in the end.  A better method of adjusting the cord locks is desperately needed.  Vagaries in horizontal expansion & string bundles make the string tension very random.

  The thickness went up to 3mm to try to overcome continued breaks.  Reduced PETG printing speed to 25mm/s & .4mm lines to create much thicker material & stronger layer adhesion.  A 3rd part could fit on top of the existing 2 pieces, determining the angle of the 2 pieces.  It would still not be field adjustable.  It could make fabrication easier.  A 3rd part could fit between the 2 existing pieces, adjusting their spacing.

  2 weeks after foam cutting began, 4 new pairs were ready.  The cord locks all ended up performing decent, despite the differences in grip.  Tried using no hot snot & hoping the string bundles prevented chafing.  The big risk is making 2 pairs only 12mm.  Lions want to know if 16mm is causing injuries.

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  Long dreamed of some kind of spring loaded cord lock.  It always depended on finding a flat structure which restored its shape.  Ideas started popping up whereby a spring steel O ring could be in the middle of a 3 layer sandwich.  The O ring would be impinged by 2 buttons which opened holes.  The 2 buttons would be simple cigar cutters with no other features.  They would be held in by the string.

  Each button could have its own flexible O ring.  There are rubber O rings for plumbing.  There are compressible gels or silicones which restore their shape. Maybe a blob of aquarium sealer would do the job.

  Sometimes lions want the cord locks to look like those alpha fighter chest handles.  They would rotate to unlock.

  All the searchable Robotech art has been lost in the last 3 years to AI garbage.  It's no longer searchable. The lion kingdom's personal DVD footage is all that remanes.

• Black toenails

  lion mclionhead • 03/19/2026 at 22:43 • 0 comments

  Continued black toenails led to efforts to compress the toenail area.  This has led to subjective improvement.  The latest theory is this area not compressing while the rest compresses, leading to pressure on the toenail area.  The real need is a way to taper the EVA thickness.  The area being clamped needs to be 10mm or less.  The ball needs to be 16mm.  The taper needs to be gradual enough to not create a chafe point.

  Heat can burn off such a gradual taper, in exchange for a lot of fumes.  The gootube shows box cutters & xactos being used to create large angle cuts.   Hot wire seems to have fallen out of favor in the last 20 years.

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  After much clamping of foam, a 16 miler in hot weather created pretty blistered toes again.  The clamping didn't really compress it, but theories still circled back to fake leather in the toe area & the age of the fake leather making it more abrasive.  As the plastic coating wears off, the toes are sitting on underlying fabric which is getting soaked & more abrasive.  Fake leather also leaves a trail of microplastics.  It's horrible stuff in every way except grip in rain.

  Lions previously used real suede.  As noted previously

  https://hackaday.io/project/88623/log/225066-luna-update
  
  

  https://hackaday.io/project/88623/log/220493-pleather-failure

  real suede shrinks.  The 1st experiments with pleather arrived at needing vaseline for the toes.

  The next idea was finally going with bare EVA in the toe area, with an abrupt transition.  The worn out areas of pleather were proving immune enough from blisters to believe the transition would also be immune.  Taking pleather off requires taking a layer of EVA off, which makes it more abrasive.  Tests with the bare EVA region showed promise, but the exact shape of the transition would require some experiments.  New sandals should probably hot snot the pleather so it can be either replaced often or reshaped.

  The ideal toe area would have PTFE.  To have a PTFE toe area, any PTFE sheet would have to be sewed on.  No adhesive would keep it on.

  Another idea was replacing 6mm of EVA with real leather.  

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  The bare EVA section in the toe area was encouraging, after several weeks.  Distances up to 18 miles didn't cause any more toe blisters of the previous scale.  In rain, enough pleather was left to provide sufficient grip.  The toe area doesn't have any effect in rain. The optimum cut seems to be a straight line.  This leaves enough pleather for rain.

• More broken cord locks

  lion mclionhead • 02/16/2026 at 02:02 • 0 comments

  Despite enlargement, the triangle cord locks eventually broke again.

  https://hackaday.io/project/88623/log/241925-broken-cord-locks

  Went back to a new batch of round cord locks.  Helas, since the string had swollen over 6 months, it would no longer fit.  Had to widen the holes & cut some of the strings.  

  Tried getting rid of the slots but the string just fell out.

  It's devilish hard to install the 3 way cord locks.  The idea began hatching of making 1 hole a fixed tie off point & only 2 adjustable holes.  Easier said than done, given the limited space to tie off the string.  1 hole could be fixed by hot snotting the string.  There would be a lot more options with metal, manely an adjustable ring enclosing the outside of the triangle.  Twist the ring to adjust the tension.  It wouldn't be very compact.

  Ideally, the 2nd panel could rotate after it was stacked instead of before.  There are ways to weld the 2 panels, but they're 1 way.  Lions have never separated & restacked the panels once installed.  If they end up too tight, you're normally heating them.

  There  could be 3 independent buttons instead of the triangle.  They would have to be round buttons.  The risk is having them fall off.  These too could be welded.  Welded sections have been detached & reused before, a certain number of times.

  Went with a round button with the intention of offsetting it & welding it.  It gripped well enough to not need any offset, so far.

  Then hot snotted the 1 string in place.

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  https://www.youtube.com/@anyasreviews/videos
  

  Nifty gootube channel because it's the 1st time any woman ever had anything to do with minimal shoes, though not crazy enough to fabricate any.  Her husband is the breadwinner.

• Lugs

  lion mclionhead • 01/18/2026 at 07:46 • 0 comments

  Finally had a confluence of ideas & an old enough pair to try adding lugs.

  Grip would be provided by some conventional patches over the worn out parts & some 1/2" squares of 2mm thick common rubber where the soles were most worn.  The battle with grip has always been not making the soles too heavy.  

  Another new discovery was that black EVA is harder than white EVA, on account of the pigment.  The last of the white EVA would have to be used up 1st.

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  A test run up & down the mountain showed the lugs to be very effective compared to the last run on smooth soles.  Their weight wasn't a problem.

  Helas, still bailed on the same 2 downhill trouble spots as last time.  The last descent on those sections was in 2018 with hokas.  The problem with those sections might not be the sandals but the lion.  If these sandals with lugs couldn't do it, no-one else would be doing it.  It's a lot faster to do that downhill section on the paved road, even though it's longer.

  Would continue using 16mm soles with the lugs, to defeat the rocks.  Would add lugs to the sections with the repair patches.  That might improve confidence in the downhills.  They might replace the patches.

  The previous attempt was documented thus: https://hackaday.io/project/88623/log/204326-mountain-test-1

  Managed to beat it by a few minutes.

  Common rubber wears down so fast, they wouldn't make daily drivers.  Wouldn't go thinner than 2mm.

  Right rear had the most wear.  Applying a dab of E6000 might buy them some time.  Found bending the lugs before gluing them on can keep them from curling up.  Might make the lugs smaller to reduce the curling in the corners & make them lighter.

• Shoe rules

  lion mclionhead • 10/18/2025 at 20:26 • 0 comments

  https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a63854861/rajpaul-pannu-skyward-x/

  Apparently shoe rules became a thing in 2020.  There's a maximum stack height of 40mm.  Conceivably someone could pile up over 40mm of EVA but it would be pretty unstable.
  

  https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a30721631/nike-vaporfly-ban/

  Another rule banned prototype shoes not on the market for over 4 months. 
  

  Wonder if that means custom shoes have to be open source & the design can't be modified less than 4 months ago.
  

  How did they even track down Raj's shoe height or know it hasn't compressed below 40mm?  They must have reviewed the still photos & gone by the brand.  Some race proctor must be having a few laughs at the lion kingdom's still photos. 
  

  If they bust the lion kingdom on the course, we'll just go barepaw.
  

• Broken cord locks

  lion mclionhead • 07/15/2025 at 04:36 • 0 comments

  Triangle cord locks broke right away.  It might be the new grade of PETG being more brittle.
  

  Going back to the CAD file, the problem is the sharp corners of the triangles.  PLA is going to creep.  The entrance to each triangle could be routed  such that more material could line the corners.  

  Ideally, the triangle points would face out, the strings would enter a common opening in the middle & fan out.  Then an eccentric piece would overlap the middle & rotate to press the strings into the triangle points.  It's not geometrically favorable.

  The next design held up.  They definitely had chakram appeal but were quite bulky.  They're the same diameter as the old design.  Then started wondering if they should be mirror images, so the inner triangles engage the string more.  It would only benefit 2 holes.
  

• New pair

  lion mclionhead • 07/12/2025 at 23:10 • 0 comments

  Many test prints yielded a new & improved cord lock.  The triangle points ended up being really fragile.  It might have to be made of PLA.  With these new cord locks, there's a growing case for a 2nd one to adjust the heel strap.  It probably wouldn't chafe.  The heel strap just hasn't required enough adjustment.
  

  Fake suede ended up not being as durable as fake leather.

  Tried a single bead of glue.

  The last of the fake suede went on.
  

• DIY cord locks

  lion mclionhead • 01/29/2025 at 09:26 • 0 comments

  After years of problems with commercial cord locks & much trial & error, the lion kingdom finally arrived at a promising design for custom ones.

  The mane problems with commercial cord locks were lack of grip on new string, difficulty installing the string, limits on the size of the string.  The trick with the custom ones is they're sized for exactly 1 string diameter, through painstaking trial & error.  Experience with cord locks showed they could provide just enough grip to be useful while still allowing field adjustment.
  

  Currently, they're sized for 10 passes of #18 mason line.  
  

  The big unknown is how they'll behave when the string ages & expands.  Will the string still be adjustable.  They could be made of TPU to emulate the compliance of a spring.  They're removable after assembly & are pressed together by the same friction that grips the string.  They've proven less prone to causing chafing, despite the sharp edges.  There's finally the possibility of reusing string.
  

• Suede sandals

  lion mclionhead • 11/19/2024 at 04:48 • 0 comments

  Fake Suede

  Fake Leather
  

  There's no more fake leather in the apartment.  We only have a worn 1 year old sample. 
  

• Post tib tendinitis

  lion mclionhead • 09/27/2024 at 08:43 • 0 comments

  It's believed the sandals are providing more arch support as they wear down. 

  A bump tends to form between the heel & toes.  It was originally believed the bump didn't provide any arch support, but it could be supporting the ends of the arch & that's affecting the longevity of the post tib.  The front & rear are more compressed, so are supporting that part of the foot more.  It's possible the layer of fake leather is reducing the support from the bump.
  

  It might be necessary to keep sandals going longer & use only older ones for the highest effort.  Some say arch support is bad because it weakens the post tib.  No matter what, all cushioning of any kind is going to unload the post tib more as it ages.  The only paw wear that doesn't is bare rubber. 
  

  The sandals showed wear shifting to the rear, after 4 months of switching to a heal strike.  

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