Any Tips For Doing Home Resoles?

Last summer I got a sheet of UP rubber and tried my hand at doing my own resoles following the old C4 resole kit instructions, mostly just because I thought it would be a fun project. I ended up doing two pairs of shoes, some otakis where I did 1/4 sole which went very poorly, and a pair of UP moccs where I did half soles and a midsole replacement which turned out okay. 

On both pairs I really struggled to get the edges of the rubber to wrap up and hold all the way around the edge of the shoe. While the soles stayed stuck on, the edges have come separated. I think the biggest issue was that I did not apply enough pressure while the shoe was curing to bend the rubber up and allow the glue to adhere properly. At the time I did not own clamps so I stuffed them full of towels, pressed them in to a plastic tote full of foam and put weights on the lid, but this was still very little pressing force. The other thing is that UP RH is very stiff, and I think I needed to heat it more before applying to make it malleable.

I am going to do another pair soon and I have clamps now, but I am struggling to figure out a good way to clamp the shoe while maintaining its shape because I do not have lasts to put inside them. I could use towels and newspaper again but it didn't work super well. My best idea is to buy shoe stretchers like these to use as psudo lasts and putting them inside the shoe to clamp down on, but it did not seem like a great option. The other idea I have is to just rough out a 2x4 to a vague foot shape.

Has anyone successfully done some good home resoles? how did you solve these problems and what was your process like? There are not a ton of instructions or good youtube videos out there for doing them at home. I have compiled what resources I could find and ill post them if anyone is interested.

I did a pair once. After I applied the glue, I drove my car over the shoes until they were centered under the wheel. It worked very well. Many years ago this was a not uncommon method that people used.  

back in the 'eighties (I know, pre-history) most of us resoled our own.  the go-to "clamp was to park your car on the shoes overnight.  these days, I clamp the shoes between two boards and screw the clamps as tight as I can.  seems to work pretty consistently.  I never worry about lasts, I just glue to the old sole line, and then squish the shoes between the two boards.  means I don't have to deal with clamping a curved surface.  the shoes seem to survive the process and fit ok afterwards.  couldn't be any lower tech...

-Haireball

I did a pair once and did the same thing: drove the car on them and let them sit for a day. Probably 30 years ago.

I've reapplied the soles on delaminated approach shoes several times now, and built a vacuum press to apply pressure on the soles while the glue dries. Vacuum bag plastic is expensive, mostly because I couldn't find a supplier that sells small quantities.  I ended up using the vacuum sealer and a roll of sealer bags that I use for packaging dehydated food.

I used a connector as described here: https://www.instructables.com/10-Vacuum-Bag-Stem-breach-valve-with-hardware-s/,
sealed each shoe in a bag with the food sealer and then evacuated the air with a handpump 

https://www.instructables.com/make-a-manual-vacuum-pump-for-under-%2420-by-convert/.

It worked well, but if I did this regularly would use an electric pump https://www.instructables.com/convert-a-tire-inflator-type-air-compressor-into-a/ that runs continuously, as I often had difficulty with the connector leaking. I know people who build skis and they use electric pumps with their vacuum presses. Having lasts inside the shoes would be an improvement over stuffing the shoes tightly with newspaper like I did.

Curt Hairewrote:

back in the 'eighties (I know, pre-history) most of us resoled our own.  the go-to "clamp was to park your car on the shoes overnight.  these days, I clamp the shoes between two boards and screw the clamps as tight as I can.  seems to work pretty consistently.  I never worry about lasts, I just glue to the old sole line, and then squish the shoes between the two boards.  means I don't have to deal with clamping a curved surface.  the shoes seem to survive the process and fit ok afterwards.  couldn't be any lower tech...

-Haireball

I appreciate the insight, do you add some foam or anything in there to help push the edges of the rubber up towards the shoe? or does it just get clamped hard enough to work out?

Also that vacuum press is a neat idea, I might try that out but I wonder how much pressure it would really apply compared to a clamp.

After I made the initial post I did some poking around in my closet and remembered I bought an old cobbling shoe stand and shoe forms from an antique store like the one pictured below. Unfortunately the biggest size I have is size 6 and i'm resoling a size 12.5, but it seems if I slide the shoe form up in to the toe of the shoe and stuff the dead space full of newspaper or towels it should be a nice firm base to clamp against and stop the sole from deforming while pressing it. Unfortunately due to the kind of upturned nature of the shoe forms I do not think it would work well for downturned shoes in the future, but it should work for my buddies Tarantulas which i'm resoling right now.

Sam Ehmannwrote:

.....Also that vacuum press is a neat idea, I might try that out but I wonder how much pressure it would really apply compared to a clamp.

According to a quick search, "At sea level, a typical vacuum press can put down the equivalent of 1,750 lbs of pressure per square foot."

And, "Whilst it is possible to generate much higher localized pressures than this using mechanical clamps, it is pretty much impossible to achieve the uniformity of pressure available in a vacuum press in any other way."

You can usually close that edge gap with super glue or the glue you use for the sole e.g. Barge cement. Or just ignore it. I don't believe there's a real performance deficit.