How do you turn OFF the lights on a kid's sneaker? (2023 Update)

I'm going to try this since it seems to have the most promise of not ruining anything else!

Reply to
James Gagney
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I just bought titanium drill bits for another project ... so that is going to be my weapon of choice!

I'll let you know what happens.

Reply to
James Gagney

On Sun, 2 Sep 2012 12:29:23 -0400, "TomR" wrote in Re Re: How do you turn OFF the lights on a kid's sneaker?:

When my kids were in elementary school 20 years ago I used to use shoes like that to threaten them when they were misbehaving. I would threaten to buy a pair and wear them to school when I went to pick them up. They knew I would do it; although I don't think I could have found a pair that fit. But they didn't know that.

That got their attention.

Reply to
CRNG

And another great story. You don't have to ship guns back to Glock using next day air. The much less expensive 2nd day standard works just fine.

Reply to
George

BINGO!

Seems a lot of ppl swear by Glocks, while a whole lotta other ppl swear at 'em. One guy on youtube claims to be a very experienced combat veteran and handgun instructor and claims fewer glocks fail-to-fire than 1911s. Surprisingly, youtube is fulla glock fail-to-fire vids.

Personally, I think they suck. Don't like 'em and never have. Feel terrible in my hand and jes plain hate the trigger. Now I learn they explode in yer hand. Holy crap! ....you couldn't give me one.

nb

Reply to
notbob

I am not sure that a drill is a good idea. First, you would have to guess where to drill that will kill the lights and won't show damage to the sneakers. Plus, I wonder what happens if you drill into a lithium battery -- meaning, will that cause any kinds of battery chemicals to leak out etc? -- I don't know.

I would try the submerged in water trick first, then maybe the weight to keep the light on until the battery dies. At least with those two, you don't have to damage the sneakers.

Another thought that I had -- if it's not too late to do -- is to take the sneakers to the store where they were purchased, tell them they were a gift and you have no receipt, and see if you can exchange them for another style that your kid likes. Tell the gift giver (was it your mother?, I forget) that you needed to exchange them for size or better fit but they didn't have that model in the correct size.

Reply to
TomR

Agreed. My DIL has one. It feels like a toy gun and is about as smooth. I much preferred my Beretta when we were at the range (I think she did, too). I think she got the Glock because that's "what everyone has".

Reply to
krw

Side comment....

Never was a fan of Glocks being a fairly traditional engineer. Plastic gun? I don't think so. Browning knew what he was doing 100+ years ago.

cheers Bob

Reply to
DD_BobK

I don't like Barettas, either, but I'll take one over a Glock any day. At least Barettas have an lovely grip. Jes what you'd expect from an Italian. ;)

I chose my fave pistol by going to a gun shop and telling the clerk to "line 'em up". He put out 9 different 9mm pistols. The Browning Hi-Power felt the best in my hand, but that was a SA and I wanted a SA/DA. The next best was a Sig. I later went to an indoor range and shot the top 5 that I liked in the store. Oh ...I also shot a Glock

9mm, for the first and last time. The Sig 9mm won hands down.

Strangely enough, I ended up buying a Sig P220 in .45 and had it for years. Then tried a 1911. Turns out I actually shoot better with a

1911, which surprised the heck outta me. I have neither now, but WHEN (not if) I re-purchase, it will be a Sig in 9mm or a Ruger 1911. I'm still partial to Sigs, which rock! They do it all and feel good doing it.

nb

Reply to
notbob

Oh. oh. Good point.

Reply to
James Gagney

A Sig .45 is on my short list. Nothing else I've held feels as good in my hand as the 92FS, though.

The only reason I haven't bought a 1911 is that they're almost impossible to carry; worse than a 92FS (obviously).

Reply to
krw

Have you considered having a "Dad and Son" outing and exchanging the sneakers for a pair without lights?

Most stores these days will take back just about anything, including sneakers that have been worn.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

"DerbyDad03" wrote

Sometimes people don't want solutions at all, but they just post to see how far a topic will go. I haven't even looked at this topic until now because I figured the original poster didn't want to simply return the shoes.

Reply to
David Kaye

The benevolent side of my brain is thinking dad is trying to keep peace in the family. Mom meant well, so let's just fix the problem [the lights] without hurting any feelings.

The other side of my brain is saying dad is a cheap lazy bastard who doesn't want to spend the time and big bucks it would take to replace the sneakers.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

If the title of the post told the whole story, we wouldn't need this stuff. There is a fairly legitimate reason why the father didn't simply return the shoes, and he said so in the first post.

Reply to
Smitty Two

...1911 is that they're almost impossible to carry;

.. Good point...

Reply to
DD_BobK

Woo hoo!.

At first, we had a crisis this morning because we got the oversized laced sneakers all full of mud on the weekend looking for cave-man rocks to make cave-man tools for history class ... so my kid was forced to wear the blinking sneakers.

So I grabbed them, drilled a small (1/32) hole in the first of four lights, and bingo! It went out, like, well, like a light!

Unfortunately, the second one took quite a few more attempts, so I drilled the sole horizontally quite a few times, like a woodpecker looking for bugs in a log; but I finally got it.

I used a larger bit (1/8) on the third and fourth, but now, all four lights are out. No outrushing air occurred. And, the sneakers seem not too much worse for the wear.

My kid gladly accepted them, even before I could clean out the shavings from the numerous poking them out attempts ... and I will snap a photo for you guys when he gets home from school.

Thanks for your advice; again it worked like a charm.

PS: My old non-titanium drill bits worked just fine! :)

Reply to
James Gagney

I thought HSS was the proper material for drilling sneakers. Did you use WD-40 as a cutting lubricant?

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Well, the good news is that HSS worked fine! :)

Here is a picture of an HSS drilled out sneaker!

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Reply to
James Gagney

UPDATE:

Success! Thanks for all your advice!

Taking time to aim with the first sneaker, I surgically poked out the LEDs, one by one with a tiny HSS drill bit:

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With the mom yelling that I had to rush the kid to school, for the second sneaker I opted for a larger drill bit and used the Russian approach:
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Thanks for all your advice!

Reply to
James Gagney

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