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Women's Fashion

Ignition Pad Modification FAQ

by Rychan, 31 October 04

As PitterPanda suggests in the softpad modification and by my personal experience, 3rd party pads work just as well as their Red Octane counterparts. While Red Octane pads run close to $100 each, I got a pair of Cypher Games ignitions off of Ebay for $57 after shipping, two pads for just under half of what a Red Octane would cost.

I purchased my current set of pads in March of 2004 and they are still going strong (at the time of this update it is November 30th 2004).


To the modification.

Ignition pads generally come with 1 inch thick "dense" foam to be zipped inside of the pad, don't bother with it. Measure the pad and take those measurements to a Home Depot or any other store where you can purchase wood. By my experience, 3/4 inch thick particle board is the best to put inside of your pad, normal plywood will flake and splinter the inside and may cause small rips that can expand during use. So far, I haven't had any ill effects from plywood, but there’s still chance it may cause ripping. The particle board will serve two purposes, it will solidify your pad and weigh it down so it won't move anywhere near as much as it would normally during play.

There is also an alternative which is what my other pad has done to it. My first ignition came with two really thin white pieces of foam. When I asked my dad to get me the particle board needed to modify my second pad, he got it about a half inch thick which left a lot of slack for the material of the pad to move around, so to remedy that, I put the really thin piece of foam under the board. So far it seems to be a decent alternative, though the pad doesn't weigh as much as the other so it tends to move around just a little more than the other does.


Home Depot does not do the custom cuts that are needed to make the wood fit the inside of your pad; I'm pretty sure the others won’t either, but I haven’t had to look into it, so I may be wrong. For the corners, use a jigsaw to cut the rounded sides.

Regarding shoes, I’ve only allowed someone to play while wearing shoes once and I will never do it again. The inside of the pad just below the raised part for the Up arrow, there’s a tear across that wasn’t there before. I tend to check my pads often to make sure there is no tearing.


I hope this helps at least a few people with this modification and maybe even the decision to buy ignition pads over any other alternative they may have considered.