 Poster: A snowHead
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We're looking a starting waxing our own skis and board. What's the minimum equipment we need to do this? I'm assuming we can get away with resting the skis/board on some blocks rather than having a vice, as otherwise it would be a lot of stuff to have to lug around - do others do this?
At the moment I'm thinking we need:
PS. I know about the Piste Office courses, but don't have time to go on one at the moment.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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If you are starting from scratch have a look in Piste Office's online shop at the full kits of tuning kit, even the basic one has all you need to get started and they are good quality tools that will last.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| davkt wrote: |
| If you are starting from scratch have a look in Piste Office's online shop at the full kits of tuning kit, even the basic one has all you need to get started and they are good quality tools that will last. |
I had a look at those, but as we're only planning to waxing to start with, and not do the edges, there's quite a lot there we don't need. I'm trying to find out what is the minimum kit we need just for waxing.
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@sugarmoma666, I don't even own a vice, just put skis on newspaper on the floor. I also have a half brass half nylon brush that is fairly light to carry around.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| rjs wrote: |
| @sugarmoma666, I don't even own a vice, just put skis on newspaper on the floor. I also have a half brass half nylon brush that is fairly light to carry around. |
I saw one like that on the Piste Office. Does it work OK?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Yep they work fine
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bare minimum is any old iron, barbecue 3 in 1 tool for brush Polish and a bit of straight edge perspex as a scraper.
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I have a Tescos value iron, piece of plexiglass (off cut from a mates workplace) an old stiff nylon brush and a green scotch pad. All in about a tenner excluding wax.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Skiwax rubs off on the snow within a few hundred feet.
Wax lasts 5-10mins at best.
So, don't go spending a fortune on kit.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@sugarmoma666, ....I do a lot of home tuning, both waxing and edging - sometimes I have 10 pairs to service at once, if we have loads of people staying with us. My standards are high, and I use a toko iron, butta wax, plexiglass scraper, and holmenkol nylon brush, or toko half brass half nylon brush. Of the technique issues, one of the most important and often overlooked is crayoning on the wax before you start - really important otherwise the hot iron is touching the base directly. Also I wax at a far lower temp than recommended, with excellent results, the wax certainly lasting more than the 100 m or so outlined above.
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| valais2 wrote: |
| @sugarmoma666, ....I do a lot of home tuning, both waxing and edging - sometimes I have 10 pairs to service at once, if we have loads of people staying with us. My standards are high, and I use a toko iron, butta wax, plexiglass scraper, and holmenkol nylon brush, or toko half brass half nylon brush. Of the technique issues, one of the most important and often overlooked is crayoning on the wax before you start - really important otherwise the hot iron is touching the base directly. Also I wax at a far lower temp than recommended, with excellent results, the wax certainly lasting more than the 100 m or so outlined above. |
Do you just crayon the wax or do you drip some on as well? (I'm assuming crayoning is softening the wax a bit with the iron then rubbing it on like a wax crayon?)
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You know it makes sense.
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| sugarmoma666 wrote: |
| Do you just crayon the wax or do you drip some on as well? (I'm assuming crayoning is softening the wax a bit with the iron then rubbing it on like a wax crayon?) |
I rub the wax block onto the ski base, then melt \ dab from the iron along the base. After that it's a case of gently melting the wax and spreading it over the bases. I feel the underside of the ski to feel if the heat soak has made it through, a little heat soak is good. Mine is an old £5 iron, so I guage the iron temp by the wax. If the was is smoking, too hot.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@sugarmoma666, i have two blocks of wax - butta yellow - on the go. One to rub cold along each ski - hard, leaving wax all over the surface. Then another to hold against the iron to drip enough on to the ski, usually doing about 50 cm sections at a time
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Poster: A snowHead
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I just waxed my skis a few days ago. I had the folding (old wallpapering table) table out, decided it was no use for wallpapering anymore after I had waxed my skis on it several times, so I waxed my skis again. As I do not do it very often, I forget some steps. It might be a good idea for me to write up a checklist, to ensure I do it all each time. This is my start to the checklist
1. Wipe base of skis
2. Spray wax remover on skis
3. Use wax scraper and scrape off old dirty wax
4. Clean off remaining wax remover with a dry cloth
5. Check for any deep gouges which might require some harder wax, and fill with if necessary
6. Use small knife to level deep gouge hard wax prior to adding top wax
7. Melt wax onto ski, using iron on low setting (1 dot on my iron) Drip wax all over base as evenly as possible
8. Smooth wax droppings using iron on very low setting (i.e. heat up dropped wax again, and spread it about)
9. Get wax scraper again and scrape off excess wax, and along the edges to keep edges wax free
10. Use nailbrush over full length of ski to brush wax in line with ski (do not do it so hard it removes wax across the line of ski motion)
11. Rub base with a soft dry cloth to a fine buff
12. Add any additional wax products like "no wax" teflon wax
13. Move on to next ski
14. Clean all the wax off the carpet as best you can
15. Get a knife out, and try to scrape hardened wax off the carpet
16. Try to hide the part of the carpet with wax on it, and remember not to wax skis on carpets
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Not sure if that's 'right'. My understanding is that you shouldn't use wax remover on the skis (only on your tools). Brass brush first which removes old wax and opens up the structure. Plus deep gouges should be filled with ptex, not hard wax.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I think I used ptex. This was the hard wax I was referring to, I did not know there was actually something called hard wax. The additional wax product I used was Zardox, notwax. (just because I had some leftover)
The instructions for the wax remover say you should apply it to the base of the ski, but I suppose you could apply it to the scraper and this might be more efficient and cause less mess. (you would probably use less of it each time)
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Hi @Bigtipper, I think @Themasterpiece means you should only use it to clean your tools (usually at the end), i don't think you would want to use it on the scraper as you go along. I'd use the base cleaner around any area that needs ptex, to give good adhesion, but not on the overall ski/board.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Yeah, I wouldn't routinely use wax remover to clean the bases. Just clean it up with the brass brush to get any muck out of the structure. If you're not convinced by that a hot scrape (wax with cheap wax and scrape off while still warm) will do - and won't dry the bases out like wax remover.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Like Tubaski says, just do a hot scrape or two, did this at season end, then another layer as a storage wax with no scraping.
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I got some vacuum fit vices from Lidl cheap and bolted them to my bench. For waxing I use my kindling chopping log and a workmate. The rest of the tools I get top quality from The Piste Office  Also worth trying is putting Zardoz on under your wax (look it up).
All works fine.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Bigtipper, I read that you should warm the skis or board too, before applying any wax. Not sure how important this is. LOL about the carpet 
It's very satisfying to do your own kit, especially if it's a white-out day and you need something to do before going to the pub.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@valais2, how important is the crayoning? I don’t wax the skis very often but when I do it’s just drip it on and then iron it in on a nice high heat. Our skis get a lot of abuse and it doesn’t seem to have negatively impacted them - at least not noticeably so eg comparing with friends when gliding on the flat.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@BobinCH, The crayoning spreads the wax out before you apply heat rather than afterwards, and also gets full coverage with considerably less wastage of wax (wax dry slope skis on a very regular basis so not wasting it is important!). I don't find I need to drip it on at all. Hard dry slope wax needs to be warmed on the iron to crayon it on, soft wax less so.
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I'm not quite as fastidious. For the pre trip wax:
1. Connect phone to speaker system in garage. Select "songs" and "shuffle"
2. Fetch beer from fridge. open. glug.
3. Heat base of ski with iron.
4. light scrape.
5. glug
6. Drip a little wax onto base.
7. Iron
8. scrape while still warm
9. bit more wax on
10. glug
11. scrape. in particular clear the edges.
12. roto-brush for snowing/christmas effect
13. finish beer
repeat for next ski.
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You know it makes sense.
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| RobinS wrote: |
| @BobinCH, The crayoning spreads the wax out before you apply heat rather than afterwards, and also gets full coverage with considerably less wastage of wax (wax dry slope skis on a very regular basis so not wasting it is important!). I don't find I need to drip it on at all. Hard dry slope wax needs to be warmed on the iron to crayon it on, soft wax less so. |
+1, also polar-x is so hard you don't want to be scraping more of than you have to.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@musher,
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+1, also polar-x is so hard you don't want to be scraping more of than you have to.
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I don't normally bother scraping Polar-x for the dendix - polish the wax in situ, and the first couple of runs remove the surplus (this does depend on only ironing on the minimum though).
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Poster: A snowHead
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Yes, I scrape but don't brush
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I just got my skis out this year, wax looks in fairly OK condition and edges are sharp. Nothing else required at the moment except for a top coat of notwax in the car park.
Obviously, I must have cleaned them prior to storing last time I used them.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@RobinS, @musher, thanks so I understand it’s more about saving wax than damaging bases with overuse of the iron. I give them a decent scrape and cursory brush. Does it really make much difference?
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@BobinCH, I originally used the dripping technique and everything was fine - when I switched to crayoning the only difference was less waste and less mess. As far as I can tell once the bases are covered with wax plenty of ironing is good.
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FAQ
They were far slippier than I could have possibly imagined and wanted to go much faster than me. I've got used to that feeling now, and now can't imagine going back to poorly waxed skis.