Dipstik's complete photo guide to tuning ski's

[stuckathuntermtn]

Nice tutorial....

One thing that I have learned to conserve wax is to paint the wax onto the ski after briefly warming it on the iron. Used much less wax and gives better coverage, IMO.

Are you actually more broke than me that you can't afford wax?

[deliberate]

is there a consensus on file guides yet for edges/bases?

I just paid for my skis to get tuned, and am pretty unhappy with the results. Chirstmas is coming up, and I have brothers that may want to buy me some useful equipment.

[khyber.pass]

Now you want to begin to wax your skis. You basically take a brick of wax, hold it to the iron, and allow it to drip on the ski base.

Nice work !!.. a point on the 'dripping wax' method. I did this for years until a racer friend told me to rub the wax on the ski, then iron it (like one does in nordic skiing). This will save a LOT of wax and will result in a far more even application. Highly recommended.

[Velillen]

So first off old guide but i still use it and appreciate it so worth a bump in my mind if nothing else.

But my question is about "hot waxing" to clean the bases and about the wax. I've read a fair amount on the subject and, like most things with ski tuning, it seems ot have people for it and people against it. From what i've read people just use a generic "all temp, universal wax" and apply it quickly and hot scrap it. Claims to get the base nice and clean and also warm up the base a bit more before you use the "good stuff". least thats my understanding and it makes sense in paper to me. Whats peoples opinions on that?

The second question comes to reusing wax of sort. We all scrap and im sure all notice all that extra wax that hits the floor and probably usually ends up in the trash. but could you remelt it into a bar form and use it again? Either as the same as what it is (ie if its cold wax use it as cold wax) or could you use it for the hot scraping thingy i mentioned above? could you even mix different waxes for the hot waxing thingy above (id say no to that just due to different melting points)

Anyways thanks for anyone who can answer for me!

[Toby]

I like hot scrapes. Works very well for cleaning. I don't apply quickly, just a normal wax to make sure the base heats up nicely. Then just scrape the base before it cools down again instead of leaving it (ideally) overnight like a normal wax. Repeat the whole process until the stuff you're scraping comes off clean. Give it a shot some time, you'll see how it works. Usually about 3 hot scrapes will clean all the crap out.

As to reusing, nup, I don't do that. And I wouldn't either, especially because the wax that you scrape off is usually pretty dirty.

[Velillen]

for your hot scrapes do you usually just use generic universal wax? Something along the lines of Swix Trainign Uniwax (An every day training wax for excellent gliding and base protection. Air Temp Range: 27°F /-4°F (-3°C /-20°C))

As for reusing i was more leaning towards after you hot scrape and get the gunk off. Base is usually pretty clean so the scrapings are generally nice and white (from the bit ive done) so seems like it owuld be pretty clean. Then again i think im just being cheap in my head

[jongbane]

i make my repairs, with an old Head base repair iron from the 60's. its just a big soldiering iron with a flat tip. i use the iron to preheat the ski base at the repair, to the point of melting at the surface, and use the repair material you use with the guns to fill the repair with very few problems. the key is to preheat the base at the repair

[Pow4Brains]

^^^^^^^^^

It's that time of year!

[Timberridge]

Snowboard jong tuning question.

So my buddy asks me to tune his board. I figure I'll give it a whack but I've never done a board. He has no idea what the bevels are set at and I don't think the board has ever had a tune, so I take out the true bar and the board is very clearly base high at the edges...and what looks like a 2 degree base bevel. I tell him if these were a pair of skis he would need a base grind. He takes it to the shop and they tell him everything is as it should be. Meanwhile I can't even get a 2% bevel guide with file to touch the edge so I'm like wtf?

So question is, are boards just different with high bases or is the shop blowing smoke up his ass?

[Core Shot]

Tuning talk is all the rage these days