Roto brush questions

[skimaxpower]

When I was a shop rat, I loved the roto-brush as a time saver.

Now that I'm a weekend warrior, I enjoy hand polishing my skis as an excuse to slowly drink another beer in the garage.

[Dee Hubbs]

I have some brand new Roto-brushes, and since I’m in home quarantine from China I might as well wax every pair that I have in the garage.

[Roxtar]

I've been tuning skis for over 25 years, both professionally and privately.
I've always heard finish with nylon and it never made sense.
After waxing, I always go (soft) brass, brass/hair mix, nylon, hair. The idea is to take off the wax, moving from coarse to fine.
Tip: On my own skis I add a cork stage between the brass/hair and nylon. The cork heats and pressures the wax into the base structure.

[XXX-er]

watchin the pros at the ski cross champs they had waxed in town

before every run clean the bases out with the nylon roto brush,

crayon in a small piece of high fluro and cork it in

[hafjell]

Bumping this to see if folks have additional thoughts.

[stuckathuntermtn]

I like Seth's idea of drinking an brushing by hand. If you have a good, solid work surface for the skis, it works well. Depending on your length of skis and length of couch, you can even use the armrests. They make a great brushing surface. Probably need something under the bindings. And furniture that isn't very nice. Or just use your ski vice. I grab the bindings with the vice and put stuff under the tip/tail as needed. (Wood blocks, etc). You can use plenty of pressure that way.
Roto brushes can spray wax particles everywhere.

[river59]

https://www.amazon.com/Weaver-Leathe.../dp/B01F9YVJ9C

$17

Good stuff man! Been looking to get a set of brushes but didn't want to drop $150.

[XXX-er]

That is a rotary brush from a tack store so it looks like its use is for brushing horses, I'm not sure its hardy enough to stay together for roto brushing skis ??

[river59]

I have no experience with it, but a few people are reviewing it saying they use it for ski brushing. It is a nylon brush meant to fit a drill chuck. What's the worst that could go wrong for $16?

[comish]

So I'm updating my post from 2 years ago. With 3 kids ski racing I do a fair amount of skis. Did 5 pair last night getting ready for U14 champs. I have the racewax and Sidecut as said above. The Sidecut ones have been getting most of the use since we were living in Mammoth a significant slug of the last couple years. Not sure about durability of their stuff. The nylon brush seems to wibble wobbly (highly technical term) and doesn't really leave them smoothAF. The horsehair has had one of the ends continually pop off which is sorta a pain. Then it started wibble wobbling on me. The shield also has a hard time staying on straight.. I like them because they are fatter, but not sure about the durability... The racewax ones are what I used last night and they still all seem fine. A few bristles come out on both horsehair, but no real difference.

[stuckathuntermtn]

I have no experience with it, but a few people are reviewing it saying they use it for ski brushing. It is a nylon brush meant to fit a drill chuck. What's the worst that could go wrong for $16?

I feel like there's a lesson in eye protection here. Hopefully not learned the hard way.

[John_B]

I have no experience with it, but a few people are reviewing it saying they use it for ski brushing. It is a nylon brush meant to fit a drill chuck. What's the worst that could go wrong for $16?

I bought one a month ago. Seems to do alright but struggles a bit with colder waxes. I wouldn't say it was a waste but it doesn't do as well as I hoped.

[Djongo Unchained]

Take a look at that thing, and then look at a SVST roto brush handle.
The dedicated ski handle is built to tune your skis better.
SVST will last a lifetime compared to the others.

I have two handles and mix and match different drums on them. I have 2 shorter ones on one longer handle. One to burnish the wax in some at first, then a longer, softer one to pull it outta the structure when there's still too much.
The roto is great for moving wax off of the ski but ultimately the hand brushing makes it the slickest methinks.

[hafjell]

I have two handles and mix and match different drums on them. I have 2 shorter ones on one longer handle. One to burnish the wax in some at first, then a longer, softer one to pull it outta the structure when there's still too much.

Where did you buy them?