Hi

I have just book a short ski trip going out on the 6th Feb, which is 2 weeks away.

I normally get my skis serviced before I go out, but the local snow and rock has one broken machine and therefore the turnaround times are 2 weeks. And similar times for anyone else I can think of locally (Woking, Surrey).

I have just had a look at my skis (Rossi S86) and they are no in bad shape, no gouges to fill only light striations on the base and the edges have minor roughness.

In fact the nastiest bit is that the edges are smeared in vaseline to stop them rusting on the way home, as they always seem to in my plastic ski tube.

So can anyone offer tips on doing a minor service myself, like what stones to get to trim up the edges, what wax to get and even what small irons are good for applying the wax (I I don’t want to use my expensive domestic one).

I’d run them up to the ski-shop in the resort

Unless you know what you’re doing it’s not even worth bothering with – drop them into the ski shop in the resort when you get there and they’ll overnight them for you. Basegrind, edge and wax will prob set you back about £20…

all temp wax, old iron set to 1 and a bit dots, plastic scraper and an edging tool can be had relatively cheap.

and have a look at you tube. very easy and satisfying thing to do.

Base grinds are for skis with knackered bases.

I use proper wax,scraper, some green scrourers, and a file to do my boards and friends skis.

Go here, read up, spend about £35-40 in tools, (I use a travel iron, no need to a dedicated wax iron IMO, although if you have a really old iron with a thick steel base that even better).

I learned in an afternoon a couple of years ago, saved about £100 (2 pairs), and even wangled free ski carriage for this years trip in return for servicing a friends ski’s when we got there.

One thing I will say is a secure base for working on them is essentially, a workbench or the like.

Loads of waxing guides on line.

You can use a cheap travel iron, just make sure it’s not a steam iron. Then buy some wax, drip it all over the base, spread it over with the iron and leave for at least 2 hours, I usually leave over night indoors.
Then scrape all the wax off and buff up with a soft scourer type cloth running length ways. this is a very basic wax but will work for few days.

get an edge tuner with pre set angles and run it down the edges to sharpen them up. or just use a flat file. be careful though, you can do more damage than good if your hamfisted.

Or just drop them into the shop in resort, they’ll probably do them in a couple of hours for about 20 euros.

http://www.butta.co.uk/snow/guide

There’s a good Youtube video of them doing (snowboards) too.

I will have one days skiing before I can get them into the shop so just want to get them through a day, then I shall put them in overnight.

The Piste Office looks like a good link – I will start reading and then watching some youtube – cheers.

I’ve done my own for years and the only things I had to buy were a proper edging tool and the wax. Anything else you need can be improvised.

If you are worried about 1 day before the shop does them, just wipe off the Vaseline and give them a rub with some wax which doesn’t need to be melted.

I think most people over-service skis – I know I have in the past and I had pretty much no base left after maybe 10weeks skiing over 4 years (bases were always lovely and flat/smooth but that was at the expense of thickness; eventually I ripped out an edge and there wasn’t enough base to hold down a repair 🙁 😳 )

Dunno about skis but I’ve always waxed and edged my own snowboard. It’s really not very hard.

(The large glass of port is optional, but recommended)

(The large glass of port is optional, but recommended)

I will be using Noilly Prat instead of port, which I recommend highly 🙂

GrahamS – Member
Dunno about skis but I’ve always waxed and edged my own snowboard. It’s really not very hard.

Skis are even easier due to the width. Having twice the amount of edges is unfortunate though.

I think beer works better, but each to their own!

It’s easy to service your own, but not to do it well… Despite some of the advice on here!!

I used to be a ski tech when I was younger and did 100’s of pairs a season. Unless you know what you’re doing, stick them into a shop and get them done properly… Waxing is easy but decent edge tune is harder and decent stones/files cost a few quid. Unless you’re doing it regularly it’s just not worth the outlay.

spread it over with the iron and leave for at least 2 hours

Why would that be? You’re just taking off the excess (and by leaving it you’re making it harder to remove), it’s what’s left behind that’s important and that will ‘cure’ whether you’ve stripped the excess or not.
Flat files are OK but make sure you get good open toothed ones. Base grinds are good for all skis, you just don’t grind them much if they’re already in good shape.
Best to stick them into the shop as you really could also do with the proper clamps to hold the ski steady while you’re working on it as well as all the other gear. If it’s just a wax then fill your boots.

I’ll probably do just a wax and just lightly knock off any roughness on the edges, which will get me though the day I think.

Why would that be? You’re just taking off the excess (and by leaving it you’re making it harder to remove)[/quote]

The first comment I agree with, the second not so much. I think the suggestion to leave comes from a misunderstanding of stuff like using a hotbox where you do leave it for hours to soak in wax – leaving it cold really won’t do anything useful. However it won’t make any difference in how hard it is to scrape off the excess wax – if it does then you’ve not left the skis to cool down enough before scraping and you’ll be scraping the wax out of the pores on the ski where you want it (hot scraping is a standard cleaning technique).

Not at all an expert or a pro on waxing, but being an XC skier I tend to wax skis every day and quite often do more than one layer of wax, so have probably done a lot more than most – I also have rather more expensive wax than most people use!

Yeah, make sure it’s cold before you scrape…

After cleaning it I generally warm my board next to a radiator for a while before I apply the wax.

The idea is supposed to be that it opens up the pores to accept the wax.

Absolutely no idea if it makes any measurable difference, probably not, but it’s part of my ritual now 😀

Prob no harm in it, but it gets a lot warmer during waxing so you’re prob only minimising the heat input required from the iron (prob also a good thing as even heat is better). When ironing in wax, keep going until you can feel heat on the topsheet of the ski / board at the tips and tails only (i.e. the thinnest bits!).

Agreed – I always reckon the principle with ironing is to heat the base through without overheating the surface, so the coldest temperature iron you can get away with applied for longer. The wax doesn’t even have to be molten to get absorbed once you’ve spread it out – waxing XC skis I normally tend to wax up and down reheating the wax for several minutes. Not sure if the same principle applies to DH skis, but extra care needed to avoid overheating at tips and tails.

I did 6 months as a ski tech in NZ after a 2 day course in Cumbria

I do my own board now, just use an old iron for waxing, use a special brush for finishing the base (half brass wire, half plastic bristle)

Use files for edges

When I was working as a ski tech the general feeling in the shop was that people tend to fall into 2 camps, never getting their ski’s serviced until they are knackered, or bringing them in after a few runs

I’d get an edging tool and a new fine file

Use the edging tool on the vertical edges

For the base edges wrap masking tape a few times around one end of the file, sit this taped side on the base and it will give you a slight angle and you can then run the file along the edge

And watch your wrists, if you slip a sharp edge will draw blood

The first comment I agree with, the second not so much.

Yep, I’ll give you that, we never actually left the skis more than a few minutes to cool.
I was a ski tech for years and [also] did many hundreds of skis – at first with hand tools and latterly with a base grinder. Interestingly I probably prefered doing them by hand (think I got paid more for those).

never getting their ski’s serviced until they are knackered

Yep these were the fun ones. As the edges were probably well bashed/hardened the flat file was more likely to catch at that point – not a big problem until you realised that your hand was still moving and the file was just slicing through your fingers!

If its just for one day until you can get shop to do it why bother ?

Just a bit of quick wax and away you go.

Unless you racing gates, why worry about it ?

I was just quickly trying to explain how easy it is. I did also say that I usually leave it over night INDOORS, meaning somewhere warm, so it doesn’t get too cold. I guess it depends on what sort of base you have. If you have a sintered base you want the wax to soak in, if your base is extruded it doesn’t really soak in so you just take the excess off.

I’ve been waxing my and my mates boards for years and they all comment on how good it rides. Maybe they’re just humoring me cos it’s free. I think mine comes up good though, and I always leave mine to soak in.

Like with bike shop mechanics though, they’re always right eh?!?

Maybe they’re just humoring me cos it’s free.

🙄

hmmmmmm…….. you think?

anyway, moving on…

If you have a sintered base you want the wax to soak in, if your base is extruded it doesn’t really soak in so you just take the excess off.

My experience of the “synthduded” base on the Bataleon Goliath pictured above is that it doesn’t matter what you do, it’ll still be dry as a bone and going white after about four or five days of use!

Good board, terrible base. (I think they have changed it now).

Graham, you’re probably better off speaking to one of the highly qualified ‘ski techs’ above about that…………..

I’m just a snowboarder who doesn’t understand 😉

Oh and port, wine or beer all seem to work well for me!

Don’t think it would make much difference ads. I’ve had it shop waxed and it didn’t last any longer. Tried harder cold temp wax and Bataleon’s own TBT wax, but none of it lasted well.

By contrast my old Sims would happily go a season on one good waxing.

Sims (RIP) boards were great! I loved the one I had.

When I was riding everyday my Custom would need waxing every couple of weeks. Nowadays it just gets waxed before the holiday then left till the next year.

Ooh only 3 weeks I can wait!!!

Four our five days sounds about right to be honest. Some bases just tend to look more “dry” than others. Depends how often it was ridden, but a whole season out of a single wax is pretty optimistic 😆

In my humble opinion as a highly qualified ski tech 🙄

(bear in mind a “whole season” for me is typically somewhere between 7 and 20 days riding) 😀

ads678 – Member
Sims (RIP) boards were great! I loved the one I had.

My first board was a Sims, was a great board

swapped it for an Option, now I think I preferred the Sims

Room temperature isn’t really going to make any difference to “soaking in”.

Be careful if you do your own edges! I one sliced through the skin and muscles/tendons on my right hand after getting over zealous with a file one evening at race training. The result was a general anaesthetic, a LOT of stitches and quite a few weeks of physio after!

Saying that just wear a glove and you’ll be reet.

Waxing is dead easy though. Melt on to ski with iron, smooth over with iron, scrape off, then brush! 10 minute jobs for such a noticeable difference!

After all that a family death and funeral has meant that I can go on this trip, so the skis are back in the loft 🙁

As I had already paid for the short trip to Morzine I have put it on the classified rather than it go to waste – it will cost £50 to transfer our two names across to someone else.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ot-ski-weekends-break-for-2-in-morzine-6-10-feb