for the first time in 7 years 😯 👿 (love my kids, honestly) Mrs S and I are off to the slopes next weekend while Granny guards the imps.

Board and skis need a bit of TLC and we wont have time to have them seen to when we arrive, so it’s DIY time!

Using the technique from this guy on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB6-wmMclUg

Anything I should know that you can pass on to me before I start? Ive only got meths and brake cleaner in the garage to help clean off old wax. Any household recommendations? Will kitchen spray do it? I dont have anything like an acrylic scraper but have an assortment of steel rules which I shall have to make work with a bit of care.

And did you know you can buy a steam iron from Argos for £3.50!? Three pounds bloody fifty! Its a weird world, people.

A steel rule is too hard. Steel scrapers are used to remove base material for repairs and since you shouldn’t be able to see the wax on the base of your board when it’s finished, you won’t know as you scrape whether you are taking off wax or base after a bit.
Have you got a car window scrpaer with a hard edge? That’d be better.
Other than that, a little wipe to get the old mank off (meths will be ideal), dribble melted wax on, iron in, scrape, brush along the way with a stiff brush to put a little texture on it (it’ll stick to wet snow if it’s mirror smooth), dress and sharpen the edges and you are done.
Watch out if you are using a steam iron as the wax will tend to plug the holes then potentially melt and fire back out, some folks counter this by covering the sole of the iron with a piece of tin foil.

cheers robin. Good idea re the scraper. Will see if I can track one down…

Will foil up the iron too.

You gonna file the edges too? After 7 years they will be rusty and dull, I would take a file to them and get them sharpened up, or buy a proper edging tool.

Hope your wax is PFC free too??

http://www.treehugger.com/culture/your-ski-and-snowboard-wax-could-be-seriously-harmful-to-you-wildlife.html

Woagh.

I have some diamond sharpeners that will clean the edges up nicely.
Although I wont be able to be particularly accurate even if i make a jig, which way does the “89degree” go if you are choosing not to file at 90degrees? Is the bevel so that the edge comes in at the top or the bottom of the board?

Wax is soooooo old fassioned

http://www.snowheads.co.uk/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=22990

The problem was manufacturers didn’t really want it as it made everything else obsolete. Which in turn meant it’d just get banned as soon as it got to market. When I left they were trying to market it for dry slopes as it makes even a crap dry slope feel like actual snow and was comparable cost to fit to every pair or rental ski’s than opperate a misting system.

unfortunately all the ice scrapers are either in the Landrover which is at the garage for a new clutch cylinder or the van which the wife has at work. It would appear that today I shall mostly be not waxing my board….dude 🙁

either you are very small or that is a big toilet roll.

No harm in sharpening edges and doing the first half of the waxing job. Ideally you should scrape the wax once it’s cold anyway so if you had to leave it until another day to scrape that’ll be fine.

jim, I have a huge bum.

doh! good idea robin, hadnt thought that through properly – dont need the scraper for a while do I!

With a bit of care, a steel rule should be OK, specially if you’re scraping by pulling towards you rather than pushing away. Your main problem will be if it’s flexy, you won’t get an even pressure, unless you’re very good with your fingers…

Best to do edges first, as little bits of metal swarf can get rubbed into the edge of the base.

A brush is ideal, but not essential, the frst couple of runs might be a bit sticky before the snow gets the rest of the wax out of the holes.

If the iron starts smoking, the wax is burning, turn it down.

You want to make sure the base is nice and warm, and all the pores are open, so once you’ve got the base covered, keep going from end to end, quicker and quicker, until you’ve got all the wax melted at the same time.

A good way of cleaning is to scrape the wax when it’s warm and then reapply, the wax pulls the dirt out and you get rid of most of it in the first scrape.

Wait till it’s cold on the final (or only) wax, stick it outside (not in the sun!) for a couple of hours. This means the pores close around the wax and holds it in.

This is stuff I’ve read, I’m sure some of is debatable (or wrong) but it makes sense to me and has worked well enough.

Warm base with iron hand on other side of board to make sure it’s not getting too hot 1 dot on iron should be enough
Clean off old wax
Drip on new wax about 1 dot every inch
Rub iron gently over dots until even cover is acheived Edges take a bit more heating.
Go make cuppa and leave to harden for as long as you can
Then scrape ALL visible wax off. Base is porous so absorbs the new wax.
Repeat if you want a really good wax with bullet proof finish.
Use green scratchy pad from kitchen to structure the wax going from nose to tail in straight lines.
You can use a non nylon brush after to give a really nice finish.

This has worked for 14 years without fail.

If you don’t have a scraper you can use the hard side from a car window squeegee thing.

unfortunately all the ice scrapers are either in the Landrover which is at the garage for a new clutch cylinder or the van which the wife has at work

With all the tools, accessories and workshops at your disposal, you are hamstrung for a piece of rigid plastic? The shame.

I tend to leave overnight at room temp for wax to properly soak in.

Warm water with lemon juice in is ok for base cleaning as the citrus breaks down the old wax, not as good as proper base cleaner though.

Travel irons are good for waxing as they are not steam irons.

Wilkos do some small plastic ice scrapers for pennies that are ok for scraping the wax off.

Kitchen scourer for structuring the wax at the end is a good shout. little lines nose to tail that you cannot see make you go faster! 😀

What size is that board it looks tiny?

*Points and laughs at middle aged snowboard dood! *

i use basically the same method as passtherizla, it served me well during my season and i ended up preping boards/ skis for mates as well and ended up with case loads of beer as payment.

i personally prefer to use a metal blade for scraping. i brought a burton one yrs ago with nice radius corners, go steady with it and results are great. structure base with scotchbrite pad to finish.

course you could be lazy, don’t bother servicing the kit and just straight line everywhere 😀

Massive board or tiny skis in that pic?

Lots of how-to info on here.

Piste Office:

http://www.jonsskituning.co.uk/

Or just leave them overnight with a shop in resort and they’ll be ready before the first lift.
~20 Euro for a wax and edge grind
~8 Euro for a wax

you’re all great, thanks.
Well, except that hoodlum CFH anyway.

Just had to do a bit of paying work so will go and have a stab at first bits of the job in a minute – edges and cleaning first.
Its quite a big board as Im 6’4″, but it’s not my BIG board which is basically the bottom half of a canoe I reckon…

All seems to be going well.
Found a bottle of Morrisons Lemon Juice in the fridge. Probably does the trick. Wax now on. Is there any value in doing a second pass with the iron over the cold wax layer instead of a scraping and reapplying fresh wax?

Off to go and dig out my diamond hones.

I got all excited opening this thread, then it wilted when it turned out to be a Snowboard you are waxing..

Dull.
😆

Nobody answered the edge angle question did they?
You angle the base faces of the edges, so that the actual sharp edge is slightly above the base when the board is flat. Ideally you’d also take a little off the sides so that the actual edge remains a square corner, just rotated up away from the board base a little. It just makes the baord slightly less likely to catch edges.

either you are very small or that is a big toilet roll.

If its a regular sized toilet roll then I’m liking the little in-flight miniature of meths (and behind it the can of breath freshener). Never had Mr Stoner as they type to fly Ryan Air though.

If it’s a cleaning layer and you’re going to re-apply, scrape the wax before it gets cold, you’ll get more crap out.

Do the edges before you do the final wax job. rRb is pefectly correct about the angles.

Do you have beer? This is important.

If the iron starts smoking, the wax is burning, turn it down

My mate delaminated one of his skis with a hot iron. Turn that dial down!

When in doubt ask the experts… Swix wax school

For what it’s worth my technique is:
Drip wax on; iron for coverage; leave for 20 minutes; iron again; leave 10 minutes; scrape off most of the wax then brush with a stiff nylon brush…

I think if you leave wax overnight it might be a tad hard to scrape off…

Murray that’s great, thanks.
Cheers for the pointers, Mark, that’s pretty much what I did.

Well it’s gone quite well. Wax on, wax off.
In the end, although I tried the ice scraper it didnt have the cuts or true enough an edge, and the small steel rule was perfect – clean edge, and enough flex to be sensitive to fingers and the board base.

Quite pleased with it really. Havent textured it yet, will do it tomorrow morning with a scourer or the nylon boot brush.

Thanks for everyone’s help. One more worldly skill learnt 🙂

Don’t bother with edges, they give enough grip when totally dull IMO plus its much better for jibbing.

Burrs are worth removing but sharp edges aren’t everything,

chances of me getting them sharp in the first place are remote, not to mention managing to get the angles anything like as accurate as Murray’s picture shows without a guide 🙂

ooooohh, getting excited now. Just dug out my board pants, and remarkably they still fit 😀

BTW for those that may have been bothered, my board is 160cm and Mrs S’ skis are 163cm. Bog roll is 20cm. HTH

there is a special tool for doing it properly that works really well… still wouldn’t bother though.

Didn’t see where you are headed out to? very Jealous of people who got to do more than 3 days in glencoe this year 🙁

Morzine. Old haunts. Mate has a couple of apartments there so accom is free, cheap flights from brizzle, free car on BA air miles and Dear Mater is looking after the kids. It’s like all my christmasses at once 😀

That is a great set-up you have there mate. V Jealous indeed. I thought I was blessed with my olds living 40 mins from Glencoe.

Morzine is one of my favourite places on earth.

Its just so easy in Morzine. Afterall, Im going to have to start on the greens for the first morning as Im sure Ive forgotten how to ride 🙂
Im looking forward to getting back over to Chatel* way and also avoriaz. Weather report looks good. 2ft of snow at bottom and looks like some more coming early next week. Finger’s crossed it doesnt rain too much.

* last time there I had to get a helo to take a mate off he hill after a big crash off-piste 😳

as Im sure Ive forgotten how to ride

Get some padded shorts, you will definitely fall over a lot before you find the groove.

I would find a gentle blue rather than bother with the greens. That’s what I usually do to get my eye in. I think greens tend to be too flat to properly engage snowboarding turns and more likely to catch an edge kicking the board round rather than carving.

Also, something with a bit of unpisted snow on it as well, more forgiving. I am jealous, not been for a couple of years as a result of injuries to me and or gf.