• For more information on how to avoid pop-up ads and still support SkiTalk click HERE.

crgildart

Gravity Slave
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
16,328
Location
The Bull City
I used a regular cheap assed KMart iron for decades. The end of the plastic tab on the slider across the front broke off at some point but I still kept using it. Main downside is the temp going up and down more variably. Steam holes bothered me at first so I used to put foil over it. Eventually just used it as is holes and all.

Awhile ago VistMan (remember VistMan and his tuning posts?) sent me one of his old SWIX irons so I finally tossed out the electrical fire waiting to happen hahahaha.

Anyway, I've gotten pretty slack in my waxing habits. One good coat of all purpose wax when I get something new set up then they sit until I get motivated to ski that pair... sometimes two years hahaha. Don't always remember to scrape them. I don't wax again until I am sure they have at least ten days on them because I rarely ski the same ski more than four hours in a typical ski day. If I ski longer than that I'll ski something else after the mid day or dinner break.

If I am expecting REALLY COLD or REALLY WARM I will wax appropriately and scrape.. but other than that most of my gear just sits around with either a thin remnant of several day skied wax or gopped with storage wax waiting their turn..
 

pais alto

me encanta el país alto
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 11, 2015
Posts
1,937
Location
It's too bad our timeshare in Park City doesn't have a room in the garage we could use for waxing skis...
^That caught my eye because my garage is my waxing room. But there's probably a good reason you can't do it in your garage.

[thread drift] But what that motivated me to say is that TGR has a very informative and inspirational thread called PSA: Mount Your Own F****** Skis and there's a guy that posted this there recently:
I moved out of my Whistler housing and am just car camping for a week or 2 before I move back to Calif, so today it was fun drilling, mounting, and waxing these 2 pairs by using an electrical outlet at the bottom of a stealth stairwell of a public underground parking garage in Whistler.

Now that's core. He actually followed that post up with two more showing three more mounts, all performed in that parking garage stairwell.
[/thread drift]
 

crgildart

Gravity Slave
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
16,328
Location
The Bull City
^That caught my eye because my garage is my waxing room. But there's probably a good reason you can't do it in your garage.

[thread drift] But what that motivated me to say is that TGR has a very informative and inspirational thread called PSA: Mount Your Own F****** Skis and there's a guy that posted this there recently:


Now that's core. He actually followed that post up with two more showing three more mounts, all performed in that parking garage stairwell.
[/thread drift]

If I'm moving a pair of bindings from an old pair of skis to a new pair if skis I just make a quick posterboard template of the holes from the old skis and line it up with the mounting point mark and center it left/right, mark, tap, and drill. I use a wood block on the bit as a stop to keep the bit from going too deep. Easy peasy!
 

Jacques

Workin' It on Skis Best I Can
Skier
Joined
Apr 24, 2017
Posts
1,616
Location
Bend, OR
This just in (for me, anyway):

My New Moon xc catalog for this season notes that the old approach to hot waxing using many passes at low temperatures is being replaced with using a much hotter iron and waxing quickly.

I've always wondered about how deeply heat penetrates the ski while using the old approach, but kind of blindly accepted it.

What say the forum experts?

For me it's low heat and more time.
Never had a problem with the skis. Waxed the same skis this way for YEARS. Never any lamination issues.
By low I mean never over about 200 F even for hard waxes.
I pay attention to where the waxes cool the fastest and slowest.
If the ski is relatively flat and has a good base bevel, you will see heat lost very fast at the edges because the are like a radiator fin.
If the ski is railed and your iron only contacts the edges...........stop and fix the skis!
Tune your iron. Make sure it is flat and burr free.
 

Carl Kuck

Ambassador of Stoke
Skier
Joined
Jan 21, 2016
Posts
739
Location
Del Mar
I hope this isn't considered thread-jacking, but ... Anyway, I'm leaving for Utah in a little over three weeks. I have the Head quiver (*) mostly waxed (Rally's need to be toweled/brushed). bring on the team PugSki.com NASTAR!, but I'm wondering what's the "in the bag" lifespan of a wax job? Just how volatile is this stuff anyway? Depending on what I see over the next couple of weeks I may or may not pick a pair of something fatter if it looks like pow in the forecast...

Technical details: All skis waxed with Dominator Base prep G, race skis top-waxed with Hertel FC739, i.Rally skis top-waxed with Hertel Super Hot Sauce. Hand brushed.

(*) 180cm WCR i.Speed Pro, 165cm WCR i.SL RD, 177 Super Shape i.Rally
 
Last edited:

Jacques

Workin' It on Skis Best I Can
Skier
Joined
Apr 24, 2017
Posts
1,616
Location
Bend, OR
I hope this isn't considered thread-jacking, but ... Anyway, I'm leaving for Utah in a little over three weeks. I have the Head quiver (*) mostly waxed (Rally's need to be toweled/brushed). bring on the team PugSki.com NASTAR!, but I'm wondering what's the "in the bag" lifespan of a wax job? Just how volatile is this stuff anyway? Depending on what I see over the next couple of weeks I may or may not pick a pair of something fatter if it looks like pow in the forecast...

(*) 180cm WCR i.Speed Pro, 165cm WCR i.SL RD, 177 Super Shape i.Rally

Lifespan of a wax job? Wow, there are too many factors to be considered that will affect how long it will last!
Wax vs snow type. Speed skied. How good the wax job was. How well the base preparation wax job was.
How good the base was as far as wax penetration goes.
It goes on and on.
I'd say if all was perfect one might go five to seven days and be happy.
I have prepared skis for others that are happy 15 days later, then need wax again.
I'd also say for ultimate performance wax after 3 to 4 half days of skiing. For me this means about 3 actual hours of ski time for three days. Then I wax again.
When in doubt, wax with a harder wax. Take some waxes with you that you can cork in to make an adjustment if needed on your "Beer League" day.
 

Carl Kuck

Ambassador of Stoke
Skier
Joined
Jan 21, 2016
Posts
739
Location
Del Mar
Lifespan of a wax job? .

Let me re-phrase the question:

I'm going skiing in three weeks, I have just waxed the skis and put them in their bags, do I need to think about re-waxing them before I go in three weeks? They are just going to sit in the bags.
 

raytseng

Making fresh tracks
Skier
Joined
Mar 24, 2016
Posts
3,330
Location
SF Bay Area
Short answer no. Wax is not volatile, otherwise you'd need to store your block of wax in a sealed container. It would be like washing a cup you've kept in a cupboard because it is less clean after a few days.
Long answer, if you're racing, and looking for hundredths of a second of time difference you would be rewaxing for day-of conditions.
However, if you were racing for hundredths , then you'd already know the answer and wouldn't be asking the question.
You can certainly do it, there is no downside, except your time and effort. For the 99.999% of us, there are better uses of our limited time on earth then rewax waxed skis.
 
Thread Starter
TS
Tom K.

Tom K.

Skier Ordinaire
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Dec 20, 2015
Posts
8,402
I'm going skiing in three weeks, I have just waxed the skis and put them in their bags, do I need to think about re-waxing them before I go in three weeks?

No. For the reasons pointed out by @raytseng above, and my own firsthand experience of doing this many times over the decades, and almost always having the fastest skis in the group!
 

Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
Skier
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Posts
4,806
Location
Whitefish, MT
Let me re-phrase the question:

I'm going skiing in three weeks, I have just waxed the skis and put them in their bags, do I need to think about re-waxing them before I go in three weeks? They are just going to sit in the bags.
No. But maybe brush them a bit if the bag is dusty.
 

James

Out There
Instructor
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
24,453
Let me re-phrase the question:

I'm going skiing in three weeks, I have just waxed the skis and put them in their bags, do I need to think about re-waxing them before I go in three weeks? They are just going to sit in the bags.
Usually you would not scrape it till your destination to protect the bases. But if it's too much of a pain to do where your going just do it before.
 

Carl Kuck

Ambassador of Stoke
Skier
Joined
Jan 21, 2016
Posts
739
Location
Del Mar
Thanks for the input, they're staying as/where is. On to the wife's skis!
:martini:
 

Jacques

Workin' It on Skis Best I Can
Skier
Joined
Apr 24, 2017
Posts
1,616
Location
Bend, OR
Let me re-phrase the question:

I'm going skiing in three weeks, I have just waxed the skis and put them in their bags, do I need to think about re-waxing them before I go in three weeks? They are just going to sit in the bags.

Wax them some more. Cool brush and scrape...........well if you want glide anyway. Hey, you got noting better to do!
 

Mendieta

Master of Snowplow
SkiTalk Tester
Contributor
Joined
Aug 17, 2016
Posts
4,905
Location
SF Bay Area, CA, USA
I have taken the express route. Heat wax bar on the iron then while hot, rub onto base. Then iron slowly with no pressure, no rotation of the iron, lightly with temps that the wax look clear for abotu 4-6" behind the iron. With this method, there is very little excess wax on the ski, so there is no need to scrape. I will take a blue shop towel under the iron then go from tip to tail which will absorb most of the wax then I wil rotobrush once cool. No scraping, very little waste or mess.

Maybe a silly question, but what would be wrong with the ultra express route: all the same but no shop towel / fiberlene pass. Would that possibly create uneven areas on the base? Would the brushing (and subsequent first run on the hill) scrape off any excess? (we are talking lowly rec skiers like myself, of course)
 

cantunamunch

Meh
Skier
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Posts
21,907
Location
Behavioral sink
Maybe a silly question, but what would be wrong with the ultra express route: all the same but no shop towel / fiberlene pass. Would that possibly create uneven areas on the base? Would the brushing (and subsequent first run on the hill) scrape off any excess? (we are talking lowly rec skiers like myself, of course)

Nothing wrong. Just more scraping and more brushing.
 

Sponsor

Top