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Garage Edge/Base Tuning: difficult?

apache

Booting up
Inactive
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Posts
124
Hi Skiers,

Last season I jumped in head first with doing my own ski waxing. This season I am contemplating my own edge tuning. How difficult is it to get professional results from the garage? Can you get good results by using hand tools? Are there cost advantages to getting one's own tools versus sending skis to the shops 2 to 3 times a year? What are some of the pitfalls?

Thanks for any insights provided!

Cheers,
G
 

François Pugh

Skiing the powder
Skier
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Posts
7,617
Location
Great White North (Eastern side currently)
Professional results vary wildly. The $120 dollar race tune I got years ago at Sign of the Skier was excellent. The tune I got at a store that shall remain unmentioned convinced me to buy some tools and do it myself. My results far exceeded the unnamed store's results on my first try. You need to buy good tools though.
 

Blue Streak

I like snow.
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
3,266
Location
Edwards, Colorado
Can you get good results by using hand tools?
You will probably be bombarded by people on this one!
OF COURSE YOU CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The big deal is time.
If you have the time, take your time, open a beer, turn on some music, and make it a ritual.
Your results at first might disappoint you, but they will get better.
It's like fly tying for a fly fisherman or reloading to a shooter.
It's just another way to connect to your sport on a deeper level.
The economics are irrelevant.
It's all about the zen. :)

BTW my new vise comes in today, and I can't wait to get waxing and scraping again! I sold my old one just a few days ago, and I feel naked without one!
 

trailtrimmer

Stuck in the Flatlands
Skier
Joined
Oct 18, 2016
Posts
1,110
Location
Michigan
I find it's best to pay up for a good base grind and full tune with the spec of your choice from a good shop, then maintain it from there using hand tools at home. My go-to tuner has a winterstieger shuttle and years of experience, you can't get the flat base, base bevel or structure he can provide with home tools. I can however maintain the edges and keep my bases happy with lots of wax.
 

Jacques

Workin' It on Skis Best I Can
Skier
Joined
Apr 24, 2017
Posts
1,616
Location
Bend, OR
Hi Skiers,

Last season I jumped in head first with doing my own ski waxing. This season I am contemplating my own edge tuning. How difficult is it to get professional results from the garage? Can you get good results by using hand tools? Are there cost advantages to getting one's own tools versus sending skis to the shops 2 to 3 times a year? What are some of the pitfalls?

Thanks for any insights provided!

Cheers,
G

It's not difficult if you are handy and have good hands! Here, watch some videos.
The more you do it the better you will get at it. Good luck.
 

jmeb

Enjoys skiing.
Skier
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Posts
4,490
Location
Colorado
It's not that difficult. Beyond a good set of basic tools (highly recommend a non-adjustable side edge tool), the most important thing in my experience is a secure way to hold the skis in place.

You can buy a set of ski vices. Or you can DIY a little something out of a 2x4, a bungee, and some kitchen shelf anti-slip liner for about $5 total.
 

PTskier

Been goin' downhill for years....
Pass Pulled
Joined
Jun 16, 2017
Posts
583
Location
Washington, the state
Yes! for ski vises. (I don't need any more vices.) Buy a set or look on the interwebz for DIY ski vises.

Only have the base edges done when you get a full shop tune. At home just take off any raised burrs you pushed up when you hit rocks. You can take steel off the sides to get them sharp, but the thickness of the steel is part of the life of the ski, so be judicious.

Decide what edge angles work best for your skiing technique and snow conditions. I like 0.7° base and 3° sides on the carvers and 1° base and 2° sides on the powder skis ('cuz a smaller divot is taken out of the less acute edges when I hit that hidden rock). Buy guides for those angles. A raised burr is too hard for a file, so a stone or diamond file is needed for that. A ski specialty file or coarse diamond file is great to remove edge material for sharpening, then a fine diamond file or a stone to smooth the edges.

I had a really crappy tune done at REI and an excellent tune done at Alpine Pro in Whistler. A friend had a crappy tune done at a local shop near her. Learn what a good tune looks like and don't accept, and don't pay, for a bad job.
 

UGASkiDawg

AKA David
SkiTalk Tester
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
1,760
Location
CO
You will probably be bombarded by people on this one!
OF COURSE YOU CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The big deal is time.
If you have the time, take your time, open a beer, turn on some music, and make it a ritual.
Your results at first might disappoint you, but they will get better.
It's like fly tying for a fly fisherman or reloading to a shooter.
It's just another way to connect to your sport on a deeper level.
The economics are irrelevant.
It's all about the zen. :)

BTW my new vise comes in today, and I can't wait to get waxing and scraping again! I sold my old one just a few days ago, and I feel naked without one!
What vise did you get?
 

Blue Streak

I like snow.
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
3,266
Location
Edwards, Colorado
What vise did you get?
This one.
C131FB25-AEC3-4B73-B67C-2F2EF98F7C0D.jpeg

Perfect for my minimalist setup.
 

hbear

Out on the slopes
Skier
Joined
Aug 17, 2016
Posts
890
I'd leave base edges and base grinds to a good shop/tech. Side edges can easily be managed at home with the proper tools and learning proper technique.
Even minor base repairs are easy at home. Ski delams, pulled out edges, cracked edges I'd leave to the shop.

Happy tuning!
 

L&AirC

PSIA Instructor and USSA Coach
Skier
Joined
Aug 29, 2017
Posts
356
Location
Southern NH
Hi Skiers,

Last season I jumped in head first with doing my own ski waxing. This season I am contemplating my own edge tuning. How difficult is it to get professional results from the garage? Can you get good results by using hand tools? Are there cost advantages to getting one's own tools versus sending skis to the shops 2 to 3 times a year? What are some of the pitfalls?

Thanks for any insights provided!

Cheers,
G

Many good shops use machines to take care of the base grind and then use hand tools for the base and side edge. If they can do it, why can't you?

Lets pretend you pay $80 each time you bring them in. For $240 you can buy a chunk of what you need and you'll won't have to replace those item until you loose them or break them (not counting files and stones but they last quite a while). The following year invest the same and you'll be good to go with very good equipment.

Or you can take a leap of faith and skip this step and spend three years worth of shop tunes to get something like the razor tune and be set for even longer. The only other thing you would need is a side wall planerm

The Razor tune route is a big step and in some ways you could be missing out on learning more about the process and understanding of what you are doing, but the long term economics are better.
 

Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
Skier
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Posts
4,806
Location
Whitefish, MT
An unmentioned side effect of doing it yourself is learning what it is you like. Because you did the work, you know for sure exactly what was done. You're not assuming the shop guy did as he was told as opposed to running your skis through with 25 other pair all set up the same way. You're not assuming he didn't "detune" because you didn't tell him to do that. You know what you did. So you get on the snow, you're not happy, you can analyze based on real data. You can go home that night and fix it or try another bevel angle, whatever. It puts you in control. You can play with structures, varying bevels, choices of wax, etc. To me, there's no substitute for doing it yourself. It just takes a bit of time. I started out slow and just learned one or two new things a season. Otherwise, it can be overwhelming.

And I'm not your standard "handy" type. At all.
 

tachedub

Booting up
Skier
Joined
Aug 23, 2016
Posts
20
Do make sure that the bench you build has Solid Legs and you purchase good files and guides. They will last for years and you will really appreciate the difference it makes starting each trip on well tuned skis.
 

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