Ski Tuning

BmillsSkier

BmillsSkier

Member
I sharpen, then hot wax with an iron, then scrape, then buff with a cork. Traditional, but does anyone have any hints or new tips for that perfect tune?

 
clean your bases (remove wax) before all that?

''Your true colors are showing through, Erich...pink...lots and lots of pink.''
 
ah, dunno....thats all i do, sometimes i don't even scrape and i never brush...but thats just me.

''Your true colors are showing through, Erich...pink...lots and lots of pink.''
 
brass brush before you hot wax... or you could hot wax then hot scrape with like shit wax so you clean out your bases... both will structure your base a lot better

 
p-tex

*******************

'she said don't

don't let it go to your head

boys like you are a dime a dozen.'

-TBS

 
ok numer one you never need to clean/strip the wax from your base not necessary in fact bad in most cases if you are getting a lot of junk in your bases take them in and have them stoneground, you should not strip wax off yourself it is completely unnecessary. also use a stiff horsehair brush to give some structure to the wax (without brushing your skis and the snow suction together and it slows you down quite a bit.

Gotta love the midwest
 
ok, i dont know if that last post was serious or not, but i sure as hell hope not...you always need to scrape the base of your skis after you wax. the p-tex that makes up the base of the skis has grooves in it that run downhill on the ski, thus giving the ski a 'channel' to cling to the snow wiht...the p-tex is what helps the ski slide down the snow...the wax comes is just more or less a catalyst. p-tex has pores in it that open up when heated, which is why wax is applied with a hot iron. the wax gets into the pores, and then when the pores cool down, the wax stays in there. scraping the wax off allows the p-tex to be exposed to the snow, but at the same time allows the wax that is in the pores to be help the p-tex in sliding down the hill...it does this by initiating a reaction with the snow...teh wax contacts the snow, and more or less melts the snow when it comes in contact with it...this melting, though occuring only for a very short period of time, allows the ski to glide over the area that the ski is in contact with the snow with relative ease. this is why scraping your skis is so necessary..as well, if you dont scrape your skis, then your edges really have no purpose, becuase say you have a 1 degree bevel, that means the edge is sharpened 1 degree down from the base plane. if you have a non uniform coating of wax on your ski, then yhou really have no way to tell use your edge consistently. also, something such as a scotchbrite pad works really well to buff out your skis after scraping..it gives the wax that is in the p-tex a set of uniform grooves if you use it correctly.

 
sorry i wasnt clear i wasnt talking about scraping after waxing of course you do that i was talking about cleaning your skis you never need to use a base stripper/clear unless you are getting a bunch of crap in the bases but that can usually be fixed with a simple hot scrape.

Gotta love the midwest
 
just a correction, p tex is what you drip into your base to fill deep scratchs and core shots. P tex is not on bases of skis, that is a differant type of material.

 
Salomon2003- Please take your time to write or find an english book and school yourself.

And no, you dont ireally/i need to scrape off the excess wax (unless its really hard wax), otherwise it just works its way off in 1 or 2 runs.

'I would be embarrassed to constantly complain about my life considering all the freedom and opportunities we have today. People that can't find anything they enjoy in life simply aren't giving it a real try.' ~Nick 311
 
ok, big willy, i dont know what your problem is, and i dont really care...educate myself, or take my time to write? I'm just trying to help out this kid that wants advice on tuning...he'll get the general idea, im not writing a thesis paper here...and yes, you do need to scrape after a hot iron wax...if you dont, it doesnt matter what type of wax you have used, you will not achieve a level finish on the ski just be skiing it for 'one or two runs.' you may not care about this, but for those of us that can ski and know how to use our edges, having a level ski base does affect your ride. in response to the kid who said that base material is not p-tex, YES, it is...the p-tex that you drip onto the ski has to have some type of a way to bond with the base material...if this material were not p-tex, then it would be harder for the repair p-tex to bond with the base.

 
I dont really have a problem with you, its just really hard to decipher your first post.

Melting wax into the bases gets the wax into the pores of your base material, the rest is excess, and yes, the excess does come off by just skiing on it. If you leave the excess wax on you may have a little difficulty the first run or two but yes it does come off.

'I would be embarrassed to constantly complain about my life considering all the freedom and opportunities we have today. People that can't find anything they enjoy in life simply aren't giving it a real try.' ~Nick 311
 
...I wouldt really recommend just waxing your skis and leaving them, it only takes like 5 min, but if youre lazy...

'I would be embarrassed to constantly complain about my life considering all the freedom and opportunities we have today. People that can't find anything they enjoy in life simply aren't giving it a real try.' ~Nick 311
 
p tex and base material differ you dumbass. just go to any tuning shop, (take mine for example) and ask for a piece of base material and some p tex. base materail comes in sheets and you have to cut it with a punch, then you punch out a section of base, and replace it with the new base material. Ptex is just a drip in substance, that usally does not to as nice as a job. If you want to aruge more, just go to the Tune shop at stratton and talk to NATE. He is a fully certified techy (by winterstieger/grindrite) and has samples of what a ptex job will do, and what a true base repair will do. They are two totally differant materials.

 
yeh what everybody else said... for sharpening use a file first then go crazy on you edges with a diamond stone ( medium or corse) for a minute or two make sure its wet( the diamond stone) or else your edges are fucked

 
ok, i am also a fully certified technician, and all p-tex and base patches are the same...they have the same properties, such as having pores to accept wax. base material is not just plain old plastic or anything like that...it has similar properties as p-tex, base patches, base material...whatever you will call it.

 
well, just for th hell of it, uncle mauii will set thing strait..or at least try.

First: waxing

you dont want to leave on excess wax because A) It covers your edges and makes turning very difficult. B) it will not just 'wear down' after a couple of runs unless you are riding pure ice.

A non scraped/rubbed base reduces performance by hiding the bases texture, reducing contact area on snow and hindering edge grip.

Second: The p-tex drip candles that you buy in stores is the same material that bases are made of. In many cases, the candle may be made of extruded P-tex which is a lower quality p-tex than the sintered p-tex that most of your bases are made of. but.. to the point... BASES ARE MADE OF POLYURATHANE. REPAIR CANDLES ARE MADE OF POLYURATHANE. P-tex is just a company name ... just like everyone calls in line skates 'rollerblades' (i couldnt think of a better example). So, one piece of polyurathane may be called p-tex, and one may not.

I am surprised that someone calling themself a ski tech's are un aware of this. But hey, ski tuning in your local shop doesnt require a diploma or anything, it's prety simple.

And il leave anyone in doubt of what the base of a ski is made of with this article below'

'WHAT IS P-TEX?

P-tex is a tradename for the polyethylene base material used on skis and snowboards. It was originally produced and supplied to ski manufacturers by Inter Montana Sport (IMS) of Switzerland, and, although other companies now produce polyethylene base material under different trade names, just about everyone in the ski and snowboard industry still calls it P-tex out of habit.

There are two types of p-tex used on skis and snowboards today...extruded and sintered. Extruded p-tex is a low molecular weight polyethylene that is manufactured by heating it to 350 degrees F. and pressure feeding it through a die (or slot) to the desired shape and thickness. It is used as a base material for many recreational skis and snowboards.

Sintered p-tex is made by packing ultra high molecular weight polyethylene powder into a cake that is heated and compressed (sintered) to form a log or billet. A lathe or mill is then used to shave (scive) off a thin layer to the desired thickness.

The advantages of sintered over extruded p-tex are 20-25% higher abrasion and impact resistance, a very low coefficient of friction, and the ability to absorb over 3 times more wax. Accordingly, sintered p-tex is found on the bases of most racing and high performance skis and snowboards'

-Mike

::Ontario Freeskiing::

viva la resistance!!
 
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