[Rxtele]

I recently purchased an industrial strength hot wax machine from a shop going out of business.
It consists of a roller turned by an electric motor; the bottom of the roller passes through a reservoir of melted hot wax. You roll the ski over the moving roller and it puts a nice, rilled hot wax layer on the ski.

Since the ski base is not hot, I then iron the wax in with an iron, cool, and scrape off.

The problem is, when the ski is cooled, when I scrape the wax thin it flakes off in chips, rather than a smooth layer scraping off. Am I letting the ski cool too long??? I would like to take the wax off evenly down to a thin layer on the ski.

Also, all this takes place in a garage that is about 40 degrees. I've noticed professional shops are considerably warmer.

Any and all tips would greatly be appreciated.

[David]

I've always wondered about the machines that you quickly pass a ski over to hot wax them. I don't see how they can properly heat up the p-tex to get it to absorb the wax. It seems that a hand ironed wax would be better and longer lasting. Perhaps someone with some shop experience will chime in here with a solution.
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AIBOHPHOBIA - Fear of palindromes

[nogood]

ok david you and RX are talking about 2 different machines.

First Rx, on your problem, make at least 2 passes over the waxer to put a thick enuff coat of wax on the ski. when i use the one at my shop I run it over 4 times. anyway, when you iron the wax is don't just pass over the ski once, run the iron slowly up and down the ski for a couple minutes, to make sur ethe wax is totally soaked in. then scrape as normal. since your having a problem with wax "chiping off" it's either your not melting the wax into the base well enuff or the wax your using is to hard. either is easy to fix.

second Rx the machine your talking about is a belt waxer. it's a heated drum with an tectured coating. you put a thin coat of wax on the drum and run a ski over it to put a layer of wax on ski. these don't do a very good job compared to an iron on wax, but you can do it to a cold ski, that is a huge advantage in a shop. plus it's quick and easy, and a monkey could do it right. it is a good fix to get you through a day, but iron on waxes are the best way to go.

so i hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions.

Later
Matt

[nogood]

opps got a little confused on the names their, the sedond section is for david.

Later
Matt

[midmichigantele]

Rxtele- You want to remove all,ALL the wax from the base of the ski and leave it only in the pores of the Sintered base(P-tex). After scraping you need to use some kind of brush to remove the wax from the structure of the ski.
The Wax machine you baught is usually used in a rental siutation where it gives the customer warm fuzzy feelings to see the skis that they just rented getting a superfical waxing. So David you are right the machine alone provides a suferfical wax treatment. Rx the ironing after applying the wax is the best thing. It will really get the wax into the pores.
Check Swix Wax out for their free "SWIX WAX SCHOOL" for a good basic primer on ski wax/tune. http://www.swixsport.com/
NO im not attached to them in any way just have used their stuff and found it to work as advertised.
KP

[David]

Matt and KP:

Thanks for the info. I guess I'm not wasting my time doing my own at home hot wax and brushing. One thing I've tried recently is to melt the wax into the p-tex with numerous passes of the iron, and then on the last pass, use some absorbent paper (from Tognar) under the iron to remove a lot of the superficial wax. The scraping then goes faster with less mess, and you can get to the brushing phase more quickly.
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AIBOHPHOBIA - Fear of palindromes

[Rxtele]

Thanks everyone!!!!

I guess I'll concentrate on slower multiple passes of the iron to really get the wax into the base, then see if the scrape off works more evenly and not in chips and chunks

Is it necessary to let the wax get completely hard before scraping, or is a waxy gel stage ok to start scraping off?????

[nogood]

oh one more reason your wax could be chipping is the ski is too cold, when you start waxing, i just noticed you said your waxing in a room thats about 40 degrees, it should be warmer then that, like more around 70degrees.

David, the paper your talking about is a good way to shorten scraping time, but in my opinion its a waste of money. with a little practice, and a sharp scraper, scraping doesn't take that long.

Later
Matt

[Eric O]

It's worth repeating that if the wax is very hard (made for very cold temperatures) then it will be more likely to flake off if you let it cool all the way. Normally you let the wax cool completely to lessen the chance of damaging your bases with the scraper. But an experienced hand can carefully warm-scrape a ski without damage, if a sharp, stiff scraper in good condition is used, and held in a way that does not bend it at all.

Sharpening your scraper frequently is a good idea.

If the ski is very cold when you begin waxing, that's no big deal if you have an iron. Being careful not to overheat any one section, you can make many passes with the iron and eventually heat the wax and the ski, both.

[AltaPowderDaze]

[NTele]

for the ultimate geekiness in waxing:

after waxing... leave overnight base side up in a waxing hot box.

[75mm]

All these previous methods waste lots of that expensive wax. Just rub the wax onto your bases and lay the skis behind a sunny window for a day. All the wax will soak into the base. No messy scrape, no stinky iron. Solar powered waxing. Black bases work best for this.