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Base not flat across width?

5K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  Richie67 
#1 ·
Hi guys I just got a new Never Summer SL(my first higher end board) and was really excited to get this thing ready to rock, so I got a tuning kit and waxed it up(my first time doing it myself). I did a hot scrape first, then an initial base layer of wax followed by an all temp wax.

Every time I applied wax I noticed it was a little harder to get a smooth layer right by the edges as I ironed(almost like any extra wax was getting sucked up in those areas), and the same edges were not really cleaning up well when I started scraping. The middle and tips of the board scraped very evenly, but on both sides of the board there is basically a 3/4" strip right on the edge that follows the length of the base which seems to be recessed just a hair, making it harder to smooth out. Basically if I take my scraper, which is long enough to span the full width of the board, and run it down the length getting everything as smooth as possible, I will still have rough spots right on the edges. I have to take a smaller scraper and try to work out those low spots, which is kind of a pain.

I was under the impression that the base of the board should be perfectly flat from side to side and only have camber and rocker from tip to tail. Is there something wrong with my board, or is this normal? Maybe the new board is really thirsty and sucking up all the wax near the edges as it cools, leaving nothing to scrape. Should I try to use extra wax on the edges to make everything level?

Any input would be appreciated, thanks.
 
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#4 ·
Should I try to use extra wax on the edges to make everything level?

Any input would be appreciated, thanks.
Don't exposed wax on the base. If you can scrape and are still getting wax off on a pass, keep scraping. Waxing is endless scraping.

Once you can't get any more wax off with the scraper take a nylon scotch bright pad (same thing you use in the sink) and buff the board a little. You'll get a slight fine powder. That's enough polish for a basic wax. There's more you can do if you are seeing really wet conditions or are anal. See the stickied tuning thread for more info.

Exposed wax will slow you down. Never leave exposed wax on your board. Only leave exposed wax on your buddies board and challenge him to a race with a 6-pack as the wager.

Now to the warp. Did you have the bindings on the board? Bindings will pull up on the board warping the base slightly. You'll only notice it when scraping. I can't comment on whether it was designed in there or not.
 
#5 ·
My proto also seems to be a bit rail-high. Having bases be a bit rail- or base-high is not really uncommon and is easily solved with a base grind or edge-bevel.

Some boards ship with 1/1 bevels, NS's are a flat 0/0 so u can do whatever u want with it, I've heard of a few NS's being like this before a tune.
 
#9 ·
Thanks for the help guys. Sounds like maybe I'm being expecting a bit too much and a small amount of variance in the base is normal. My job requires inspecting things down to .0001"s of an inch, so I tend to be anal when it comes to consumer product defects lol.

For the record the board is flat enough where I can't see it by eye, and my nail doesn't catch in the transition between the ptex and the metal edge, so we're talking about a variation that is almost too small to measure. I just saw some very thin wax patches that didn't clean up as easily as the rest of the board and freaked out.
 
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