Sincraft

(skip to bold at bottom for the actual question)
I haven't waxed a snowboard before, only skis and long ago. Pretty fed up with local shops telling me to drop the board off and pick it up in 2 days, otherwise pay a 'rush' fee, or, bad work from the local ski slopes.

SO I decided to do it myself.

Wax in hand, old iron between cotton and wool setting, I clean my base with a dab of mineral spirits and mostly water. Let dry and began dripping wax.

Something I read said, about a drop or two every square inch. I can definitely say,...that's too much.

I ended up using 1.5 oz of wax on my board, and I spent almost an hour scraping away the excess. The only thing I have to scrape with is metal scarpers. One that almost covers the entire snowboard and a smaller 3" one. Both meant for drywall paste.

First thing I learned, get a piece of plexi or thicker piece of plastic that has a nice sharp edge on it, is nice and rigid and with less worry that the corners will dig into my ptex.

Second thing I learned, I need to focus more on the edges with the drips and will be ok with 1 drop every inch, but elsewhere that much is not needed.

So, with that said -

Does anyone keep track of how much wax they drip when they wax? Very interesting in knowing the average.

Pretty happy with how it turned out. I buffed with the scotch bright pad, nice large one and then went over it real quick with a stiff nylon brush to channel it. Looks good.

Qball

I use at most .5 ounces per wax. I go around the edge first, making a full circle. I then down the middle of the board in sort of a zig zag pattern one way and then do the same the other way, resulting in somewhat of a criss-cross pattern. The more you do it, the better you will be able to gauge how much wax you need to use.

john doe

Heat up the base with the iron for a few minutes. Then rub the wax directly on the base like you're coloring it in with a crayon. Then iron like normal and drip wax anywhere that may need more.

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2011 Smokin Buck Ferton 155
2013 Flow NX2-SE
2013 Flow Hylite boa
Burton Stagger pants/jacket
Smith I/O

MistahTaki

i think that putting an iron to a wax-less base would damage it???

Bones

Personally I soften the surface of the wax block by touching it to the iron and then crayoning the base. Touch/smear, touch/smear half a dozen times (using a big shop block of wax) and the base is covered. Iron well to spread it around and there's way less scraping to do than with the drip method

AWNOW

You don't want to put the iron on the base by itself if it is dry. There really isn't even a reason why that is a good idea. After the wax drips to the board you ought to be going over the base enough that the pores open in the process.


As for how much wax, it really depends on what you feel or how your budget looks. I actually tend to use a bit more than I need because I hate the sticking, dry feeling when running the iron if I need to conserve. Much rather prefer the smooth back and forth of a well lubed board. Of course, if you use to much wax then it can become a pain to scrape. There really is no punishment in terms of margin of error with using too much wax. Experience will teach you.

john doe

That would makes no sense. UHMW wears slower then steal much less the aluminum base of a wax iron and it isn't getting any warmer then if it was sitting in the sun. I came up with the technique after seeing the other crayon on technique and didn't really want to keep putting my hand near the really hot thing.

__________________

2011 Smokin Buck Ferton 155
2013 Flow NX2-SE
2013 Flow Hylite boa
Burton Stagger pants/jacket
Smith I/O

Deviant

As far as the edges go, you don't have to go crazy with dripping wax along the edges, if there's an area that doesn't have the wax near the edge, just keep pushing around the wax so that you can see the wax on the edge.

slyder

This is what I use:



I can do a board in about 1/2 hour from start to finish.

• Removing old wax
• cleaning base
• applying new wax
• remove wax
• buff clean
• and tuning edges
• all taking my time

When you apply wax you only need enough to cover board. It doesn't need to pool. You will see it get all shinny then as it cools it will turn milky. You will be able to see where you have enough and to much. If an area doesn't have enough just drip a few drops there, reheat and you'll be good.
This will save you a ton of scrapping time and wasted wax.

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Thanks
-Slyder

Sincraft

good replies all. Thanks. Very interesting. Going to try some different things after the next couple days out