Post season ski care

Time to start on my post season ski work.  

I tune each ski first then if the bases are dirty from skiing on spring snow I hot scrap to get rid of that dirt.  Then I put Swix 88 BP base prep wax on thick and don't scrape.  That way in the fall all I need to do is scrape them and brush.  

I just got a set of roto brushes at PlymGirl's suggestion which is a great add on.  I got the 100mm on sale super cheap but wish I had bought the 140mm ones.

I don't turn the bindings down - I think that is an old school idea that really doesn't need to be done with today's bindings.

Anyone do anything different?  I'm working on upping my tuning game and want to learn if others have a better method.

You're not going to ski this April?

Coach Z wrote

Anyone do anything different?  I'm working on upping my tuning game and want to learn if others have a better method.

I melt paraffin on them and put them on the rack. When opening day comes I hurriedly scrape them and go ski. Then usually after that I'll sharpen and put real wax on.

Pretty sure that's not of any help to you

This weekend will be it for WF I'm sure.  It poured all day yesterday

I don't do much different for end-of-season.  Here's my usual routine:

1. Clean base with citrus solvent.

2. P-Tex repair.  Since in our family all skis are considered rock skis, the P-tex gets plenty of use.

2. Wax.  Since I'm not out to win the World Cup, I just use Universal throughout the season.  Drip it on and iron it in.

3. Scrape, after the wax has cooled for 5-10 minutes.

4. Buff.  I use a basic Swix nylon hand brush.

5. Edges.  I run down the edges with my edging tool, 1 degree base and 2 degrees side.  I tell my wife that I de-tune her tips & tails because she heard somewhere that that's good to do, but usually I don't bother.  She hasn't noticed.

The only  thing I do different at the end of the season is I sharpen the edges before waxing.  Then I store the skis with the wax on, and scrape / buff in the fall for the new ski season.

I built a bench out of a $20 folding metal sawhorse that I bought at Home Depot.  I screwed a 2x8 to the top, approx 5 feet long.  I screw my ski vises to the 2x8.  When not in use, the vises go into a toolbox with the rest of my tuning supplies.  The sawhorse folds up and stands against the garage wall next to the ski rack.  

I do all my waxing and tuning in the garage.  I put a drop cloth on the floor to catch most (well, some) of the wax scrapings, then I throw it all out into the yard.  Swix is good fertilizer I'm told.

I try to wax & edge every 6-8 days of skiing.  You can tell when the bases are starting to get a bit dry.

Waxing the nordic skis is a pain in the ass because I don't have nordic vises.  Gonna have to pick up a set.

I usually do the whole family's skis at the same time, so I'm often tuning 4 sets of skis.  We've also all got nordic/bc skis and Daniel's got both tele and alpine, so waxing & tuning for the whole family can be a big job.  I've enlisted both kids in the effort.  Naturally they love the whole P-tex (burning plastic!) and waxing (hot iron!) stages.  They're not very good at the scraping, buffing and edging, so I do the lion's share of that.  But at least they can help with the waxing & ironing and some of the scraping & buffing and fetch me beers.  To date the kids have shown only mild signs of cognitive deterioration from the fumes.

I think that's about it.  I'm probably not doing as good a job with the edges as I could/should, so that's something I want to do better.  I don't do anything fancy with diamond files or anything like that; I just run the edging tools from tip to tail a half dozen times.

Coach where did you get the roto-brush?  I've seen some that have nylon on one side and horse hair on the other side.  Did you also need to buy the spindle/shaft separately, or did your roto-brush come with one?  I think that would definitely save me some time, plus the kids could probably do that part (yes they are allowed to use the cordless drill).

Coach Z wrote

Anyone do anything different?

After my last day of skiing grass/rock/moss/bumps, I toss my skis into the storage unit without any tuning. I pull them out of storage mid-September and take em' to the shop for their annual tuning. Rinse and repeat for three years and then chuck em'.

That's about my m.o., although I do try to put a fresh tune on them at the hill during my anticipated last weekend.  Get them home, dry them off, throw them in the closet.  I get less days per year, so I've had skis last....well, until I get sick of them.  A pair of skis usually stays with me for 5 years, give or take.

My rock skis are my only skis I am skiing the rest of the season...then they will probably be cremated and the ashes will stay in the firepit.  My WF skis will become my early and late season skis (not officially rock skis yet) The newest pair will become my WF/Gore skis and since they were tuned really well and then never skied again this year, they should be fine until we start tuning in September.  My powder skis which were never skied this year, will need work for next year...but I am not done yet, so this is just speculation.  With two cracked edges, the only sure thing is my rock skis will not return

riverc0il wrote

After my last day of skiing grass/rock/moss/bumps, I toss my skis into the storage unit without any tuning. I pull them out of storage mid-September and take em' to the shop for their annual tuning. Rinse and repeat for three years and then chuck em'.

Mine process is similar to this but I have a lot of regret when I remember next season that I am a total slacker.  Also I don't chuck my old skis, I ignore them for a few years, pretending I have a quiver, and then I try to give them away to an old skool skier.

Hey Coach ... no superstar for you?

I was looking for advise but it looks like I need to give some to Jeff

First stay away from solvent.  It's nasty stuff and really dries your bases out.  Instead put on cheap soft warm temp wax and scrape it off after only cooling for a minute.  That will pull out all the dirt from the bases with out drying them out.  

I tune and wax my sons skis every day of use.  My skis every two days. If your skis are not sharp you can not trust the ski to hold and thus will not be able to develop or maintain correct movement patterns.  If you do it that often you almost never need to use a file.  I have 4 grades of diamond stones and one ceramic stone.  I really like tuning skis though I usually reach a point around late Feb where I get sick of doing race tunes.  Those roto brushes are going to make thing so much easier.

Harv
I have a hard time driving two hours and paying to ski the same run over and over.  Time to play golf.

Coach Z wrote

 

 If your skis are not sharp you can not trust the ski to hold and thus will not be able to develop or maintain correct movement patterns

False. Stop skiing on loud snow

Coach Z wrote

I was looking for advise but it looks like I need to give some to Jeff

First stay away from solvent.  It's nasty stuff and really dries your bases out.  Instead put on cheap soft warm temp wax and scrape it off after only cooling for a minute.  That will pull out all the dirt from the bases with out drying them out.  

Makes sense, but I thought the citrus solvent was non-nasty.  Hell, I drink it when I'm running low on beer.  How thoroughly do you scrape?  Seems like quite a bit more work.

Coach Z wrote

I tune and wax my sons skis every day of use.  My skis every two days. If your skis are not sharp you can not trust the ski to hold and thus will not be able to develop or maintain correct movement patterns.  If you do it that often you almost never need to use a file.  I have 4 grades of diamond stones and one ceramic stone.

So how are you doing the edges, with the stones?  You use a guide to get the proper bevel, right?  I'm using a multi-edger (does the side and base edges at the same time), kind of like this one (but not exactly).  It's got two small (like one inch) files, one for the side and one for the base.  I clean the files, but they still don't seem to be super effective, so I also run over the edges with a cheapo Swix pocket edger that seems to be a little sharper.

Coach Z wrote

I tune and wax my sons skis every day of use.  My skis every two days.

Really, you're doing the whole Wax -> Scrape -> Wax -> Scrape -> Edges routine EVERY day?  Or maybe just sharpening up the edges?  You need to get Mini-Z in on the action.  Actually, strike that.  You need to come down and tune MY family's skis!

Agree that using 3 or 4 diamond stones (wet w/ rubbing alcohol and water) and ceramic polishing stone (dry) that filing is only needed a few times a year.   Race skis need filing more often.  However, for any skis, no need to touch the base edge.  Sides only.  

If I have them stone ground will have the shop do the base edge.  Once a year.  At most.  And not for speed skis if possible as stone grind takes off all that wax that was built into the bases all season (deep wax is a good thing).

Yikes, I'm with Riv on this one ---- I just put mine in my ski rack then take them to #BrandoTheSkiGod come deer season

those cheap edge tools are pretty sub optimal.  There is no need to be doing the base edge all the time.  You get the skis flat with the bevel you want from a stone grind and then don't touch them.  If you get a rock ding you just use a gummy stone and then a fine diamond stone by hand at most.  Once are not flat with a true bar or really messed up by rocks or ptex issues I take them to Placid Planet - maybe once or twice a season.

also you never want to use a file on your edges before you take the burrs off with a diamond stone first.  Your file will case harden the rock hit and ruin your file.  The diamond stone first is key.  Always use the diamond stone wet.  I keep a small spray bottle on the bench and spray the stone before each edge.

The side file guide I like best is from Race Place  
http://www.the-raceplace.com/Side-of-BEAST-p/3002z.htm
I have two of them - one with 2 degrees and another with 3 degrees.  It is interchangeable but is a pain to switch back and forth so I just bought a second one.  My sons skis are 3 degree and mine and my wife are 2 degrees.

I do his edges and wax one coat for every day he skis but since they switch back and forth between SL and GS its probably 3 tunes a week.  He skis 3 days and 2 nights per week.  If they are doing SL twice at Pisagh I may not do it between night sessions.  A training tune using one diamond stone and one ceramic stone plus wax takes me 20 mins max and while his skis are cooling I do the adult skis in the house that need to be done.  Double Z has started doing some tunes on his and my wifes skis to get ready for when he is a U16 and will be doing his race skis himself.  Race day tunes take longer and I use better wax.  For training I use Swix CH in the proper color and races I use LF and now some HF if the snow is wet.  Usually swix but I just got a really good deal on Vola HF.

Roto Brushes. You buy the guide and then whatever brushes you want to go on them.  I have a metal brush and a nylon brush.  I would like to get more but I can figure out what they do.

I set my skis up on the bench.  Hit the side edges with a diamond stone(wet if not you wreck them).  The beast is the best tool I have found.  Never hit the bottom edges, when they need work bring them to the belt sander( once per year).   Hit them with the wire brush to get dirt and wax off.  Put the wax on, I cheat and don't wait for it to cool completely and scrape off.  Then wire brush/nylon brush/dust rag.  20 minutes including yapping.   Putting them away I do the same thing but at the end I take the bar of wax and run it hard down the edges to enclave them so they don't rust over the summer.



It fun early in the season it gets to be a real drag toward the end.  

if you scrape before the wax is cooled it will not last as long.  As a family there always is several pairs to tune so I move onto the next pair while I wait for the wax to cool.  If i'm in a hurry I can always put them out side to cool faster.

Hot scraping is a good way to get the dirt out of your bases.  I just did that and you get all this black gunk that was in your base out when you scrape.

The metal roto brush scares me.  I went with the white nylon and a horsehair.  Reliable racing had them on sale so I bought two handles and two brushes for like $80.  The only issue is that they were only 100mm wide and not the 140mm which would have been better but not $100 better.  That way I can have them on two drills and not have to waste time switching back and forth.  I have a hand brass and soft steel brush that I am still using which allows for more control.

The Beast looks like an excellent tool.  Are you guys using that with a file or with the diamond stones when you tune the edges?

Thanks for the advice.  I've only been tuning our alpine gear for a year or so.  Before that I used to bring 'em to the shop (Alpine or Inside Edge) at the beginning of the season plus once or twice mid-season, which I always found to be expensive and inconvenient. Always did my own nordics, but of course no edges involved.

you can put a diamond stone, ceramic stone, or file in a beast edge tool.

I most often use diamond stones and finish with the ceramic stone. If the edge is dinged then use a diamond first and then file only as needed.  A sharp edge is one that you can take finger nail shavings.

also you need to make sure you get a side wall planer - the best one is the swix one they show in the below link.  you need to remove sidewall so you can get at the edge if you are going to put a 2 or more degree side bevel on the skis.  2 is better for free skiing 3 is for racing as the edge wears down faster but its sharper.

http://www.racewax.com/t-sidewall-cutting.aspx

I used a file once on my skis this year.  I use a diamond stone pretty much exclusively.  If you are doing it regularly you don't need the metal file, IMO it takes to much metal off.  Sharpening takes probably 5 minutes per ski tops.  that includes putting the rubber bands on and messing with the vice.  Couple quick shots and its done.  On thing that is pretty handy is the tool to take the plastic off above the edge so you are actually running the stone across the edge.