SlideWright is pleased to announce we are now carrying Toko Waxes and Tools along with Dominator Waxes. Toko has a long global performance history and Dominator also has a history of devout fans. Germany FK/SKS Tuning Tools adds to our extensive line up for those preferring their tuning tools. Lucky Bums offers many ski and snowboard options for kids, as well as year round gear choices. Check out their brand pages and let us know if there are any products in these lines that you’d like us to procure.

As another method of providing useful tips and techniques, we have set up SlideWright’s YouTube channel. We will continue to add pertinent videos, so keep checking for new video clips. As always, your suggestions and feedback are welcome.

While skiing or riding challenging terrain or sparse snow coverage, it’s inevitable that your bases will get dinged. Core shots need to be sealed and protected, Gouges need to be filled to keep your bases running smooth.

The days of burning ptex candles are over. A weld is a far superior repair option. The use of a soldering iron and base welding materials is a quick and effective option for the DIYer.

(Note select the ‘HQ’ icon for Higher Quality video.)

Following are two videos, a few minutes long, showing various hot waxing techniques, along with minimal scraping and roto-brushing to bang out waxing tasks in little time and with little mess. Not including cooling and hardening time (20 minutes, minimum) the total time involved could be easily under 15 minutes and possibly 10 per pair or snowboard. Using liquid wax, the time could be 5 minutes:
(Note select the ‘HQ’ icon for Higher Quality video.)

A straight forward, low tech method for measuring base bevels is to use feeler gauges or other objects of known thicknesses (0.5mm, 0.7mm, 1.0mm, etc).

The direct ratio between typical bevel angles, is the metric height (mm) of the angle, at the accepted distance and easy to remember distance of 60 mm/6cm from the edge (actually 57.3mm).

The SVST WC Tru Bar has an engraved line at this location to facilitate easy and quick base bevel measurements. Any true bar can be marked at this location and used to measure the base bevel angle by measuring the height above the base when the bar is parallel to the edge.
If a feeler gauge isn’t handy, a typical credit card measures 0.8mm and 1.25mm at the raised lettering.

How flat (or not) are my bases? What are my base bevel angles? How straight are my scrapers, edge guides & tools?….are among the typical bits of information needed to perform and gauge quality of work and determine what work is required.
Like any tool we carry, there is a range of quality levels available to meet budget, personal goals and acceptable tolerances. From basic straight metal bars to precise, finely milled, high quality case hardened steel, the DIY tuner can achieve the desired and necessary level of precision using the fundamental tool known as a true bar.

For base work, a good backlighting source like a desk lamp, daylight, flashlight, etc is very important to help you see any variations between the bar and base. By clearly identifying irregularities and locations the guesswork is minimized.
The basic types are rectangular, square or round section bar stock of varying levels of precision and finishes for the recreational tuner, or a highly milled ‘knife edged’ precision true bar for those with tighter tolerances for their boards. A ‘hybrid’ of sorts, is a finely milled base skiver which can also be used for base repair and flattening tasks.

The narrower the section, the less ‘forgiving’ the lighting will be and increase accuracy. A wider square or rectangular bar will allow less light to pass between it and the base versus a round bar and far less than a knife edged bar.By turning a square or rectangular bar stock true bar on edge, you can increase the accuracy, as long as the quality of the bar stock is acceptable.

Typical base issues are flat, high, low (below) or both (as seen above). A perfectly flat base is ideal while some irregularity may be acceptable for some, depending on performance level or typical snow type. A backcountry or powder ski or snowboard has less of a need for perfection than a high performance race ski or snowboard.

Regardless, knowing ‘where they are’ is important.

Additionally, many new skis and snowboards are anything but flat.

A low base (concave) will cause

the edges to ‘rail’ or grab more readily than desired and harder to release, while high

bases (convex) will require more

angulation and time to get to an edge.

Achieving a flat base is also imperative if you also wish to achieve high precision while tuning edges since all bevel angles and tools are relative to an assumed flat base.

A common question is ‘What are the side and base bevel angles I should tune my boards for proper edge geometry?’ Like many similar subjective questions, one way to find out is to experiment to find out what works best for you.

For skiers, with two skis you have basically (2) pair of edges (inside and outside). By trying (2) different side bevel angles, say 2° and 3° you can easily find out for yourself on the same pair of skis, on the same run and the same conditions by simply switching right and left skis. After this you can experiment further, leave them as is or set them both to the same side edge angle as desired.

Last spring, with highly variable conditions throughout the day, I gave it a shot. The difference between various snow types and slopes was very noticeable. The 2° side edge was smoother to transition to and from and fine for softer snows and bumps, while the 3° was noticeably grippier on firm, steep runs. Both can be adjusted too for a given set of conditions, but having the option of two side edge angles on the same pair of skis was nice to have, IMO. YMMV, but since there is a high level of variability in snow types, terrain, type of turns etc, instant gratification to make subtle changes is literally underfoot.

Doing the same to the base bevel is not as easy to consider as side edges. Changing side edge bevels from 2° to 3°, 3° to 2° or something else is pretty straight forward since you are only dealing with the angle of the side edge. The side edge geometry has more to do with grip, while the base bevel geometry affects the angulation and time required to get on the edge, ie responsiveness.

For base bevels, you must also consider that to reduce a base bevel, you will need to remove base material, including all the wax you have saturated into your bases. If you wish to consider a more responsive, less forgiving base bevel of .5 or .7° than the most common 1°, this needs to be taking into account. But like the side edge asymmetry, there may be some advantages to be discovered by experimenting with this concept for the base bevels. Using some older skis, may be one approach.

Be sure to clearly mark which edges are which with grease pencil, tape, sharpie, etc to eliminate guessing or future tuning mistakes. A reliable multi-angle tool, multiple bevel guides or guides with shims , along with a file and a couple diamonds or stones will be necessary to perform the edge work required.

Update: To avoid a ‘cold weld’ that has the potential to tear out while finishing the repair or while sliding on snow, it is very important to make sure the Ski (and Snowboard) Mender RP100 has enough time to achieve proper temperature and to carefully heat the area around a repair before injecting the welding material. LDPE has a very low adhesive property, so we need the heating of both base and repair materials to form a proper weld.

You need about 430 degrees F/220 degrees C to get a proper weld, so it is important to let the smaller Ski and Snowboard Mender RP100 heat up for 15 minutes and then use the front or waxing iron on teflon sheet to preheat the base before injecting the material.

The larger, professional grade ski and snowboard base repair gun (Base Mender RP 350) does run at a higher temp and heats the base of the ski or snowboard much faster.

Originally posted 1/30/08 (edited): We just received a few guns and performed some low tech initial testing of this new consumer level ski & snowboard base repair gun by Power Adhesives from the UK.

Talk about a nice size, lightweight, brainless and low tech. After less than ten minutes of heating up the 11mm/7/16″ welding rod/stick, it was smearing the material with it’s 440°F temperature. The directions say 10-15 minutes (which probably is wise to wait) and implied there was a switch, which there is not. I just tested it on the packaging plastic for better contrast for pictures. Without a damaged ski at the moment, I’ll try that out when the time comes and give the bases some mileage to see how long the repair lasts. It certainly isn’t a bomber/industrial grade tool, but like a decent glue gun that if taken care (ie, don’t drop on trigger) of seems adequately built for the home tuner and ought to last a while. No telling about the heating element though.

After initial extrusion and smearing of the provided proprietary welding material, I tried using the tip as a soldering/welding iron on metal grip, welding wire, ribbon & typical rod/stick (did not think to try it on ptex candle material). The tip is not as hot as soldering irons I’ve used and definitely did not smoke as much…very little in fact which was nice.

Regardless, it did seem to melt the material fine but not quite as fluid as the hotter irons have, though looks promising, especially for applying metal grip into the bottom gouges. I’m pretty sure the metal grip has a lower melting point than the other materials anyway.

Welding gun with metal stand. Fifteen minutes to heat up and melt 11 mm welding rod/sticks. Clean tip showing recessed fan shaped flow area. Linear smear of melted welding rod from gun & droplet/pool in background. Using heated tip as soldering/welding iron. Left to right: metal grip, welding wire, ribbon & rod/stick and smear through heated tip.

Below is a video on using the New RP360 and RP100: