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Snowboard Tuneup
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Snowboard tuneup tools::
- Snowboard Vice
- Base Cleaner
- Fibertex Pads
- Shop Rags
- Plastic Scraper
- Gummy Stone
- Arkansas Stone
- Diamond Stones
- Chrome Flat Files
- Snowboard Wax
- Brass Brush
- Nylon Brush
- Horse Hair Brush
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A regular tuneup will keep your snowboard in tip-top shape. The one thing that can ruin a day on the mountain is riding a snowboard that is in bad shape. You can learn to tune up your and wax your snowboard, it's very easy to do, and you can save money verses taking your snowboard to a snowboard shop. Before you begin, review the checklist on the right to make sure you have prepared all of the proper snowboard tuning tools.
If you don't have these tools, consult a tech at your local snowboard shop or buy them online from our shop.
The steps listed here are recommendations for cleaning, tuning and waxing everything from that old carving board in the attic to your little brothers cut up snow-skate board that he uses for jib-bonking snowblowers all day.
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Step 0: Decide if you need it
I see this topic all over the Internet, 'How often should I wax my snowboard?'. I agree with the ski and snowboard sites which say about every 2-3 days on the hill; generally. I have seen crazy answers all over the spectrum from "every day" to "once a year". I am the crazy mo-fo that waxes every time I ride. This is because I used to race, I worked in the shop forever, and because it's been like ritual every time I ride. What shreds about waxing every day is that you can wax according to the conditions, and because it insures that you have enough gliding for the riding (much like cushion for the pushin'). Especially in icy or spring conditions, you can lose your wax coat pretty fast. Couple hot waxing with liquid fluro waxes, and none of your friends will beat you in a race on the flats.
Basically if you see elongated white stripes on the base of your snowboard, this is oxidation. It means its time to wax. You will get this type of oxidation on your board if you store it all summer long without a protective coat on it. This is why many people recommend layering a generous portion of cheap wax on your board for the summer months. It's good to remove this oxiditaion with either a base grinder, a steel scraper, and/or a brass brush also known as a cleaning brush. Read on...
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Step 1: Clean your snowboard
Once you have gathered all the required tools, place your snowboard in the board vice, base-side up. Look for rust on the rails, deep gouges in the base, separated rails, delaminated tip or tail, cracked sidewalls / ABS, or ripples in the base material. These are types of problems that can be indications of snowboard damage.
If you have separated rails, delamination, cracks or ripples don't bother tuning up your snowboard and consult your manufacturer to find out if the damage is covered under warranty. Most snowboard manufacturers have a standard 1 year warranty, with many of the better brands having a 2 year warranty. Generally, these warranties cover manufacturer defects and do not cover damage resulting from wear and tear, extreme riding, or damage from riding rails. If the board is not covered then the next step is to contact your local snowboard shop technician to determine if the snowboard damage is repairable.
Gather some old rags, base cleaner and a scotchbrite or fibertex pad. Unless your snowboard is brand new, it probably has old wax and grime on the base. Soak an old rag in base cleaner or use a spray bottle to apply base cleaner. You want to remove all dirt and junk which has bonded to the snowboard base. Allow for about 15 minutes for the base cleaner to evaporate before applying wax or P-Tex to the base.
While you are cleaning your snowboard, look for gouges in the base, and rust on the rails. You will be removing all of the rust in the next step, so look for the major rust spots. If you have gouges, you will need to use p-tex and/or a base welding torch to repair them. The One Ball Jay Base Repair Kit is easy to use.
This kit is does a much better job than P-Tex alone, and is much more affordable than a base welding gun. Repairing small gouges is really a matter of preference, as P-Tex will only have a cosmetic effect on the base. It is popular for people to use P-Tex to repair small gouges in the snowboard base before selling it to give the best appeal, but in reality P-Tex is only really effective for medium-depth gouges in the snowboard base. For deep gouges that affect the core of the snowboard, it is recommended to take the board to a snowboard shop where a technician will use a base welding gun to fix it.
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Step 2: Snowboard Tuning
First of all, if you don't feel comfortable doing this; take it to a shop... You can probably skip this step and go straight to waxing. The rest, read on... Gather up your flat file and guides or edge tool, gummy stone, Arkansas stone, and diamond stone(s). While the snowboard is still base-side up in your vice, it's a good idea to run a gummy stone or fibertex up and down the base side of the snowboard edge. This will begin to remove any rust and burrs that have formed on the snowboard edge. Once the base-side of the snowboard rails look clean and free of rust, put the board in the snowboard vice in a horizontal fashion. Now you are ready to remove the rust from the sides of the rails in the same way you just did the base-side.
If your snowboard has deep rust pits, it will require a grinder to remove the excess material. Consult your local technician for this! To check the depth of the rust on your rails, use the gummy stone to buff the rails back and forth. If you remove the red/brown areas of rust, but you still see black areas on your rails, its time for the grinder.
The goal is to remove as much rust as possible and sharpen the edge at the same time. You want to use the flat file or edge tool at a 90° angle to the base. As you remove the edge material make sure that you only go one direction with your file. The ideal motion to make while filing is from the tip to the tail of the snowboard. Alternatives to using a flat file are tools like the snowboard pocket edge tuner which comes with a pre-existing 89° or 90° bevel.
If you keep a consistent 90° bevel with your flat file or pocket edge tool, the edge will become very sharp. Watch your fingers! After you have removed most of the rust, grab your diamond stone. The diamond stone puts the finishing touches on the side rails. Once again, you will want to run it at a 90° angle in a tip-to-tail fashion. As you sharpen the edge, you will want to "mellow" it out with your gummie stone. This removes "burrs" and "nicks" in the edge material.
When you have removed as much rust as possible and the rail seems to be sharp enough to slice ice, you will want to detune the tip and tail regions. This is so that when you are riding you do not catch an edge unexpectedly. Detuning involves the use of a flat file and gummie stone. You will use the flat file to dull the edges approximately 1" into the effective edge. After dulling the rail with your flat file, polish out the area with the gummie stone. This will put a smooth finish on the detuned spots. You need not detune your snowboard until the next time you get the base ground.
It's recommended to grind the base of your snowboard at least once a year to keep the base material true and perfectly flat with regard to the rails, and to remove old, oxidized base material.
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Step 3: Snowboard Waxing
Waxing is the single most important aspect of improving your snowboard riding experience. Waxing is done not just to make the snowboard faster, but to allow for a more smooth and consistent glide. This helps especially on the flats and on days where the snow has a high degree of moisture content, eg: slush.
Before you begin, make sure you have gathered: an iron, fibertex pads, a wide plastic scraper, and of course, snowboard wax. For ideas about choosing the right snowboard wax for your conditions, please refer to the One Ball Jay snowboard waxing guide.
First you will want to plug in your iron and preheat it on low to med heat, (or wax roller if you have one). This will take a few minutes. Don't use your Mom's iron, as this will ruin it. You must dedicate your iron to snowboard waxing once you have applied wax to it. While the iron is heating up, quickly inspect the base for particles of dirt or grime. The base should be relatively clean from the cleanup phase, but can pick up little pieces of junk during the tuning step. The idea here is not to inundate the base with too much wax, but rather to put a thin and even coat of wax into the base material.
The amount of wax that your snowboard will absorb depends on the quality and type of base material that your snowboard is constructed with. There are two main types of base material: sintered and extruded.
Sintered base material is more porous since it is made by fusing together very tiny particles of plastic. The result is material that is more absorbent due to the void space that is left over when the plastic cools.
Extruded base material is made from one solid piece of plastic and absorbs less wax. Having an extruded base means that you will need to wax your snowboard a little more often.
Once your iron heats up you are ready to melt the wax into your snowboard base. If you have a variable tempature iron, then you can set the heat at about 1/3 power. Holding the iron upside down with the point towards the base, push a piece of wax into the iron. You want to spread an even amount of wax dots around the snowboard first.
After scattering a sufficient amount of wax polka dots, begin ironing the base at one end. You want to evenly distribute the wax so that there are no void spaces. As you work your way down the base, the wax will cool. Make sure that you keep moving! If you leave the hot waxing iron in one place too long, you may risk damaging the base. When you have reached the end, turn off the iron and wait 15-20 minutes for the wax to completely cool. If you like to clean as you go, use a scraper to knock off any excess wax that may have dripped onto the side rails.
Remove excess wax from the edges and sidewalls with a plastic scraper while you wait for the base to cool down.
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Step 4: Snowboard Scraping
This is the final and most messy step. You want to make sure that the wax has completely cooled. A good test is to dig your fingernail into the wax. If there are any gooey spots, wait a little while longer for the wax to cool. Scraping the wax from your snowboard can also involve structuring with a brass brush or fibertex pad.
You will want to grab your scraper with both hands at about a 30° angle to the base. Beginning at the tip you will want to shave the wax with your scraper in a 1-direction fashion.
If you scrape your snowboard this way, you will get the smoothest results. Continue to remove as much wax as possible from the base. After you have removed as much wax as possible with your scraper, you will want to buff the wax with a fibertex pad in the same tip-to-tail fashion.
Alternately, you can transition into using the brass brush. Using the brash brush in a tip-to-tail fashion, you should alternate as to create a diamond cross hatch pattern. Experiment using patterns between 5° and 15° off-center.
This type of structuring with the brass brush will create micro grooves in the base, and will aid in reducing friction and causing the snowboard to track better. Though I prefer a brass brush for structuring, you can alternately use a nylon brush instead.
As you are removing wax you will want to knock off the wax shavings onto your work bench, into a trash can, or the floor. It's best to keep a shop vac handy so that you can clean as you go. Snowboard wax is messy, and can get tracked everywhere if you are not careful. I also recommend wearing a shop apron to keep your clothes clean as you work on your snowboard.
You know that you are done when you have buffed the entire base with the fibertex pad or brass brush.
Optionally you can use a horse-hair brush to clean off the micro-fragments of wax left from the brass brush and to add an extra-fine layer of base structuring. The base should look shiny and smooth with many elongated micro-grooves running from tip to tail. If you rub your fingers along the base material you should hear a squeaky sound emanating from the moisture in your fingertips. This is good. You have now ensured the best riding results for you and your snowboard the next time you are on the hill. Lastly, you can add fluorinated or paste wax as a final additive to get ultra acceleration and glide, I recommend One Ball Jay's Viper Attack because it's super fast. I recommend applying this when your friends are not around, and then challenging them to a race once you are on the hill. You will amaze them with your supersonic speed and impress the chicks, too! It's easy to apply, with a simple roll-on applicator. Use it in conjunction with hot wax for best results.
Happy Riding!
The End
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