Let’s see your home wax bench

[Cabinfever]

Attachment 325081

Strong to Quite Strong

[swissiphic]

More pics of the homemade ascent plates, please

These things changed the game for ascents in specific snow conditions in steep, technical terrain in the forest. Combine using them with employing a ski drag method, you can basically dodge and weave through anything mother nature throws at ya in technical bushwhack scenarios. It's awesome. Only liability I've found is an obvious one: limited surface area for float, so they don't work all that great in deep foot pen snow/deep pow...but for that mostly consolidated semi supportive melt freeze/wet grains spring snow where hiking/bootpacking results in those erratic, annoying, sometimes supportive and sometimes unpredictable, dangerous post holing to the crotch, these things are the right tool for the job.

Durability wise...milk crate plastic is pretty good but not the best. If the $$$ were unlimited, obviously better materials exist for the purpose...being on ski bum budget, i'm stickin to the yellow plastic for now.

But hey, milk crates are free, so pretty much unlimited source material and it only takes about 30 minutes to construct a pair. I've tried a few different shapes...each work best in specific conditions. Both feel like technical rock climbing shoes for snow. You can french technique, kick steps straight in, use the little lips of plastic at the tips to get purchase on branches, broken off nubbings on log crossings, rock outcroppings...it's a whole new world of uphilling. One of the latest big surprises was how superior they are to the regular old hiking boot for steep, sinky moss forest floor. Better traction and better float...gonna be great for mushroom picking in the fall.

[ZomblibulaX]

Finally got around to putting away my rock skis, so snapped a pic of my seldom used bench top setup. Cap rail came off the pony wall behind the stove when we remodeled the kitchen, picked up the vise at the Los Alamos ski swap for next to nothing a number of years ago. Held in place with two quick clamps and then it stands up out of the way so I can use the bench.



I do love these SVST vises, though mine is first gen so you can’t stand the ski up for edge work. Don’t mind, I do all that at work anyway.

[Gunder]

Well, I decided to re-work the home wax bench this weekend, since we are still waiting for enough snow to get to work.
Here is an over view of the current setup.

At this point, I dont think there is a jig that I dont have. Any time I get a chance. I replace a jig-rex jig with a factory jig as they are more accurate and more reliable. The issue with the Jigarex is it uses plastic on metal for the width adjustment and as that wears the accuracy goes out the window.
At the end of the workbench is a larger arbor press, that I made an adapter for, so it can serve double duty as a boot press using the SVST boot press tools.
Here is a my wax and edge tuning drawer

After years of having both rotor-brushes and hand brushes, I decided to sell the hand brushes as I have not touched them since getting the root-brushes. Also if you have not tried them yet, the Pro series files by SVST are the best edge files I have used yet. I never touch my ice files now.

This is my binding mounting drawer

I mostly use Binding Freedom inserts when mounting skis these days, but am still fully equipped to do traditional mounts and to fix anything an athlete might F'up while we are out shooting.

This is my base repair drawer

The large black tube is a slide hammer for removing ski pole grips, so we can fine tune them to size. On the left is my general purpose file drawer. They have different file handles on purpose than my ski tuning files to keep everything separate.

For vises, The SVST vise is hands down the best one that I have see and or used.

I machined new custom jaws for it on my Bridgeport that are wider, and have a negative rack on them so it better grips skis, even those with the most slanted or rounded top sheets.

[Shorty_J]

^^^ that's some ski workshop porn right there.

[EWG]

This made me weep softly to myself out of joy.

[old mexico]

How does one get their hands on jigs?


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[Westcoaster]

How does one get their hands on jigs?


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ditto

[oftpiste]

be a pro photog with years of industry cred and shoot for major ski and binding manufacturers maybe?

How does one get their hands on jigs?


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[skifishbum]

a lot of my at jigs came from patrol who aquired em so i could mount their skis faster and more efficiently for them
ive bought jigs from mags, shops, and manufacturers and reps
im not a jigerex fan
my home bench is a clusterfuck right now
mostly cause i do most of my work
at work

[gregorys]

I identify way more with Swissphic (or the recycling bin guy) than those uppity bridgeport folks! LOL

I put my bin of waxing tools on top of the recycling bin, and the skis on a pair of sawhorses outside - because my garage is way too cluttered and full of junk to wax skis in it!
(Hell if I don't come out of the garage in a couple of hours, someone should call S&R.)

Pics? Nope!

[EWG]

I identify way more with Swissphic (or the recycling bin guy) than those uppity bridgeport folks! LOL

I put my bin of waxing tools on top of the recycling bin, and the skis on a pair of sawhorses outside - because my garage is way too cluttered and full of junk to wax skis in it!
(Hell if I don't come out of the garage in a couple of hours, someone should call S&R.)

Pics? Nope!

Yeah, I've been devolving toward this for a few years now also. The garage has become a gym, zwift room, gear storage, etc, and I don't want wax shavings all over the carpet (yes, it has carpet in it.) So I might drop inside, but scraping and brushing happen outside.

I need a rotobrush. Badly. But they ain't cheap so I haven't convinced myself to pull the trigger yet.

[J. Barron DeJong]

I need a rotobrush. Badly. But they ain't cheap so I haven't convinced myself to pull the trigger yet.

I need rotobrushes, Swix evo edger, and an electric scraper sharpener - but the need is not strong enough to overcome the cost, so I’m still doing it all the old fashioned way like a sucker.

[CirqueScaler]

Easy bench for us low-space, low-budget folks w/ tech bindings -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80hKie2Onkw

[Shorty_J]

Easy bench for us low-space, low-budget folks w/ tech bindings -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80hKie2Onkw

I've built a similar bench but without the pin grab 2x3... neat idea!

[Gunder]

I need rotobrushes, Swix evo edger, and an electric scraper sharpener - but the need is not strong enough to overcome the cost, so I’m still doing it all the old fashioned way like a sucker.

I'm often waxing 4-5 pairs of skis at a time, so the time Proto brushes save, has more than paid for themselves. If you are just doing one pair of skis at the time, then they are not worth the cost IMOP.

[gaijin]

I glamorized the work space a while back and would definitely do it again. The red you see is copper. The old wood you see is very old redwood from a horse coral. It even has a bullet embedded in it. And- the bench has power outlets. And LED lighting.

I sold this piece to a ski school. They deserved it.

[EWG]

Wax shavings suck. If not for that I’d have a lot more flexibility on location and layout.

[SumJongGuy]

I've gone minimalist.. Tools, bits, iron, wax etc in a large tackle box. Bench is the washer and dryer tops with a wood device designed to hold the skis steady with brakes down. I also occasionally throw clamps/vises on the porch raining out back if I know it's going to be really messy. But, I don't have a garage or utility room. Washer and dryer are in the kitchen..

[plugboots]

Wax shavings suck. If not for that I’d have a lot more flexibility on location and layout.

Yup. I tried waxing in the garage but it’s not heated so basically it was impossible. Now I do it in the basement and I keep a big sheet on the ground, and every year I scoop up the shavings that way.

[J. Barron DeJong]

Yep, I’ve used rotobrushes when I worked in a shop, and they’re awesome. So fast and so little effort.

Right now it’s just me and young kids skiing in the house, so I’m able to keep up doing everything manually for now.

[anotherVTskibum]

Yep, I’ve used rotobrushes when I worked in a shop, and they’re awesome. So fast and so little effort.

Right now it’s just me and young kids skiing in the house, so I’m able to keep up doing everything manually for now.

I'd think the young kids would put a premium on time, especially since they (presumably) aren't tuning their own skis yet.

The Evo (or similar edge tools) is, IMO, a bigger east-coast time saver while also providing consistently excellent results. I can take a pair of dull skis and have them truly sharp in under 15 minutes, so long as the base edges are decent. I can keep mostly sharp skis super-sharp in even less time per pair; setting up and cleaning up takes more time than actually doing the edges if I haven't gotten behind.

I'll try to remember to grab a photo next time I'm in the newly setup wax room. I keep getting distracted by the home-workshop stuff on the other side of the room, although that's close to organized now.

[Conundrum]

I glamorized the work space a while back and would definitely do it again. The red you see is copper. The old wood you see is very old redwood from a horse coral. It even has a bullet embedded in it. And- the bench has power outlets. And LED lighting.

I sold this piece to a ski school. They deserved it.

This is fantastic.

[J. Barron DeJong]

I'd think the young kids would put a premium on time, especially since they (presumably) aren't tuning their own skis yet.

My kids are still in elementary school and skiing only greens, so not too tough on equipment yet. Wish they were further along, but maybe by the time they’re harder on equipment they’ll also be old enough to work on it themselves. Took them out for the first time this season last weekend and they seem more excited this year, so hopefully we make some good progression. Maybe offer them some rotobrushes as a potential reward for improvement?

[EWG]

My kids are still in elementary school and skiing only greens, so not too tough on equipment yet. Wish they were further along, but maybe by the time they’re harder on equipment they’ll also be old enough to work on it themselves. Took them out for the first time this season last weekend and they seem more excited this year, so hopefully we make some good progression. Maybe offer them some rotobrushes as a potential reward for improvement?

Racer family kids learn the importance of proper tuning / waxing. Other kids don’t. We aren’t a racer family, and we are out west, so tuning hasn’t been a huge deal to my kids.

All of that is to say, while you are right to look forward to the day your kids can wax all your sticks, just realize that comes with some fun little surprises. Like going to get of the first lift and just sticking in place, which sets up the discovery that your kid’s definition of scraping and brushing is a bit different than yours. Takes about 5 runs to burn off the extra wax. This will occur randomly maybe every 3rd time they wax for you. It’s a fun little game.

Ask me how I know.