The Wax and Tune Ya Goon Thread

[jota]

Depends on the base. TNT is somewhat of a hybrid extruded base, but they won't hold wax like sintered. But even with sintered Mervin bases, while I've never had speed issues, I did have to keep up on waxing more often.

even my sintered mervin didn't have speed issue, but I had to wax it every day. If not after a day and half on the slopes, I wasn't able to get through flat areas.
After the base grind/base structure, I didn't have any issues at all, for multiple days

That makes sense. I have never done a base grind on any board. They do have a noticeably different look to their bases. I don't know why they can't seem to finish them to the standard of virtually every other company.

Same experience as you. The edges on my mullairs/etc would basically dry out in a day, while the rest of the base did okay. Meanwhile, almost all my other boards have lasted pretty well. I want to say the best I've ever had have been nitro, US, and Stranda.

That's what happens to mine. dry sides but does not lose speed. It was also strange that when I put liquid wax on the second day the base was still white and dry...

But this is really absurd. It's the same as if I buy a board and I have to put the inserts at home because they have forgotten...

Also, one of the reasons why I bought Mervin is to defend the “hand made” concept and now this changes to “home made” ” because I have to finish the board at home!!!

[jota]

Is it possible to grind or structure the base at home? I'll investigate

[alex]

Is it normal for the lib base to hold hot wax for only one day?

never happened to me on a b base

There is huge difference (while new) between ”normal” sintered bases, especially high end, like Jones 9000, and Burton (or United Shapes) “wax infused” bases. “Normal” base will be very dry and won’t hold wax well, while new, need a lot of waxing, before it will be “saturated” with wax. I use base oil for “normal” bases and high end base will suck in first coat of oil completely, only after second or third coat I can achieve oily finish still on next day. This does not happen with “wax infused” bases.

rex-fluor-rubber-with-oil-rex-fluor-base.png (255.79 KiB) Viewed 1559 times

I am interested to know more about “wax infused” marketing term, as it seem to really work.

[jota]

Is it possible to grind or structure the base at home? I'll investigate

Here they talk about opening the pores but we already know that there are no pores...


maybe this process could work?

[Spenser]

A commenter says, "sintered bases don't necessarily have structure."

What?

[jota]

A commenter says, "sintered bases don't necessarily have structure."

What?

and also talks about the pores. Maybe he is not a professional. but could his grinding process work? for those of us who are far from workshops

[jota]

Is it normal for the lib base to hold hot wax for only one day?

never happened to me on a b base

There is huge difference (while new) between ”normal” sintered bases, especially high end, like Jones 9000, and Burton (or United Shapes) “wax infused” bases. “Normal” base will be very dry and won’t hold wax well, while new, need a lot of waxing, before it will be “saturated” with wax. I use base oil for “normal” bases and high end base will suck in first coat of oil completely, only after second or third coat I can achieve oily finish still on next day. This does not happen with “wax infused” bases.
rex-fluor-rubber-with-oil-rex-fluor-base.png
I am interested to know more about “wax infused” marketing term, as it seem to really work.

There is a video from 11 years ago where they use this oil. but in the current catalog on the website this oil does not appear…
I wanted to know more about this hydration process…

[alex]

After that they have version 3.0 "special for race centers":

rex20base20oil.jpg (36.46 KiB) Viewed 1538 times

I still have little bit of Rex Base Oil 2.0 left and won’t be crying when it is gone, I have some good, very oily paste waxes, which do basically the same thing for me, saturate the sintered surface with oil, which will “suck in” the wax much better, than dry surface does.

Well, I did expect this “no pores” argument. I’m not saying that sintered base has pores through whole base and the base will "suck in" oil (or wax) up to the core, but I am saying that the surface of sintered base is “hairy” at microscopic level, even regardless of base finish, simply because huge size of UHMWPE molecules, and this surface can suck in a lot of wax (or oil), which everyone can test themselves with such base oil (if can find any) .

[jota]

After that they have version 3.0 "special for race centers":
rex20base20oil.jpg
I still have little bit of Rex Base Oil 2.0 left and won’t be crying when it is gone, I have some good, very oily paste waxes, which do basically the same thing for me, saturate the sintered surface with oil, which will “suck in” the wax much better, than dry surface does.

Well, I did expect this “no pores” argument. I’m not saying that sintered base has pores through whole base and the base will "suck in" oil (or wax) up to the core, but I am saying that the surface of sintered base is “hairy” at microscopic level, even regardless of base finish, simply because huge size of UHMWPE molecules, and this surface can suck in a lot of wax (or oil), which everyone can test themselves with such base oil (if can find any) .

The comment about the pores was from the YouTube video, not for you

What you mean is that instead of grinding, another option is to hydrate the base with oil so that the wax sticks to it later?
(Does this mean that the wax does not stick because the base is very dry and for that reason it does not form a union? (Something like fucking palm oil for making cookies that makes everything stick together”? It didn't occur to me.) another example..

[Vanni]

Same experience as you. The edges on my mullairs/etc would basically dry out in a day, while the rest of the base did okay. Meanwhile, almost all my other boards have lasted pretty well. I want to say the best I've ever had have been nitro, US, and Stranda.

The best I've ever had, have been old Capitas sintered (my 2019 Kazu is kinda of disappointing, let's see the 2023 Kazu), K2, Salomon and WFO Burton

My Salomon Ultimate Ride and the 2023 Kazu have basically a race structured base (and I suppose at least for Salomon, the base material is of the best quality available). When I bring a board to the ski service, I get the same structure as the Ultimate Ride (base grind/structure + wax for more or less 50€).

My old Super 8 is incredible, was a mid priced board with the standard basic sintered base: it's incredible, it performs in every condition, waxed, unwaxed, in every snow contition. In flat aread I'm always one of the fastest, I easily overtake guys on skis. Hopefully the new one 50% recycled performs the same.

with old capita sintered I did 7 straight riding days in Whistler without issues (I waxed it before the travel, and then nothing), and with Burton WFO I did like 9 days in Niseko (waxed only before the travel), and the board performed super great.

With the Squash, the base didn't retain the wax, even after a base grind/structure. After a day, a day and half, the sides were white.
I read here that other riders from europe have had the same experience with nitro bases, even higher end than the Standard sintered on the squash, so I suppose is a snow quality thing. Maybe they perform best with US snow condition. Too bad because I loved that board.