waxing skis

[Mattb]

Does anyone know where to buy a cheap iron to use for waxing skis?

Thanks

Matt

[mwtse]

Cheap 就冇啦，先施有賣 Philips telfon 平底無孔 二百幾蚊。

[mattruislip]

Any cheap iron will do actually. I would imagine you can pick one up at Sham Shui Po, give it a clean and off you go.

[Mattb]

Thanks -:)

[Mike]

A waxing iron costs about HK500 and it controls the heat much better.

[mwtse]

A waxing iron costs about HK500 and it controls the heat much better.

Although I do not have a waxing iron, but I doubt about any claim of superiority in temperature control, at least for the old (i.e. not the newest, if new one and old one have real differences) iron that one may have used for over ten years. The only difference I can think of is that waxing iron is more scribe-resistant, and that it has a shape better suited for the job.

[jimmy]

I used the cloth iron at the beginning and changed to wax iron a while, except the temp indicator, the shape and weight of wax iron give me better control on waxing especially on head and tail side. ;) It is worth to invest few hundred on a wax iron to have good hot waxing on your expensive gear.

In addition, the Japanese waxing paper e.g. Gallium also help to iron wax evenly and remove the dirt that cannot be removed by cleaner.

[jimmy]

FYI, this is one of my preferred shops for purchasing wax, cleaner, wax iron at 220V, etc. They can ship items to HK by USPS.

http://stores.ebay.com/Nuclear-Sporting-Goods

[Mike]

Although I do not have a waxing iron, but I doubt about any claim of superiority in temperature control, at least for the old (i.e. not the newest, if new one and old one have real differences) iron that one may have used for over ten years. The only difference I can think of is that waxing iron is more scribe-resistant, and that it has a shape better suited for the job.

Whether you believe or have doubt about temperature control on a waxing iron is entirely your choice.

Just an interesting observation - you set the temperature dial on a normal iron at the temperature you want the iron to be at, the iron will be heated up to the temperature you set (the light will turn off) then the iron will allow the temperature to drop to a lower temperature and then the iron will be heated up again (you will see the light comes on again).
Wheras on a waxing iron, you set the required temperature, the iron will stay at that temperature without dropping and reheating.

Also, for a normal iron, I do not think I have seen an iron where the temperature dial actually has the temperature indicated, usually just shows nylon , wool,　cotton etc.

[mwtse]

Whether you believe or have doubt about temperature control on a waxing iron is entirely your choice.

Just an interesting observation - you set the temperature dial on a normal iron at the temperature you want the iron to be at, the iron will be heated up to the temperature you set (the light will turn off) then the iron will allow the temperature to drop to a lower temperature and then the iron will be heated up again (you will see the light comes on again).
Wheras on a waxing iron, you set the required temperature, the iron will stay at that temperature without dropping and reheating.

Also, for a normal iron, I do not think I have seen an iron where the temperature dial actually has the temperature indicated, usually just shows nylon , wool,　cotton etc.

Well, that's what I believed:

Both kind of iron should make use of bimetallic strip as a means to control temperature, so their performance should be basically the same. A ski iron may perform slightly better by
1. have a greater heat capacity (which depends on the mass)
2. have a lower power heating element (heat up slowly so to reduce the over shoot in temperature)

That's what I do not believe:
A. Waxing iron have sophisticated circuit to monitor the temperature and control it precisely.
B. Have calibrated the temperature dials.

The reason behind that believe (given that I do not have a waxing iron), is that, waxing irons are too cheap. No one will use a waxing iron to iron their clothes, but the reverse is common. So the demand of waxing iron is very low. I am very interested to see how the manufacturer could produce such a product that performs so well with so low a cost and so low in production scale.

The fact that the pilot lamp of the waxing iron does not turn off do no necessarily means it can stay at the temperature you set. Could you borrow your waxing iron to me to convince me :D:D:D

[hy]

I don't have a wax iron myself as well and it appears MWTSE's thinking bears some technical insight.

For a normal iron, users are interested the type of fabric rather than the iron temperature, so the dial indicates the fabric instead of the temperature.

In either cases, I won't trust the temperature indicated on the dial, the best way is to touch the iron surface with the wax to see how quick it melts to decide it is the right temperature for the wax.

[Mike]

Although I do not have a waxing iron, but I doubt about any claim of superiority in temperature control .....

I don't have a wax iron myself as well and it appears MWTSE's thinking bears some technical insight.....

As I said before - entirely your choice. I am not going to waste my time to argue.
Below is what Epic ski forum said about waxing iron:
http://www.epicski.com/forum/thread/87424/wax-irons-is-the-maplus-the-same-as-wintersteiger

[B2L2]

I have the Toko iron myself (the yellow one in Mike's link). Yes, it is cheap enough that I didn't bother to go find an old iron. :)

I actually have a spare one forsale if you don't mind to pay shipping from Canada. :)

It is a piece of mind about the performance of the wax iron. I never measure how diff between a normal iron. But it isn't really hard to calibrated the temperature dials and put better temp control into the iron, so I trust the good brand does put R&D into those area.

[mwtse]

As I said before - entirely your choice. I am not going to waste my time to argue.
Below is what Epic ski forum said about waxing iron:
http://www.epicski.com/forum/thread/87424/wax-irons-is-the-maplus-the-same-as-wintersteiger


Well, although you probably don't interested in responding any more, the following is the relevant reply from the thread you quoted:

Used to use a £2.50 travel iron. The travel iron worked well and melted the wax very well and evenly, but using a infrared thermometer I could see 30 degree swings in the temperature

The kunzmann, gets to 90 degs on the 120 deg C setting, and swings through 10 C each cycle, its slower to melt wax and thus requires a longer and slower waxing session. Using Dominator zoom and ironing till it goes clear and flows (no smoke) for 3-4 passes a ski gets the base to 65 C max and the heat soaks through to the top surface at 47 C


He is comparing the temperature swing of a travel iron. So the question of whether a waxing iron controls temperature better than an ordinary home iron is still not fully answered. Next time I may measure a home iron. On the other hand, may be I'm too limited in knowledge, what's the different of that 10 to 20 degree? (A waxing iron has a 10 degree swing, a home iron have a 20 degree to 30 degree swing, so the difference will be 10 to 20 degree).


On the other hand, the following quotes simply tell us that even a so called waxing iron do not have accurate temperate scales, and the difference is as much as 30 degree, same as the temperature swing of the travel iron.


I have this Wintersteiger iron. This is the first "ski waxing specific" iron I have owned. Until now, I just got the iron hot enough to drip wax and not smoke. Now I'm frustrated. I use Swix wax and If I use a universal wax rated for 120 degrees C, I cannot get this iron to melt it at all. I have to crank it up to 150 degrees C to get any action. Does anyone really pay any attention to those iron temps, and if so, if my iron cannot melt univeral at 120 C, has my iron already crapped out?


I wouldn't put a lot of stock in the printed numbers ... or at least I wouldn't really expect them to conform to the stated temperature with a lot of accuracy. So far as I know, there's just a simple thermocouple in there - I doubt it's really calibrated to exact temperatures.


Ditto on what sjj said. In another thread I was trying to figure out how to determine the temperature of an iron (have a swix). I ended up with a IR one that has a lot of uses but isn't the best for measuring bright shiny things like iron bases.

Anyway using it and putting it so close I'm grazing the iron, I noticed it is a bit cooler than stated even when it cycles on. I think of those settings as "this is the hottest the iron might get" instead of what it actually is.

I'm working on remarking it to actual temp.

Does a higher price "professionally designed for specific purpose" necessary works better in terms of temperature control? I'm afraid it is still not too convincing.

Although, as I have already said in the first respond I'm made, the shape of an waxing iron make it better suit the job.