Date: Fri, 08 Dec 1995 15:07:58 -0700
From: mscalora@itsnet.com (Mike Scalora) Organization: Novell
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To: mscalora@itsnet.com (Mike Scalora)
Subject: [HOWTO] [Fwd: Re: Wood Toboggans and WAX] Status: RO

From: tallen@keene.edu (Tim Allen)
Newsgroups: rec.woodworking
Subject: Re: Wood Toboggans and WAX
Date: 6 Dec 1995 15:27:01 GMT
Organization: Keene State College
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In article <49ogg1$qtq@www.bconnex.net>
clements@bconnex.net (Daniel Clements) writes: 

>The paraffin idea sounds easy, but how much needs to be applied? Do I 
need to do the entire bottom? I'm looking for speed here... 

Take a big block of the wax, and an old household iron (one that you will 
never use on your clothes again...) - plug the iron in and let it heat up 
to somewhere between the nylon and cotton setting (if you're a real 
neanderthal, your iron consists of a block of metal on the end of a stick, 
which you heat up with a blowtorch). Turn the toboggan over, so its bottom 
side is up. Hold the iron over the bottom vertically, and hold the wax up 
to the iron, so that the wax melts and drips on to the toboggan. If things 
start to smoke, your iron is too hot. Once you've got a good smattering of 
drippings all over the bottom of the toboggan, start ironing them out. You 
want to get the wax liquid so it will soak into the pores of your base, 
but you don't want things to get too hot, either, so keep the iron moving. 
The longer you iron, the more the wax soaks into the pores, and the 
smoother your surface will be. A surplus of wax is better than a too 
little, but any excess wax will just be scraped off. Once you're satisfied 
that you've got wax everywhere, let the thing cool down overnight (not 
outside, but in a warm place). The next day, remove the excess wax with a 
plastic scraper. Depending on the snow conditions, you could "structure" 
your base, or polish it smooth. For wet snow, you want rills to break the 
suction. Use the edge of a file, dragged along the base, or a wire brush, 
or a nylon brush, depending on what size structure you want. To polish, 
use a piece of "fibertex" aka scotchbright. Ideally you want to use a wax 
of the right hardness, given the snow conditions...

-- Timothy Thorpe Allen, Ph.D. "Tim" <tallen@keene.edu> -- 

tool man and ski coach, with a big wax box