Wood Toboggans and WAX
Daniel Clements
to be a fun-loving bunch and probably have families (and this is a
very active group) I will post it here and take my chances:
I have just purchased a big wood toboggan for my daughter (and me) for
Christmas. The bottom is raw wood (maple).
I believe I should sand and wax the bottom. I have a tin of Aerowax
(for wood floors and furniture). Is this the right stuff? Do I need to
put on multiple coats? Or am I completely out to lunch?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DANIEL CLEMENTS (Barrie, Ontario CANADA)
clem...@bconnex.net
James Foster x2912
|> This is not really a woodworking question, but since woodworkers tend
|> to be a fun-loving bunch and probably have families (and this is a
|> very active group) I will post it here and take my chances:
|>
|> I have just purchased a big wood toboggan for my daughter (and me) for
|> Christmas. The bottom is raw wood (maple).
|>
|> I believe I should sand and wax the bottom. I have a tin of Aerowax
|> (for wood floors and furniture). Is this the right stuff? Do I need to
|> put on multiple coats? Or am I completely out to lunch?
Well, I'll put on my skiing hat (it's flourescent yellow - goes good
with the purple jacket B^)) and try to answer. Since you'll generally
just want as much "go" as you can get the best overall tactic would
probably be to sand smooth and iron on a hard wax. Parrafin would
probably be okay, or go to a ski shop and get a universal or "cold"
range downhill wax. Or a cold range cross country _glide_ wax (NOT
KICK B^)). Use a plastic scraper to take most of it off leaving a
smooth surface. This'd probably work pretty well. The only time
you might run into a problem is when using this on warm, wet snow.
You get a suction effect between the snow and sliding surface (like
you get when you put some water between two sheets of glass). You
could get a stick of warm wax and just crayon it on in large
X's on the bottom for those conditions. This will help break up
the film. Clean it off and rewax with the hard stuff when the
temp drops.
You could also
go all out and try putting on the tar base coat made for wooden
cross country skis. Probably would be a pain on that size surface.
My guess is that most furniture waxes would be too soft for good
overall performance.
J...@epic.uu.se
: This is not really a woodworking question, but since woodworkers tend
: to be a fun-loving bunch and probably have families (and this is a
: very active group) I will post it here and take my chances:
: I have just purchased a big wood toboggan for my daughter (and me) for
: Christmas. The bottom is raw wood (maple).
: I believe I should sand and wax the bottom. I have a tin of Aerowax
: (for wood floors and furniture). Is this the right stuff? Do I need to
: put on multiple coats? Or am I completely out to lunch?
: Any help would be greatly appreciated.
: ------------------------------------------------------------------------
: DANIEL CLEMENTS (Barrie, Ontario CANADA)
: clem...@bconnex.net
How about 'burned in' pine tar (I use a hot-air gun) and 'glider' for
cross country skis? That's what was put on the traditional 'sledges'
that we (sometimes) pull in the mountains in the winter. I guess ordinary
paraffin wax (like candles) would also work, but you might have trouble
getting it to stick without the base (there are solvent-based bases available).
--
Jonathan Yuen phone: 46 18 663944
Department of Cancer Epidemiology fax: 46 18 503431
Uppsala University email replies to:
University Hospital Jonath...@epic.uu.se
S 751 85 Uppsala
SWEDEN
Tim Walker
>: This is not really a woodworking question, but since woodworkers tend
>: to be a fun-loving bunch and probably have families (and this is a
>: very active group) I will post it here and take my chances:
>: I have just purchased a big wood toboggan for my daughter (and me) for
>: Christmas. The bottom is raw wood (maple).
>: I believe I should sand and wax the bottom. I have a tin of Aerowax
>: (for wood floors and furniture). Is this the right stuff? Do I need to
>: put on multiple coats? Or am I completely out to lunch?
On my 'boggan has been a 4 cubic inch chunk of paraffin with a hole
drilled through and a chunk of nylon chute cord...tied to the front,
it's always there. I tried HARD special green Xcountry ski wax
for a while, but found that a few rubs of paraffin is way adequate.
I know a great hill too :).
Tim Walker
John Levin
>>How about 'burned in' pine tar (I use a hot-air gun) and 'glider' for
>cross country skis? That's what was put on the traditional 'sledges'
>that we (sometimes) pull in the mountains in the winter. I guess
ordinary
>paraffin wax (like candles) would also work, but you might have trouble
>getting it to stick without the base (there are solvent-based bases
available).
When I owned a pair of wooden cross country skis about 20 years
ago (almost impossible to find wooden skis any more in the U.S.) I
remember applying that tar (called 'grundvalla', I think, and probably
still available at some ski shops) with a butane torch and flame
spreader. Just fan the flames so the stuff bubbles and sinks into the
wood, without charring. The smell was rather pleasant, and is one of
those winter smells I miss these days.
The modest difficulty of applying grundvalla is one of the reasons that
plastic skis are so popular, I think, but it's really the only
satisfactory way to apply a lasting wax coat to skis, toboggans, etc.
Jim Keszenheimer
recall waxing the bottom of sled runners with generic paraffin, in =
the old days. I think James' suggestion of using cross country was =
is a good one, except for the unavoidable hassle with different =
waxes for different temperatures. I hate waxing my cross country =
skis, but how often do you really use the toboggan?
I would also recommend the tar base since it will help seal the wood =
from moisture and deterioration.
JK
-- =
__________________________________________________________
Dr. James Keszenheimer =
Laser Development Program Manager =
Micracor, Inc. =
Photonic Communications Systems =
=
43 Nagog Park =80 Acton, MA 01720 =80 U.S.A. =
TEL: (508) 263-1080 x307 =80 e-mail:lase...@tiac.net =
__________________________________________________________
Those opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of my =
employer.
Daniel Clements
>...use paraffin...
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...
-C.EASTLUND
and toe, and 'kicker' in the middle. It is the kicker that is adjusted
for temperature. The adjustment is to give the correct amount of
friction or grip, so you can get a combination of thrust and glide out
of one wax. The kick wax provides grip through high static friction, and
glide by low sliding friction.
For a toboggan, static friction and kick have no use, so you only need
to consider the glide wax. And this is very similar to common
paraffin.
If you do use the tar base, be sure to keep it thin, and well covered
with wax as it is the closest thing to a anchor you will find on
snow equipment.
Chris Eastlund
(ex-Minnesotan, who may be out of date on his snow advice,
and no, I never used waxless skis)
In article <30BC97...@tiac.net>,
James Foster x2912
|> Cross country skis take two kinds of wax, 'glide' wax on the heel
|> and toe, and 'kicker' in the middle. It is the kicker that is adjusted
|> for temperature. The adjustment is to give the correct amount of
|> friction or grip, so you can get a combination of thrust and glide out
|> of one wax. The kick wax provides grip through high static friction, and
|> glide by low sliding friction.
|>
|> For a toboggan, static friction and kick have no use, so you only need
|> to consider the glide wax. And this is very similar to common
|> paraffin.
Yes, and you don't normally have to be _that_ worried about matching
the _glide_ wax to temperature. Especially for this use the coldest
range (and most similar to paraffin) would be the best choice.
|>
|> If you do use the tar base, be sure to keep it thin, and well covered
|> with wax as it is the closest thing to a anchor you will find on
|> snow equipment.
Well, I don't cross country ski that much anymore, and two of the three
pair of skis I have _are_ waxless (and still the best for warm, wet conditions,
IMHO), but from what I remember about preping the wood skis the tar
base _is_ your glide surface. You tar the entire base and then just
kick wax the center area. I'll double check, but since I'm sure no one
on the list really cares, it won't be worth a followup. B^)
Tim Allen
clem...@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" <tal...@keene.edu> --
tool man and ski coach, with a big wax box