Heat Box Services

Basic Saturation $19

Basic Saturation involves 90-120 minutes in the heatbox with a very soft paraffin at a temperature of about 55 degree C. This ensures excellent saturation of the base. The skis will still need to be hardened to the appropriate level for the desired conditions.

Extreme Saturation $29
Extreme Saturation involved a longer period (6-12 hours, depending on how busy I am) in the heatbox at a lower temperature (below 50 degrees C). This is a very safe and stable temperature and the paraffin that I use (Star uniblock yellow) has an extremely low melt point and excellent fluidity at low temperatures. This long initial saturation is followed by a conditioning stage with a harder paraffin at a temperature of about 60 degrees C. The skis spend less than an hour at this relatively high temperature. This step is still quite safe for the skis, but may hasten any eventally-inevitable movement of the base away from dead-flat. For instance, many older models of Fischer skis tend to get convex tips and tails after extended use and work - even after grinding. A 60 degree heatbox may start to show evidence of that tendency.

The Extreme Saturation is the service I most strongly recommend. It provides a tough finish and plenty of durability for all but the most abrasive conditions.

Race-Ready Treatment $45

This option is crossed out because people were actually ordering it. Dummies! The point is not to order the most expensive treatment available. For most applications the Extreme Saturation is everything you need. In some specific situations it is necessary to have a ski ready for final race-layer (fluoro powder) application. That’s the only circumstance in which it makes any kind of sense to pay us to provide this service. It’s not longer on the work order form so you’ve got to call to make the necessary arrangements. Ha - that oughta slow ‘em down!

Race Ready Treatment starts with the same steps as Extreme Saturation, though in some cases We harden the ski further to ensure durability. The ski is then finished with the appropriate layers and heatbox treatment for the conditions specified by the customer. This treatment will get the ski ready for the application of a final race layer, and in some cases may be sufficient as a final race layer. Racers can specify which brand of wax they prefer to use, and specific layering can be outlined if necessary. I prefer to confer with customers in person on the specifics of race-ready treatment.

Heat Box Explanation and Discussion

There seems to be a great deal of confusion in the marketplace regarding heatboxes. Some people swear by them while others swear that they’re a bad idea. The most convincing argument against the use of heat-boxes is that there are no industry standards governing their construction or use. I’d like to share some of my own experiences with heat-box use in hopes of clarifying what my heat-box process involves.

Everybody has heard horror stories about skis being destroyed in heat-boxes. When I set out to build my heat box I knew that I wanted to have a very tightly controlled environment in order to ensure that I was holding skis at the desired temperature. To that end I obtained an industrial proportional-derivative temperature control unit. This is an external thermostat that sends current to the heating element based on iunformation obtained from a thermocouple probe. It’s a good unit and holds the temperature in the box within a couple degrees C of the setting. When the unit is on the thermostat kicks on and off about every ten seconds.

For a heating element I use a 750 Watt high-density strip heater. The “high-density” part is important. the thermal response on this thing is quite slow which means that the temperature of the heating element doesn’t spike when it receives current. The heating element is about 30 inches long and is bolted to a large sheet of aluminum which helps to dissipate and decentralize the heat source. The thermocouple probe which provides information to the temperature controller sits about 3/4 of an inch above the aluminum. Air is constantly circulated around the box by two fans. The air circulation, the thermocouple probe position and slow thermal response time of the heating element ensure that the heat source is never more than a degree or two above the desired temperature of the box. I can fit up to ten pairs of skis in the box with plenty of room for circulation. I can also check the temperature in the box in multiple locations using another thermocouple probe which feeds my thermohygrometer. The system is incredibly accurate.

Accuracy doesn’t ensure safety. I definitely cooked some skis before I realized how low temperatures need to be in order to ensure that skis remain stable. I started at about 90 degrees C because it seems about right (significantly lower than iron temperatures but above most melt-points. I assumed that wax would have to be fully molten to saturate the ski. I aso assumed that skis were pretty tough.

What can I say? I made some poor assumptions. First - skis are not at all tough. Even at temperatures as low as 50 degrees C I’ve seen skis move a little bit. Most of this is motion that would otherwise occur over a couple of weeks of ironing. Anytime you grind a ski you remove material from the base and alter the forces through the ski. It’s a lot like milling wood. You can plane a piece of wood totally flat and a day later it will be cupped because you’ve altered the balance of tension holding the thing in position. Skis move. The heat-box will accelerate this natural process. For this reason I can’t guarantee that a freshly stone-ground base will be totally flat after it’s been in the heat-box - even though I’m using temperatures almost 20 degrees C cooler than almost anybody I’ve heard of.

The other poor assumption I made is that wax has to be totally molten in order to penetrate the base. The most satisfactory results I’ve had are using tempertures that keep the wax tacky - not molten - for a long time. I’ve had skis in the box for over 30 hours. Once a small degree of fluidity has been achieved the base WILL drink wax.

Once I learned these valuable lessons I started playing with waxes. At this point the only waxes that I’ve found satisfactory for safe saturation of bases are from Star. The Star Uniblock paraffins have very much lower melt-points than anything else I’ve found, and they achieve remarkable fluidity at extremely low temperatures. I’ve also had very good luck with some of the higher fluor start waxes. I do not endorse any one wax brand for general use. I have a bewildering array of waxes in the truck. This assertion that Star waxes are the ones to use in the heat box is based on their physical characteristics, not their performance on the snow.

At this point I am extremely confident in the heat-box process and feel that it provides benefits in both durability and performance. In the Fall I told a lot of people that the heat-box is simply a time-saving measure. I have come to feel that it can provide extensive benefits beyond time savings. I will continue to test the process, try other waxes and determine how best to utilize the benefits of the heat-box in making skis really fast. In the meantime, I think I’ve learned enough to introduce the service.