Many of the hard core waxers/tuners are talking about and/or building hotboxes. So is that it? Is warmer waxing the answer to Perfect Glide?  How warm should skis be when working on bases and edges? How about when checking base flatness?


Our new hotbox hangs over the top of my work bench.

Temperature for ski work:
As cold as possible for edge, base and structure work- within reason. 35-45 degrees is about ideal. ESPECIALLY if working on base flatness, a cold base is very important. That is the condition the ski will be in when on the snow. If you check flatness when the ski is quite warm, the ski may actually be concave when cold- due to the different expansion rates of plastic and steel.
But WAX as WARM as possible- up to 100 degrees plus. The ski will absorb more wax more quickly, and will be less temperature stressed. Modern ski adhesives are pretty good, but excessive temperature stress (change) may cause them to age quite quickly and fail prematurely. That can mean a delamination, or a ski that loses its "life."  Bad either way.

Here is what I do:
When a ski needs to be cleaned and/or saturated with wax, I try to do as much of the work in 1 sitting as possible. I will wax wash 1 ski (of a pair) 1-5 times (as required) until the wax scrapings are clean, THEN I will wax the ski with the wax of the day while the ski is quite warm. If at home, I pop the warm ski into the hotbox to soak for a few hours. Then I repeat with the 2nd ski.  Done this way, the ski only goes through 1 full heat cycle yet is waxed as many as 6 times.

I will add much more soon...