climbing skins

[loafskibum]

anyone have the beta on re-gluing skins? any thoughts on what a 62mm skin would be like on a ski 105mm under foot?

[skiyak777]

Repost from last spring:
Went through the regluing process today (hung my skins on the shower rod to dry and the cat got a little too close and would up dragging one around the house) and here's my take:

1) Remove the fabric strip down the center of the skin.

2) Skip the paper bag/iron method of getting the old glue off, which made a big sticky mess. Get a heat gun ($30, well worth it) and a 4 inch paint scraper. Warm the glue and scrape it off in multiple passes until you just have nylon remaining.

3) Apply glue (Gold Label from Black Diamond) using a 1 inch brush. The little brush that comes with the can is useless. If you have the paper that came with the skins when they were new or something equivalent it will save you a lot of effort. Brush the glue on thick (1 can will cover 1 pair of skins) and let it dry overnight. It will stink up your house and it says on the can that it contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer, so open the windows.

4) After the glue drys, apply the release paper (you didn't throw that away when you first got your skins, did you? Next time save it...) shiny side to the glue. Using your ski iron set on 135 F (clean the wax off) go back and forth over the release paper until the glue and fabric are warm. Apply enough pressure to smooth out any irregularities in the glue. Let the skins/paper cool for about 10 minutes and peel off the paper. For me, the glue looks smooth and shiny and is well bonded to the fabric, pretty much just like it did when I first got the skins. It would be nice if I had another fabric strip to put in the center of the skins to make them easier to get off the skis- maybe next time.

[buckets-o-balls]

any thoughts on what a 62mm skin would be like on a ski 105mm under foot?


They will work okay if you're going straight uphill. If you need to traverse (and you almost always will at some point in a trip) you will be putting most of your pressure on the edge of the ski that is not covered with skin and you will slip backwards. I'd get some wider skins.

[RR]

They will work okay if you're going straight uphill. If you need to traverse (and you almost always will at some point in a trip) you will be putting most of your pressure on the edge of the ski that is not covered with skin and you will slip backwards. I'd get some wider skins.Exactamundo!

[loafskibum]

thanks for the beta!

[bobpratl]

It would be nice if I had another fabric strip to put in the center of the skins to make them easier to get off the skis- maybe next time.

Has anyone tried a one inch wide ribbon, as a replacement for the fabric strip, when regluing skins?

[TuaGuy]

Repost from last spring:
Went through the regluing process today (hung my skins on the shower rod to dry and the cat got a little too close and would up dragging one around the house) and here's my take:

1) Remove the fabric strip down the center of the skin.

2) Skip the paper bag/iron method of getting the old glue off, which made a big sticky mess. Get a heat gun ($30, well worth it) and a 4 inch paint scraper. Warm the glue and scrape it off in multiple passes until you just have nylon remaining.



4) After the glue drys, apply the release paper (you didn't throw that away when you first got your skins, did you? Next time save it...) shiny side to the glue. It would be nice if I had another fabric strip to put in the center of the skins to make them easier to get off the skis- maybe next time.Wow, thanks for the tips. When I stripped the spruce/fir/hemlock/pine/moss/dirt mess off my BD Accensions, I left the cloth strip in place, using a pro grade painter's putty knife with a top beveled edge. The thought was to use blue painter's tape and trim the roll to size to cover the cloth center. If I use your 135 degree iron approach to set the glue, maybe it wont affect the release of the painter's tape, which at 90 degrees is still pretty low release. Any thoughts? As to lost release paper, I didn't know about the iron procedure you described, and after reading your post I realized that roofing bituthane release paper is pretty close to the same stuff as skin paper, and you can follow any competent roofing crew in the northeast and pull yards of it out of their trash. (I know it's the same stuff they use for release on contact cement, so it's pretty anti-grab). Any thoughts would be appreciated, as I'll probably tackle this one in a week or so (sans furry animals). Thanks for the tips on the VOC's; I'll glue 'em up in my shop, so the brain cells affected are my own. God knows, I've destroyed enough from other more fun practices; hopefully I won't miss the ones at risk this time.

[icelanticskier]

if ya use yer skins carefully ya should be able to get 5 or more years out of em b4 needing to reglue and at that point the grippy side will probably be worn enough to need new ones anyway. i use mine at least 40 days a season or more and keep em for years with never a reglue.
i got some i can sell ya-you buy now!
rog

[skiyak777]

if ya use yer skins carefully ya should be able to get 5 or more years out of em b4 needing to reglue and at that point the grippy side will probably be worn enough to need new ones anyway. rog

Maybe I'm just careless (getting wax in the glue from inadequate ski scraping, using them for mud/stream crossings so the glue soaks up water, skinning over bushes with them, using them as first aid supplies or to catch small rodents by putting peanut butter on them) or maybe its the cat's fault, but I've ruined the glue on several pairs of skins. I hate it when they fall off mid-stride on a steep traverse and I topple over. I'd much rather pay $15 for a can of new glue than $160 for new skins. Reduce, reuse, recycle I say.

[icelanticskier]

or just use em for the intended purpose and save yerself the hassle and fume sucking. i'm anal though and don't even ever get snow on the glue side if i can help it. wjhen living in the wasatch the skins go on and of at least 10 times per day so being careful is very important.
rog