Hi @DavidSkis,
Yes, the snowglide cost a fortune. Way more than my first year of university tuition. My local ski tuning shop (shameless plug – Denver Sports Lab – best tunes in the front range) charges approx $25 for an edge sharpening using a (I believe) trimjet. Less with season tuning pass. Incredible result with little material removed.
However, travel time - it is an hour round trip to the shop. It really came down to a time / cost trade off. I can sharpen my edges in less time than a trip to DSL.
Number of sharpenings to break even: I know, I’ll never break even, but my edges are sharp every time I want them sharp – i.e. every time I go skiing. This is not just for race skis, but all the skis in our house. I sharpen approx 2 times a week.
If you ski in the TO area (Caledon, Mansfield, Osler, Blue, Craigleith, etc) – you know you need sharp skis. Especially after the Ontario powder gets scraped off by 9:15. I once was told the true definition of ice while skiing - when you can see the cigarette package on the grass through 5" of Ontario's finest racing surface.
I believe your cost for each tool is probably spot on.
Ski Racing had an article on some other tools in 2016:
https://www.skiracing.com/premium/man-vs-machine-is-a-handheld-edger-right-for-you
I can’t speak for any of tools except the snowglide but I will do my best to address your points.
Quality of tune: The first time I saw a live demonstration of the snowglide was Alex Martin tuning Ted’s skis at the Head race house the night before the 2015 world championships men’s GS. I assumed it gave a pretty good tune as it worked out ok for Ted.
Speed of use:
Deburr edge with ceramic stone – 1 min per ski
I usually check / remove material with a sidewall planer – especially if the ski has a metal layer above the edge (seems like most of my skis have this) = couple of minutes per ski.
Snowglide set up – about 2 minutes because I don’t want to drop it.
I usually move the machine at approx 2-4 cm/s, while grinding, along the length of the ski. You can go much faster than this.
Usually 2 passes per side – 3 if I’ve managed to hit every rock on the hill (a skill which I seem to have gotten better at with time). I usually wipe the base between passes with a paper towel – more on dust later.
So about 10 – 15 minutes per ski – I’m still a rookie with the machine. One of my ski buddies does about 6 – 10 pairs of race skis a couple of times of week in a couple of hours per session with his snowglide. He has years of practice.
Safety:
The tool produces a lot of very very fine metal dust (think fine flour or icing sugar). This is a big concern for me. I use a respirator with P100 particulate filter. I have a shop vac with a HEPA filter and dustbag to clean up my workbench and to remove dust from the grinder. I put down magnetic sheets on my workbench to help capture the metal dust generated by the grinder. I do have snowglide dust vacuum attachment but need to get that rigged up.
The machine collects a lot of dust too. The manual says to keep dust away from the power supply and from the motor. I use the shop vac and a small paint brush to clean the snowglide.
Some photos to illustrate:
magnetic sheets to collect dust
Dust from base from one grinding pass
Dust on magnetic sheet
Better wear gloves - just touched the edge while flipping ski over
Ease of use: Since the tool rests on the ski base and the grinder wheel tension is spring loaded (which controls the grinding wheels’ force against the edge) it’s pretty fool proof. I tried it out on an old pair of rock skis and after practicing on only one ski, felt confident to tune up my main go to skis.
Material removed: very little. Much much less than using a file. I can’t really put it down to hard numbers but I would bet it removes 1/3 less material to produce a very sharp and grippy edge. The edge grip is very nice on refrozen manmade snow.
Quality of construction: The tool is rock solid with a metal frame and is surprisingly heavy. But it rests on the ski so no wobble.
I'm sure this muddies the waters. Best of luck.
Yes, the snowglide cost a fortune. Way more than my first year of university tuition. My local ski tuning shop (shameless plug – Denver Sports Lab – best tunes in the front range) charges approx $25 for an edge sharpening using a (I believe) trimjet. Less with season tuning pass. Incredible result with little material removed.
However, travel time - it is an hour round trip to the shop. It really came down to a time / cost trade off. I can sharpen my edges in less time than a trip to DSL.
Number of sharpenings to break even: I know, I’ll never break even, but my edges are sharp every time I want them sharp – i.e. every time I go skiing. This is not just for race skis, but all the skis in our house. I sharpen approx 2 times a week.
If you ski in the TO area (Caledon, Mansfield, Osler, Blue, Craigleith, etc) – you know you need sharp skis. Especially after the Ontario powder gets scraped off by 9:15. I once was told the true definition of ice while skiing - when you can see the cigarette package on the grass through 5" of Ontario's finest racing surface.
I believe your cost for each tool is probably spot on.
Ski Racing had an article on some other tools in 2016:
https://www.skiracing.com/premium/man-vs-machine-is-a-handheld-edger-right-for-you
I can’t speak for any of tools except the snowglide but I will do my best to address your points.
Quality of tune: The first time I saw a live demonstration of the snowglide was Alex Martin tuning Ted’s skis at the Head race house the night before the 2015 world championships men’s GS. I assumed it gave a pretty good tune as it worked out ok for Ted.
Speed of use:
Deburr edge with ceramic stone – 1 min per ski
I usually check / remove material with a sidewall planer – especially if the ski has a metal layer above the edge (seems like most of my skis have this) = couple of minutes per ski.
Snowglide set up – about 2 minutes because I don’t want to drop it.
I usually move the machine at approx 2-4 cm/s, while grinding, along the length of the ski. You can go much faster than this.
Usually 2 passes per side – 3 if I’ve managed to hit every rock on the hill (a skill which I seem to have gotten better at with time). I usually wipe the base between passes with a paper towel – more on dust later.
So about 10 – 15 minutes per ski – I’m still a rookie with the machine. One of my ski buddies does about 6 – 10 pairs of race skis a couple of times of week in a couple of hours per session with his snowglide. He has years of practice.
Safety:
The tool produces a lot of very very fine metal dust (think fine flour or icing sugar). This is a big concern for me. I use a respirator with P100 particulate filter. I have a shop vac with a HEPA filter and dustbag to clean up my workbench and to remove dust from the grinder. I put down magnetic sheets on my workbench to help capture the metal dust generated by the grinder. I do have snowglide dust vacuum attachment but need to get that rigged up.
The machine collects a lot of dust too. The manual says to keep dust away from the power supply and from the motor. I use the shop vac and a small paint brush to clean the snowglide.
Some photos to illustrate:
magnetic sheets to collect dust
Dust from base from one grinding pass
Dust on magnetic sheet
Better wear gloves - just touched the edge while flipping ski over
Ease of use: Since the tool rests on the ski base and the grinder wheel tension is spring loaded (which controls the grinding wheels’ force against the edge) it’s pretty fool proof. I tried it out on an old pair of rock skis and after practicing on only one ski, felt confident to tune up my main go to skis.
Material removed: very little. Much much less than using a file. I can’t really put it down to hard numbers but I would bet it removes 1/3 less material to produce a very sharp and grippy edge. The edge grip is very nice on refrozen manmade snow.
Quality of construction: The tool is rock solid with a metal frame and is surprisingly heavy. But it rests on the ski so no wobble.
I'm sure this muddies the waters. Best of luck.