You pro tuners make it look easy!

[Noodler]

You are cutting too deep. Just have the blade take the minimum off and make multiple passes to get the sidewall down. And buy one of these. By far the best and I have owned almost every style!! Vertically and horizontally adjustable and 2 different blades! View attachment 86789

A good sidewall skyver tool will have adjustability so that it can be setup correctly to only cut the right amount of material. Once adjusted to the ski, it's impossible to take too much sidewall because the hard metal edge stops the tool from cutting deeper.

 

[Doug Briggs]

A good sidewall skyver tool will have adjustability so that it can be setup correctly to only cut the right amount of material. Once adjusted to the ski, it's impossible to take too much sidewall because the hard metal edge stops the tool from cutting deeper.

You'd be surprised.

 

[Doug Briggs]

My biggest problem with tuning my skis is if I need to use the sidewall planner. I can’t focus on the knife
To see if it’s set right anymore. Thank god don't need to use much at all, but if you could of heard to cussing last night. Finally got it...sucks when you get that chatter, really hard to get rid of once it starts.

Always test the set of the tool on the tails of the skis where any 'errors' are less noticeable. Also, every ski's sidewall is different: material composition, angle of sidewall, previous work on sidewall and edges. You can practice on one ski and get it totally dialed in and be totally off for another ski.

 

[Lilia]

Heating the base to the edges, and over heating at the edges needs to be addressed.
The edges are a heat sink. With a good base bevel one must focus some heat to the edges. With an edge high ski, one must use caution to not over heat the edges.

Any tips for not overheating the edges? Most wax irons are larger than the ski ...

 

[Atomicman]

You'd be surprised.

I have not found the metal edge to be in the way, shouldn't your tool be set to not hit edge?

 

[Atomicman]

A good sidewall skyver tool will have adjustability so that it can be setup correctly to only cut the right amount of material. Once adjusted to the ski, it's impossible to take too much sidewall because the hard metal edge stops the tool from cutting deeper.

Nope...Less is more!

 

[oldschoolskier]

Take a small soap bar in the pocket, and rub it onto the base?
Might have to try this out tomorrow...steady rain and I have committed to a day trip with my ski club. If they don't cancel it, of course.

Works well the down side it is only good for about 30-40second run. I’d use beeswax rub in and soap only iff need on a day like that.

 

[Jacques]

Any tips for not overheating the edges? Most wax irons are larger than the ski ...

Yea, don't turn the iron up too hot! Most skis are not perfectly flat, so there is that.
Read the wax. Maybe take a look at this video. I do my best to explain it. Most folks don't take the time. Good luck.

 

[DocGKR]

I am very short of spare time right now, so tried to take some skis into a large, well known specialty ski store here in the SF Bay area for a tune. When the repair "technician" did not know what a 1 degree base bevel or a 2 degree side bevel was, I decided against relying on their "services"....

 

[BC.]

I am very short of spare time right now, so tried to take some skis into a large, well known specialty ski store here in the SF Bay area for a tune. When the repair "technician" did not know what a 1 degree base bevel or a 2 degree side bevel was, I decided against relying on their "services"....

Did u walk back into the shop and literally ask the tech?.....or did you just ask a salesman in the front?...(big difference)

Or maybe this high end specialty Bay Area store only exclusively does high end race tunes...and not a plain old uninteresting 1/2.....

 

[DocGKR]

Yup. Salesperson did not know what I was talking about, so went in the back and brought out the "main tech" who was wearing an appropriate apron... If they could not figure out a 1/2 on wide all-mountain skis, they sure as heck are not going to understand 0.5/3 on my race skis...

 

[Jacques]

I am very short of spare time right now, so tried to take some skis into a large, well known specialty ski store here in the SF Bay area for a tune. When the repair "technician" did not know what a 1 degree base bevel or a 2 degree side bevel was, I decided against relying on their "services"....

The Bay Area is good for many things. (Or at least it used to be) Ski tuners is not one! Take your stuff to a shop up in Tahoe or Truckee.
I lived on the Monterey Bay. I loved to ski. That's when I started working on my skis myself at about age 15. I'm much older than that now! You probably heard this before, but folks used to wrap tape around a file to create base bevels. Side edge tools could be had. That said I was not super in the know back then. No interweb was to be had.

 

[jkalucki]

The Bay Area is good for many things. (Or at least it used to be) Ski tuners is not one! Take your stuff to a shop up in Tahoe or Truckee.
I lived on the Monterey Bay. I loved to ski. That's when I started working on my skis myself at about age 15. I'm much older than that now! You probably heard this before, but folks used to wrap tape around a file to create base bevels. Side edge tools could be had. That said I was not super in the know back then. No interweb was to be had.

California Ski Company in Berkeley is an extremely competent Bay Area shop. They do hand tunes, grinds, and will set whatever angles you need.

 

[mdf]

California Ski Company in Berkeley is an extremely competent Bay Area shop. They do hand tunes, grinds, and will set whatever angles you need.

My son has used them and they did a beautiful job.
Unfortunately, depending on where in the bay area @DocGKR is, getting there might take longer than tuning them himself.

 

[Eric@ict]

Hello All, sorry for the long break. 1st, I want to thank all of you who “coached” me thru my first tune. We skied a week and wow what a difference it made. Glide and speed were much better. I did take the m to a shop to get the bases leveled and edges reset after noting lots of variation on edges and some concave. A30pack of PBR I got schooled (again) and was able to watch him run it thru the coolest machine that did it all and then he used a heat lamp machine to apply wax. Heading out in a couple of weeks and waxing again. Thank you all again.