skin care

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ben_mtl
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Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2008 1:47 pm
Location: Sherbrooke, Quebec
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skin care

Post by ben_mtl »

I'm talking about climbing skins of course !

So here is my problem : I have some dry mud spots on the plush side of my climbing skins (from last year). As I'm working on the skins to get them reglued I was wondering if any of you had some ideas on how to clean the plush side of climbing skins. So far the skins are (amlost) glueless so I want to get rid of the dry mud fore I reglue them... And I'm in a kind of a rush as the season is almost started :p
I tried with cold water + rubbing with my fingers -> nothing !

Thanks for any help !
Ben
A bad day skiing is always better than a good one at work...
pauli2k
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Post by pauli2k »

Get some baking parchment paper at the supermarket. This stuff has a lot of uses, and here is just one other. Tear off a piece a bit wider than your climbing skin. Lay the skin flat on a CLEAN work surface, plush-side-down and glue-side-up, and pick any obvious twigs/grass/cranberries/Snickers-wrappers out of the glue before proceeding. Preheat your waxing iron to about 1/2 or 3/4 max setting (I set my Swix iron to 120 C). This will be a somewhat cooler setting than you use for waxing. Make sure to wipe the iron clean of wax residue with a paper towel once it warms up. Lay the piece of parchment over one end of the skin, pressing it lightly against the glue, and then use the iron to heat the paper against the glue. Pretend like you are waxing and use mild pressure with circular movements to heat the glue under the paper. Do this for about 20 seconds per parchment paper section.
It's easy to tell where you have worked since the parchment will get semi-translucent as the glue wakes up.

Lay the parchment over the next section of skin, overlapping maybe half an inch and repeat the process. Do this down the whole length of the skin, reusing the same piece of parchment unless it gets dirty or gummed up. Hang the skin to dry and cool completely. It probably even makes sense to put it in a cold place like outside before applying cheat sheets or sticking it to itself since the glue may be as aggressive as it was when new. You can store your skins with parchment attached or rejuvenate them repeatedly using this technique. Happy ironing.
rockaukum
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Location: Placerville area

Post by rockaukum »

Interesting. I was just about to purchase new skins.
1) Looking forward to seeing any ideas on cleaning the skin side as mine have traveled over all kinds of stuff.
2)the revival of the glue really works? My glue is quite gummy now.
3)How did you remove the old glue so you would be able to apply the new glue?
Great post....
ra
ben_mtl
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Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2008 1:47 pm
Location: Sherbrooke, Quebec
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Post by ben_mtl »

For the revival of the glue I used almost the same technique as pauli2k except I used the waxed paper sold with the skins… it does a good job when the glue is not too much “contaminated”.
I didn’t find a proper solution to clean the plush side of my skins but I went for a few down patrol at the local ski hill and it seems like skinning on icy corduroy has kinda cleaned them !

To renew the glue I went with the glue sheets from Black Diamond. To remove the old glue I went the “brown bag” way first but It wasn’t very effective, only very few glue was sticking to the paper, so I took the waxed paper sold with my skins (the one I used to use for “reviving” the glue), heated the glue with the iron and used a metal scraper to gently scrape the glue off the skin. It was a bit messy at first but I think I did a very nice and clean job !
Just followed the instructions to apply the new glue and they look like new !
Overall, the glue renewal process was done in 2 evenings, heated glue stinks and I’m not sure it’s that great for your lungs and you fingers are gonna be sticky for a couple days… Is it worth it ? I don’t know but it was definitively cheaper than buying new skins !

Oh yeah another thing, When I first got my skins (BD nylon skins) I used the cheat sheets and found out it was a big mistake ! it leaves small pieces of black plastic everywhere when you unfold them. I don’t know it the G3 cheat sheets do the same.. would be curious about that ‘cause folding skins glue against glue, especially with new glue, makes it a pain in the a** to unfold ! I now do with house gutter covers (plastic screens fo avoid having leaves filling the gutters) but it’s bulky and doesn’t fold well, it’s OK to store the skins at home but when on the mountain it’s not a great option.

Good luck !
A bad day skiing is always better than a good one at work...
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