Just wanted to know of a variety of ways to remove surf wax to do repairs. Lighter fluid, name brand wax removers? Thanks
- Warm wax 2. Scrap the bulk of it off (steal something appropriate from the drawers in the kitchen) 3. White Spirit to get rid of the thin layer of wax that’s left behind 4. Flour (plain or self raising - you choose) by the handful to bring the board up to a brand new glossy shine 5. Admire board and wonder why it can’t always look like that 6. Bury it under three slabs of base wax and see that lovely shine disappear once more (Best not do this on the living room carpet)
Ahm, I generally scrape off most of the wax, do the filler and such, then sand the area and clean carefully with acetone and a clean white rag ( acetone is a solvent for some dyes) before glassing, doing my best to make sure no acetone/wax sludge gets into the ding, which is damn near impossible to get out. Cleaning up the wax in the area with solvents before filling and such, well, seems like I always get some wax crud in the repair itself, which is no fun and usually involves cutting out foam and glass and all that I wouldn’t need to otherwise. This lets me have a temporary non-stick surface outside the repair ( so any spilled or excess, dribbling resin doesn’t need to be sanded off) though it’s kinda hard on the sanding discs- I go through a lot of them. Overall, it’s a timesaver and the discs I use for dings are cheap enough that I think I come out ahead. hope that’s of use doc…
I use Coleman fuel or charcoal lighter fluid after hot sun bake & scrape. Watch out for some of the acrylic spray finished boards especially if using acetone.
Warm the board, scrape off as much as you can, sprinkle common flour on deck, use paper towel and a little effort. Non-toxic, inexpensive.
If its a cold day, heat some water on the stove, use a big pot. A credit card, movie watcher card or costco card work good as scrapers, then for the residue; foam dust; flour what have you. Not to plug a product, buttttt, the magic pickel works really good for getting rid of that residue wax. Its just foamdust in two layers of pantyhose, so you could make it easy if you’re so inclined.
use your credit card… kill two birds with one stone.
Does the flour just kind of just help pick up/collect the wax? I have never heard of this tip. Thanks Herb Bean
It sticks to any wax residue thats left after step one. It forms a little crust. Hard to explain…give it a try.
Flour or baking soda is the preferred method after a good bake and scrape. I once tried a product called Chief Firewater wax remover…worked great but was way expensive for the job. Anyone out there know what the active ingredients in that stuff are???
Firewater was some bad stuff, thats why it is not out there anymore. I use Corn meal. Not Corn starch. but Corn meal. I used acetone one time and some of the acetone ran off the rail and formed a drip on the bottem of my board. It set there for awhile before I got around to getting it off. The acetone drips took off the gloss coat. Flour, Corn meal, lets keep it green. At least for some part of our dirty o zone killing sport.
Used to be an acetone base, kinda like nailpolish remover, now a citrus base, like some of the more environmentally friendly degreasers. hope that’s of use doc…
I use an angled riser pad from my longskate as a scraper works a treat and nice to your board because it is quite soft urethane. It also has a variety of sides. I go generally for hot water and old rag to get the residue off.
One side of most wax combs are made to scrap wax off the board. So even have a rounded area for the rails. The wax comes off real well if it warm. After you scrape 95% of it off all you have to do is take one of the legs of your gals worn out hose and fill it with foam dust and tie the ends off. You can use it the strip off the remains bit. No muss, no fuss ~ it works like a dream. Better to make a loaf of bread with the flour or corn meal IMHO. If you have to get it all off a paper towel with the some acetone on it will leave the surface completely wax free but you really don’t need any sovents to clean the board up if you just want to clean it up and surf it. I always keep a wax comb and the nylon bag of foamdust in my back pack to clean any excess wax off the bottom of my board before I paddle out. It only takes a few seconds and the bottom is clean as a whistle. Good Surfin’, Rich
yeah, wax needs to be warm, sun best plus just sand rubbed in. I love the way aboard left in sun, wax melts an all the dirt in the wax comes to the surface. Crazy pattaerns but time to get rid of it all!
Halcyon nailed it. Step one is scrape with wax comb. Step two is the pickle. The pickle is just nylon hose filled with sanding dust. And you’ve probably been throwing that sanding dust away!!! Pack it in there, and use it on the board like a big bean bag. http://www.blakestah.com/fins/
Easiest way is to forget to take your stick out of the car after a morning session in July…by 4:00 you just have to scrape off the little wax stalagtites hanging from the bottom of the rail…“Honey, what are all these little grease spots on our new driveway?”
I’ve found WD40 to work best… Just final clean with a dish soap to remove the oil. Whamo-squeaky clean.
mineral spirits
i like using an off cut of polyurethane foam to get thet last bits off try it!