# waxing cleanup



## hardpack (Jan 12, 2009)

Hey everyone,

How do you clean up your snowboard wax after scraping it off? I assume that it would be bad for vacuum cleaners and such, and trying to clean it up off the floor with a paper towel/cloth would probably just smear it in. I was thinking that I should just do it over some newspaper and try to gather it all up from the floor that way. It's cool to throw that wax in the trash, too, right? There's not some environmental legislation-type concern?

In addition to cleaning up, where do you guys wax your snowboards to make cleaning up easier? (And no, I don't have a garage... but there is a backyard...)

Thanks!


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## john doe (Nov 6, 2009)

I wax in my kitchen on a 4ft plastic table. I use soy wax that is sticky so the shavings stay on the scraper until I wipe it off. I throw the wax in the trash because it is just wax. Big plastic drop clothes are stupid cheap at walmart.


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## Milo303 (Apr 6, 2009)

I scrape with my board standing up in my bathtub then just pick the wax up out of the tub with the scraper


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## Satchel Dub (Oct 18, 2010)

I do it in my laundry room. Just lay my board upside down on the dryer, and let the wax shavings fall to the ground which is concrete, then I sweep it up from there. I've heard of people using a vacuum hose and there's no reason wax shavings would hurt it, the vacuum filter should collect it. If you catch the wax with clean newspaper you can save and reuse it, otherwise trash is all good.


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## Milo303 (Apr 6, 2009)

Pretty sure a vacuum cleaner creates heat, and wax melts with heat.... Getting wax in your vacuum filter is an awesome way to burn it up by restricting the air flow. 

Using a vacuum cleaner sounds like a horrible idea


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## Qball (Jun 22, 2010)

I just scrape outside


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## Extremo (Nov 6, 2008)

Scrape it outside...I like to scrape it in the mountain parking lot...no clean up and the wax is dry and cold enough to dust off my clothes without sticking too it.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

Milo303 said:


> Pretty sure a vacuum cleaner creates heat, and wax melts with heat.... Getting wax in your vacuum filter is an awesome way to burn it up by restricting the air flow.
> 
> Using a vacuum cleaner sounds like a horrible idea


most vacumes don't create that much heat and hot air to melt wax

basement on saw horses and shop vac

environmentally, wax is a hydrocarbon...usually petrolumn based


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## Milo303 (Apr 6, 2009)

wrathfuldeity said:


> most vacumes don't create that much heat and hot air to melt wax
> 
> basement on saw horses and shop vac
> 
> environmentally, wax is a hydrocarbon...usually petrolumn based


A shop vac is totally different then a house vac and would def work


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## Tarzanman (Dec 20, 2008)

Scraping does create a mess. I have tried a few different things.

1. Painters tarp. I have an el-cheapo painters tarp that I put down when I scrape. It works fairly well and usually catches 90+% of the wax. Whether you just throw the tarp away or clean it off outside is up to you.

2. Just sweep it up. I scraped on a laminated hardwood floor during the winter when humidity and temperatures were low, so it was very easy to sweep up the wax. There is usually a lot of it, though

3. Scrape outside. Seeing as how the wax is going to end up in the water table one way or the other (whether you dump it, or snowboard on it), then this probably isn't completely horrible.


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## AngryHugo (Oct 8, 2009)

I have a corner in my garage I scrape in. I just sweep the area after each scrape, and then clean it for real in the spring with a scrub brush and citrus cleaner.


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## qwezxc12 (Oct 24, 2010)

I wax in the basement, board upside down on 2 double stacked 5-gal buckets, fore and aft of the bindings. The basement is pretty cool, so after the wax hardens, it's not sticky. When I scrape, I draw down the board slowly with a lot of pressure with a piece of 8" plexiglass - I get almost all the wax off in a 3-4" strip in one pass. Going slow with a decent amount of pressure makes the wax ribbon up in big swathes, so its easy to suck up with a shop-vac. Its cleaner than scraping with shorter, lighter strokes. Then finish with the usual: Scotch-brite, towel, horsehair brush, towel, good to go.


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## Beatlesfan888 (Jul 8, 2010)

take two big trash cans, turn your board over so the bindings are in the trashcan. That way you have a decet place to hold your board and you scrape your shit right into the can


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## ptapia (Dec 1, 2010)

I lay my board down on a cooler, perpendicular, so the bindings catch and I scrape on the balcony. Living in an apartment sucks for work space.

I like the mountain scrape and the trash can ideas. 

Happy scraping boys and girls.


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## Towkin (Oct 14, 2010)

*House Vac*

This will be my 6th season with my own equipment. I wax(ed) all my boards and use my regular walmart cheapo house vacuum to clean it up everytime. The vac still works fine. The wax gets brushed up into the vacuum tube and deposited into the bag. I don't think it spends much time near a heat source. If anythying it may get melted in the vacuum bag, which gets thrown in the garbage anyway.


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## boarderaholic (Aug 13, 2007)

I make a thing layer of newspaper carpet and scrape on that. When I'm done, it gets rolled up and tossed into the recycle bin.


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## shoe757 (Dec 6, 2010)

Get a girlfriend. Trust me, makes clean up 100 times easier when someone else does it.


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## hardpack (Jan 12, 2009)

*Thanks!*

Hey, lots of good information here, thanks to everyone who replied! I really liked the trashcan idea and the on-mountain idea, and the only way my girlfriend is likely to help in cleaning up my mess would be to poke me until it gets done


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## DuncanShea (Feb 2, 2008)

To _greatly _reduce the amount of wax shavings, try using waxing paper. Amazing how much less you have to scrape. I used the Swix. Toko looks more economical.


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## Milo303 (Apr 6, 2009)

shoe757 said:


> Get a girlfriend. Trust me, makes clean up 100 times easier when someone else does it.


Ace reply haha


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## shifty00 (Oct 17, 2010)

Anyone try to keep the shavings to melt back down to use for like a base cleaning wax? Been thinking about doing that, just using an old small pan to melt it in.


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## ptapia (Dec 1, 2010)

shifty00 said:


> Anyone try to keep the shavings to melt back down to use for like a base cleaning wax? Been thinking about doing that, just using an old small pan to melt it in.


I keep everything that doesn't hit the ground. I recently got into doing my own maintenance and it seemed to be widely accepted that doing a hot scrape is one of the best ways to clean the base when its really dirty and grimy. A lot of people don't like base cleaner, so I figured I would save up shavings and give it a shot.


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## EagleTalons (Oct 10, 2010)

wrathfuldeity said:


> most vacumes don't create that much heat and hot air to melt wax
> 
> basement on saw horses and shop vac
> 
> environmentally, wax is a hydrocarbon...usually petrolumn based


I use saw horses and a shop vac too. Makes cleanup a breeze!


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