# Sintered vs. Extruded bases



## suicidelemming (Nov 7, 2010)

I'm just cuirous as to the difference between the two. 

I'm under the impression that sintered bases are faster than extruded bases but why are they faster if my impressions are correct. 

Also, does one base hold wax better than the other?


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## AngryHugo (Oct 8, 2009)

a sintered base will hold more wax, so it'll be faster and require fewer waxings


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## KIRKRIDER (Mar 18, 2008)

suicidelemming said:


> I'm just cuirous as to the difference between the two.
> 
> I'm under the impression that sintered bases are faster than extruded bases but why are they faster if my impressions are correct.
> 
> Also, does one base hold wax better than the other?


And be much more delicate than an extruded one. It's just softer, and takes a scratch really easily.


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## walove (May 1, 2009)

a little quick wiki research

sintering

"Sintering is a method for making objects from powder, by heating the material in a sintering furnace[1] below its melting point (solid state sintering) until its particles adhere to each other."

"Sintered ultra high molecular weight polyethylene materials are used as ski and snowboard base materials. The porous texture allows wax to be retained within the structure of the base material, thus providing a more durable wax coating."


extruding

"extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A material is pushed or drawn through a die of the desired cross-section. " 

think play dough fun factory.

not porous, absorbs less wax, a little tougher.


I have boards with both and i really don't think its a big deal. A dry unwaxed sintered base is slower then extruded one. Both freshly waxed the sintered a little faster. Sintered seems to be more affected by snow conditions, wet, dry ect. Extruded always just works. If you need more speed point it from higher up.


I had an Option with a sintered 7000 base (number relates to density?) with a gallium additive, that was a fast base.


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## calculatedrisk (Dec 16, 2010)

Wikipedia has some good info. 
Snowboard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Donutz (May 12, 2010)

My opinion, based on just having moved to a sintered base this season: The sintered base doesn't give you a significantly higher top speed -- that's limited by other factors like wind resistance. But the sintered base allows you to accelerate faster and allows you to glide farther on the flats given the same initial speed. At the base of Mystery, I can glide right up to the lodge with my new board. With the old one, I came to a stop about halfway up the little hill going up to it.


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

After putting 7 days on an Arbor Element and coming away with 3 core shots, I'll never even consider owning another sintered base. Any performance gains (I haven't noticed any significant ones) are negated big time by the sacrifice in durability.


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## little devil (Aug 18, 2009)

Your never summers are sintered...

Maybe the specific type used was the problem. Not just general sintered style.

I`ve been wondering if you were to get a base grind does that not make the sintered useless. Is it porous throughout the material.

Durasurf is making cash....


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

little devil said:


> Your never summers are sintered...
> 
> Maybe the specific type used was the problem. Not just general sintered style.
> 
> ...


You're right, I brain farted. :laugh:
Sorry, long day. I'm barely conscious.

Not sure what makes the Arbor bases so soft.


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## Triple8Sol (Nov 24, 2008)

http://tinyurl.com/3aj34jd


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## suicidelemming (Nov 7, 2010)

Thanks for the helpful replies. Definately understand it better now. Brain fart on my part not looking it up in google or wikipedia lol. I figured this would be a good place to ask since it's a snowboarding forum.


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## extra0 (Jan 16, 2010)

pawlo said:


> And be much more delicate than an extruded one. (extruded)It's just softer, and takes a scratch really easily.


correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't sintered actually harder/tougher than extruded?...sintered being less easy to fix when damaged. 

Theory being: p-tex candles are the same soft extruded plastic as extruded bases. Therefore, it bonds better to an extruded base than sintered.


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## Hurricane (Jan 5, 2010)

extra0 said:


> correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't sintered actually harder/tougher than extruded?...sintered being less easy to fix when damaged.
> 
> Theory being: p-tex candles are the same soft extruded plastic as extruded bases. Therefore, it bonds better to an extruded base than sintered.


That's what I thought too. My ride antics have the 4000 sintered bases and they take alot of abuse in the woods, better than my last board with an extruded base. Then again I smoked something off the edge of the trail and put a nice big core shot in my 162 a week ago.:thumbsdown: The guy at the resort repair shop did a great job p-texing it but it still looks nasty.


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## KIRKRIDER (Mar 18, 2008)

linvillegorge said:


> After putting 7 days on an Arbor Element and coming away with 3 core shots, I'll never even consider owning another sintered base. Any performance gains (I haven't noticed any significant ones) are negated big time by the sacrifice in durability.


...Or keep a crappy board for the beginning of the season...
But yes...so far 3 scratches on my sint base...in 5 days.
the old extrudedone is still in one piece...after 5 years of riding on it.


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## maybeitsjustme (Dec 1, 2008)

My understanding has always been that the sintered bases were more durable AND held more wax, etc etc.


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## drunkinmonk (Nov 2, 2009)

extrude base more durable hold less wax but can take a beating so if your rough on your board and lazy to wax got with extrude. 
sinster base not as durable, hold more wax but needs waxing more often, faster base


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## Qball (Jun 22, 2010)

Extruded is not more durable. Sintered is harder, faster, requires and holds more wax, harder to repair than extruded though.

Of course this depends on the quality of the base, sintered or extruded.


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## Donutz (May 12, 2010)

Qball said:


> Extruded is not more durable. Sintered is harder, faster, requires and holds more wax, harder to repair than extruded though.


Hm, harder to repair how? None of the vids that I've seen about base repair specify any difference in technique based on base type, and my ptex candles aren't labelled "for extruded base" as far as I know. _Are_ there different candles available? Is the technique different? Pickier maybe?


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## little devil (Aug 18, 2009)

Dunno why, on wiki it says the same thing. Someone like b.a. would be able to drop the knowledge on that.

Maybe its tougher to cut, thus making it harder to repair when you need to cut some out? I have no clue as to why.


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## twin89 (Jan 21, 2009)

I'm almost certain sintered is the harder base. I get many more scratched on my extruded bases than my sintered, and when i drive my finger nail into the base sintered feels much harder. I am pretty lazy about waxing so i normally ride extruded. The extruded base on my Subzero seems to be faster than other extruded bases i have ridden (arbor draft, capita stairmaster, arbor formula), but there was a noticeable speed increase when i rode the Arbor Westmark (sintered base)


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## Qball (Jun 22, 2010)

Donutz said:


> Hm, harder to repair how? None of the vids that I've seen about base repair specify any difference in technique based on base type, and my ptex candles aren't labelled "for extruded base" as far as I know. _Are_ there different candles available? Is the technique different? Pickier maybe?


That's just what I've read from research. My guess is that a repair will bond better to an extruded base.


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