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Sauna as a Hot Box?



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 8th 04, 03:55 AM
Hank Garretson
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Default Sauna as a Hot Box?

A friend has been using a health club sauna as a hot box for his skis. Has
anyone else tried this? Does it work? Is it safe?

Ski Exuberantly,

Hank

Mammoth Lakes, Calif.








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  #2  
Old March 8th 04, 10:08 AM
Terje Mathisen
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Default Sauna as a Hot Box?

Hank Garretson wrote:

A friend has been using a health club sauna as a hot box for his skis. Has
anyone else tried this? Does it work? Is it safe?


How hot should the box be? Anything up to about 140 C is relatively easy
to generate.

A sauna like mine is a well-insulated, made to give relatively constant
internal temperature at a given height above the floor.

As long as you place something underneath your skis to avoid damaging
the sauna with wax residues it should be OK.

Terje

--
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"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
  #3  
Old March 8th 04, 01:42 PM
Hank Garretson
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Default Sauna as a Hot Box?



As long as you place something underneath your skis to avoid damaging
the sauna with wax residues it should be OK.



Ciao Terje,

Spoken like a true Finn--more concerned about the sauna than the skis!

73,

Hank



Ski Exuberantly,

Hank

Mammoth Lakes, Calif.








  #4  
Old March 8th 04, 05:10 PM
Terje Mathisen
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Default Sauna as a Hot Box?

Hank Garretson wrote:

As long as you place something underneath your skis to avoid damaging
the sauna with wax residues it should be OK.


Ciao Terje,

Spoken like a true Finn--more concerned about the sauna than the skis!

Maybe I can be an honorary Finn?

I have built several saunas over the years, and spent quite a bit of
time in them a well. In my student days I might even have _averaged_ an
hour/day or more. :-)

Terje
--
-
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
  #5  
Old March 9th 04, 02:42 AM
Gene Goldenfeld
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Default Sauna as a Hot Box?

Nat Brown's recent newsletter had a Q&A on this:

Hotbox temperatures

Thanks for including me in your newsletter. I built a wax box for less
than a $75. It works great! After reading your newsletter I have two
question. I keep the box at 140 degrees when in use. However, several
years ago Steve Poulin wrote a article in Master Skier stating the base
material will not except wax until it reaches a temp of 220 degrees for
several minutes. So why does 140 degrees work in the box?

Secondly, I've read Start green and blue waxes are plastic. Does this
mean putting this type of wax in the box for several hours is a moot
point, or is it better to shortly adhere it to the base and scrape warm?
- Douglas Diehl

Thanks for the note. I'm glad to hear you were able to build a box so
cheaply - now you've got money left over for gold knobs, or something.
Peter Hale (Madshus) suggests I add a tanning bed to mine...

I translated an article a few years ago from research done by the
Norwegian Sports institute (alas, I had a computer melt-down, and lost
it, or I'd send you a copy) which underlined what I've found by
practical experience, and Zach Caldwell has shown as well: that wax is
absorbed even at low heat, when it is not fully molten.

The Norwegian research showed that wax is absorbed by time /
temperature. The lower the temp, the longer the time needed. Wax
continues to be absorbed into the amorphous part of the base, at
astonishingly low temperatures, because even though waxes seem hard -
especially the cold ones - they are plastic, and do migrate, if the word
can be used.

My personal experience was that even at circa 60 C (or perhaps a bit
higher - I have lost the records) Rex Green was absorbed so well that
after a week of skiing in very abrasive snow at -20? C, I was the only
person on the team with almost no "white spots" on the base. Everyone
else was re-waxing daily. I'd ironed it on, then left it over-night in
the box, in a non-molten state. (Melting Rex green in the box would ruin
the bases, and delaminate the skis.)

I spread the wax on with the iron, never over 130 C, and usually at 120,
moving the iron very fast and over a thick layer of wax (rubbed on, then
dripped on), then pop them in the box. That's all. I do not think there
is any reason to think that skis need to be heated higher at the start.
The Toko portable heat blanket is also at a very low temp.

I keep my hotbox at 155-157º C.


Hank Garretson wrote:

A friend has been using a health club sauna as a hot box for his skis. Has
anyone else tried this? Does it work? Is it safe?

Ski Exuberantly,

Hank

Mammoth Lakes, Calif.


 




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