How to Hot Wax Your Snowboard

In this instructable I will show you how to refinish your snowboard by waxing it. Please take it easy on me, this is my first instructable.

You will need a few things for this....
1. Kerosene
2. Rags
3. Snowboard Wax
4. Iron
5. Plastic Scraper
6. Scotch brite pad
7. Workspace

You can clean the board's base with kerosene, like I did, which seems to work fine, or you can try to track down some base cleaner.
If you are using the kerosene be EXTREMELY careful because it is very flammable! I would suggest using rubber gloves to keep the nasty smell off your hands. First pour a little kerosene on a folded up rag. A little bit goes a long ways so don't use too much. Now just pretty much scrub away with the rag and clean off the board as good as you can.
Once you are done with this part, get a dry rag and wipe over the whole thing to be sure the kerosene is off. I would let the board sit for a while before proceeding to the next step (to ensure there is no kerosene left on the board).

This is where the fun starts. A little tip I heard was that your bindings may make a small indentation on your board, so loosen the screws, you don't have to take them clear off, but loosen them enough to take off the indentations... Start off by setting your iron to the "cotton" setting. If when you start ironing the wax, the iron starts to smoke, turn the temperature down (use an iron that can be specifically for waxing your board as it will be ruined for everything else). While it is heating up, set up your work bench. I used two tool boxes set apart far enough so that my bindings could fit between them. Also I suggest putting a sheet or newspaper on top of table to stop drips from getting on the table. Once it gets hot, hold the iron above your board a few inches, not too high though or else the hot wax will splatter everywhere. Go in a zig zag pattern over the whole board, except the very ends. Try to focus getting the most wax on the edges because that is probably where you need it the most. It is o.k. to use a little too much wax. If you use too much it will require more scraping but it is better than having to rewax your whole board because you put too little.

Now that you have your wax dripped on your board, you will need to smooth it over the whole board. Keep your iron on the same setting and begin to iron the wax just as you would a shirt or pants. Be sure to spread the wax over the whole board. You want to go very slowly and apply almost no pressure, and keep the wax smooth, when the wax begins to get clear and glassy then it is beginning to absorb into your base, which is what you want... When you think that it is spread good, let the board cool for 15-20 minutes before proceeding to the next step.

Now that your board is good and cooled, take the plastic scraper and go at it. This does take some work, you pretty much want to take off all the wax that you can. I would set up a fan to blow the shavings away from you, something I didn't think of until I was done. You will notice that the more you scrape the smoother the board gets, this is what you want. Once you are done scraping take the scotch brite pad and go from nose to tail in long strokes across the whole board. Sorry I don't have more pictures for this step but my camera stopped woking :(

Thanks for reading this instructable, if you have any questions just comment and ill try to answer the best I can.