An exercise in frustration... (reglueing skins)

[Telenater]

Damn that sucked. Now I know why some people just buy new ones.

Maybe it gets easier with practice.

[bossass]

Nope it always sucks. Try drugs next time.

[fez]

no matter how good you are at fixing your own junk or how much you like it, there are some things worth paying a shop for.

re-gluing skins is at the top of that list.

[Idris]

Naaa...Pain in the but the first time but not so bad seccond time....Cleaning the old glue off is always more of pain than re-guling IMHO

[The Jackamo]

well look at it this way - at least you didn't have to kill the horse, too...

[G]

I used the Iron-on strip from G3; It was a piece of cake.

[cj001f]

Anything that involves a 6pack of beer and handy work in the garage isnt a pain in the ass.

[Schralper]

Anything that involves a 6pack of beer and handy work in the garage isnt a pain in the ass.

Exactly! Plus you git ta sniff glue!!

[SchralphMacchio]

This thread deserves a bump.


Because on these purple ascensions from CSD with some thick-ass decomposing not-so-sticky glue I have ... the paper bag strips don't peel off jack shit and this shit is frustrating!

The paper strips take up maybe 3% of the actual material that's on the skin. What they *are* good for is heating up the glue enough where you can take an old credit card and scrape the goo when it's heated up. But it's all very time consuming. Not hard, but a bit messy and damn time consuming.

I got 90% of the way and the remaining glue residue on the skins is clean, tacky, and not gloppy in most places ... gonna clean up the last few patches of firm thick stuff real soon and then reapply BD Gold Label in *thin coats*. I think that's the key for a good glue job, nice thin and even.

But yes, I will now dry my skins off and take good care of them. And then I won't bother with this reglue business when they are shot again

[hemas]

The paper strips take up maybe 3% of the actual material that's on the skin. What they *are* good for is heating up the glue enough where you can take an old credit card and scrape the goo when it's heated up. But it's all very time consuming. Not hard, but a bit messy and damn time consuming.

Forget paperbags... old linen (ie. cotton) t-shirts, bed sheets and whotnot are about 15000 % more efficient.

[blissard]

Never did it myself - although my BD skins look like they might need a workover.
A recent thread on that tele forum looks useful: http://telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=54177

[neck beard]

I just painted some of that BD gold glue onto my skins. Three coats with 60mins drying time between each. Then left them for 24 hours. I didn't remove the old glue. 50 days in an they still stick like new skins. Perhaps it will go downhill from here, but it was easy and worked really well for me.

[StroupSkier]

How would you go about cleaning the skins before reglueing them? I've got some garbage on the base of mine along with some wax.

[hemas]

How would you go about cleaning the skins before reglueing them? I've got some garbage on the base of mine along with some wax.

Glueside or furry?

If furry, forget about it.

If glue... well, no biggie if you plan on removing the old stuff. If planning on just adding GoldLabel... well, I'd suggest taking some off 1st (to get rid of the garbage).

[StroupSkier]

It's on the glue side. I'm not really sure how to get the previous glue off either.

[hemas]

I'm not really sure how to get the previous glue off either.

Either put some linen cloth evenly on the glue, or use heavy paperbag material. Add heat to the paper/linen with yer waxing iron. When the linen/paper seems to have soaken fully, rip it off. Repeat until desired amount of glue is removed.

[Mulletizer]

Heat is your friend when trying to get the old glue off. I've used a specialised tool (like a soldering iron with a spatula attached) which made the process pretty easy. Coltex sell one. Also used a heat gun on low setting with a metal ski scraper. Had to be careful not to melt the skins but also worked nealy as well.

For cleaning up the fur side, I've found that reproofing them with water repellant skin spray pulls a lot of dirt off as you brush it in.

Dirt and fluff on the glue is relative. If it is not affecting how badly the skins stick then there's no reason to worry about it.

[Huckin eh?]

no matter how good you are at fixing your own junk or how much you like it, there are some things worth paying a shop for.

re-gluing skins is at the top of that list.

I got mine done by a very experienced techie and they still sucked.

I am in the camp of just buying new ones now. I get about 3- 4 seasons out of a set of skins at the mo.

[SchralphMacchio]

I seriously just neglected the hell out of mine. Only one season on them, but I had little pebbles, pine needles, wax chunks and I left them soaking wet folded up in my pack so many times that after a few hot spring touring days they just stopped sticking basically. Oh well, lesson learned!

[XXX-er]

check out that TT.com link from snowdoghenry ,he seems to have alot of good ideas in there he really gets down to all the really fine points of how-to ,I have it bookmarked

ferinstance i have read a ton of re-glueing threads but i didnt know that just like the iron on glue you have to heat brush-on glue AND the iron has to be a certian temp which is hotter than a real wax iron can go so you need a clothes iron for the job .

You gotta let the glue dry and all the solvent evaporate from the skins

cover the plush with painters tape so you don't get glue on it during the process

http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/vi...=751280#751280

[huckster989]

I've done a pair of BCA low fat skins with BD glue renew and had one sking go real easy. used the old paper bag and iron method to remove old glue it peeled right off in one clean sweep, the other one would not come off and was a total pain in the ass. After they did get clean I painted on the new glue did several layers and scraped the extra off with a plexi scraper and they turned out great. Not too much of a hassle but if the alternative is $100-$200 for new skins its at least worth a try.

And you do get to have a legit reason to sniff glue

[SchralphMacchio]

wow thanks for that link XXX-er ... that's quality. While playing with the iron and paper strips last night, I figured that heating the whole skins up after the solvent has evaporated from the glue would be a worthwhile final step ... big problem is that I have no transfer paper.

Maybe I can just glue something like 3 coats and use paper bags to heat at the end and try not to soak them with glue rather than just to smooth out and heat up the glue on the skin?

I think that last heating step will leave a super quality glue job, just wondering what other materials besides transfer paper will get the job done ...

[XXX-er]

I wonder if a roll of coated heavy duty freezer paper would work or is that stuff wax coated ???

for what its worth I have never done regluing but I DO recognise a good write upwith all the suttle nuances ... easy shit is never really easy

I am going to do my buddies skins ... just to pop my cherry

[El Chupacabra]

The commercial dry cleaner method suggested on TTips sounds like the easiest way to remove the old glue.

I wonder what the dry cleaner will say...

[SchralphMacchio]

XXX-er, the heat and scrape method seems like it will always be most effective at glue removal. It seems that there is a big discrepancy with the effectiveness of the paper-bag iron method as evident in posts in this thread and the ttips thread ... I think due to variation in glue formula, thickness, and decomposition.

re: freezer paper ... maybe, but to be safe it's probably a good idea to iron it slick side down on a newspaper to see if any material comes off. I'm guessing it's the polymer coated papers that can withstand high heat, I don't know of many waxes that can get that hot and stay firm.

Maybe a glossy cereal box would do the trick ... I might have to experiment. Of course one downside is that I end up with the Lucky Charms leprechaun permanently imprinted on my skins