An exercise in frustration... (reglueing skins)

[AsheanMT]

I just finished scraping off the old glue.

I thought it was pretty easy. I just used a single piece of thick paper and heated up one spot at a time with my wax iron. Once hot I just moved the paper down to the next spot and scraped what I just heated with a metal scraper. Like 90% of the old glue came off the first time. Went back and did it again with a fresh piece of paper. Then I soaked em in citrus base cleaner and scrubbed them up real good until everything was off. Soaked em in hot soapy water to get rid of any base cleaner residue and then hose them down in the shower with hot water. Hung them up to dry and they came out great.

Took about an hour to do both. I must say that the 5 dollar dry cleaner deal sounds pretty good but it really wasn't that bad.

Now I'm a little worried about re gluing. Did such a good job cleaning them I want my gluing job to come out just as good.

Will report back.

[GeezerSteve]

I reglued my orange BD skins two weeks ago.

Skimmed the dirty and fir/hemlock needle contaminated top of the old glue. Did not attempt to remove all the glue. Used heat gun and plastic scraper. Anchored each of skin in tension while scraping. Removed est. 40% of old glue. Remaining old glue was very clean and free of fir/hemlock needles. (Might have had some Whitebark Pine and Lyall's Larch needles in there too).

Painted on Gold Seal glue, spread with plastic scraper.

Let dry 24+ hours

Ironed with parchment paper from grocery store, "wool" setting on iron

Let dry 48+ hours

Packed with cleat sheets, being certain that glue was not sticking to cleat sheets

Did 2 subsequent tours of 4000 and 5000 verts, 6 skin cycles

Folded glue-to-glue inside my jacket during skin laps

Stored on cleat sheets immediately at end of trip. Always hang dry before storing. Always store in cool place (basement gear room) on cleat sheets between trips.

100% successfull regluing job. Same procedureI've done several times before. Glue is staying put on 100% of skins. Sticky as hell, maybe better than new.

ETA: I removed the BD black girl strips from skins long ago. Need all the glue surface I can get with our wet PNW mid-winter snow and dirty spring corn

[mtb]

Andrew McLean had some good info here: http://straightchuter.com/2010/01/glue-renew-guru/ , including having a dry cleaner remove the old glue!

[SchralphMacchio]

I just read up on some great advice for using transfer sheets:

Use an empty wine bottle as a roller to smooth down the glue surface as much as possible. After ironing on, and while the glue is still hot, roll the wine bottle over your skin as firmly as possible. This ensures a good transfer to also smooths out bubbles or clumpy areas.

Wish I had read that one before tooling around with transfer sheets this morning and not getting the iron hot enough or the surface smooth enough!

[AsheanMT]

Well that worked out very well. I think the key to success is to make sure you've cleaned them up real good before applying the glue. I followed this video in as far as applying the glue. The end result was a glue layer that was much thinner than the layer of glue on a new pair of skins. I was aprehensive that I had used enough glue (1 whole can of Gold Label) but I threw them on and did 5k yesterday without any problems.

Next time I do it I'm wearing a respirator.

[SchralphMacchio]

Yes, definitely do it with a respirator ... though it probably still won't filter out the toluene that will fuck with your body.

I did a really fine glue job last year, spreading it thin etc - but it seemed to wear out pretty quickly because I had spread it so thin. After using G3 transfer sheets, I've got to say transfer sheets are 100 times better than gold label glue.

-No brainfuck VOCs
-Way less mess
-Super smooth transfer if you use a good iron and the wine bottle technique described above
-Good to go once the skin is cool, no need to wait 24 hours or whatever

You can also apply a transfer sheet over the existing glue if it's not to globby/kneaded/knotted/dirty etc.

[wooley12]

In June, after I re-glued some old skins I was given, I wondered about storage. A newbie, I had never had seen a real cheat sheet. None here in Central NY except for web pictures. Sure looked like the "pet proof" screen I had just installed. The left over 6" X 84" pieces were enough for two pairs of skins. Stored for 6 months folded in the basement with no problems. A 48" X 84" roll is $25.

[AsheanMT]

In June, after I re-glued some old skins I was given, I wondered about storage. A newbie, I had never had seen a real cheat sheet. None here in Central NY except for web pictures. Sure looked like the "pet proof" screen I had just installed. The left over 6" X 84" pieces were enough for two pairs of skins. Stored for 6 months folded in the basement with no problems. A 48" X 84" roll is $25.

I lost mine and made a new one from duct tape.

[wooley12]

How do you make a cheat sheet form duct tape? Does the non glue side release OK? Is a left handed monkey wrench or sky hook needed?

[GeezerSteve]

I've got to say transfer sheets are 100 times better than gold label glue.

Did you iron in the GL glue with parchment paper?

[SchralphMacchio]

Did you iron in the GL glue with parchment paper?

That's part of the problem ... who saves their original backing sheets or has extra freezer paper lying around to really set up a nice glue job? It comes with the glue renew transfer sheet. I know that it is possible to get a very good glue job with the gold label, but when you compare the amount hassle between the two I just don't see a reason for the gold label.

Again, no toluene with the glue renew sheets:
[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toluene[/ame]