Angus Morrison
The Eggbar.
I have officially been in Colorado for twenty years now. Working as a ski tech for more than half of them, I have used many, many different vises to wax thousands of skis and snowboards. So it goes that I like to keep all my boards hot waxed and ready to deploy.
Most ski vises are poor in quality and break or fall apart after a season or two. I have never used a vise that I would write home about until now. If you’re a ski tune fanatic like me, I suggest you take a look at the Eggbar.
The Eggbar vise can be mounted to almost anything. Mounted to a station board, the vise comes to life in a mobile, professional quality ski vise. I recommend mounting to a board so the vise can be clamped to any work bench, table or even a truck tailgate. Also the set-up could be switched from right to left handed. Storage options include being stored upright or on garage rafters.
Aluminum slider tracks offer instant adjustability to perfectly fit any length ski. The slider tracks offer the tail piece clearance for the wax build up that occurs over time during the tuning process. The tail piece slides right off to clean the board of the wax build up.
The subtle curves and unique geometry grab the ski tip and hold it like magic. Holding the ski firmly for the roughest scrape job you could dish out or detailed edge work from a day on the rocks. After two months of use at the ski shop, the grippy rubber bumpers on the ski side edges hardly show wear.
The Eggbar is a proud Montana USA made product. You can see the craftsmanship and quality materials from the first glance. This vise is strong, tough and simple, words to live by in my opinion.
In short, the Eggbar Vise H.O. adjusts instantly, can be mounted to practically anything and holds the ski securely — the perfect tool for the serious home practitioner or a small ski shop. The ease of use will have you tuning till the wee hours if you’re not careful.
I have been giving it a go for the past couple months and don’t want to return it. All in all, it’s my new vice.
20 comments
Agree, best vice out there, hands down.
It’s an elegant design; haven’t yet gotten to try it out. How much does the bar get in the way of waxing the ski’s shovel?
Charlie, you can set the ski over the tip holder and the rubber friction stuff holds it pretty well for that final shovel work… but with the tip in there it’s super solid and super fast.
except when you want to wax to tips and tails?! Hassle factor of not being able to make full length passes with wax, scraper etc??
At $300, it’s way overpriced for an old DIY concept. There are better designs out there.
The Eggbar looks nice and I think it has been reviewed here before. But checkout the Beast vise too, it works great for waxing, scraping, brushing, buffing and setting both side and edge angles; Beast makes great side angle, base angle, and sidewall trimming tools too! [I have no connection to Beast other than being a satisfied customer after having bought disappointing vises (not Eggbar), angle tools, and sidewall trimmers.
Would this vise work as well for skinny (40-70mm) cross country skis?
Well; scrape the excess wax off your skis if you must, however, I have given up on this messy practice. I just dribble a small amount of wax the length of the ski (using and old laundry type iron), and, then iron it on to the entire bottom of the ski. Add more wax if necessary.
I didn’t invent this method, and, I know that many folks do this. Surprised that it hasn’t been mentioned before. Still I would appreciate a ski specific vise for tuning skis. My old workmate isn’t the best.
Waxing without scraping well enough can destroy skin glue. Learned that one the hard way when the wax came off with the skins.
I’m far less persnickety about scraping when I know I’ll ski lifts before I skin again.
My current “ski vise” is a small piece of plywood, a short section of line, and some hardware to secure both ends of the line to the plywood. Support the tip and tail with whatever is handy. Clamp the plywood to the workbench under the binding. Run the line from the plywood, through a some part of the binding (for D’fits I run it through the crampon slot) and then back to the plywood. Tie it with a little tension to keep the ski from shifting. Tune ski.
I don’t doubt the Eggbar or other vises work better, but the above system works for me.
Charlie, fyi with Contour skins you can use wax remover to clean wax off the skin glue. Lou
Come to think of it, you could probably just tie the line to the clamp. I only use a piece of wood because I’m using a sailing clam cleat with a fairlead so I don’t have to tie knots.
I made a shallow u shaped ski holding jig out of 2×10 and drywall screws that I chuck in the workmate, i cut slots in the ends to hold the ski or board on edge which only need to be high enough(10 “?) to clear your bindings, if the ends are about 45 ” apart the jig will hold any Alpine ski or snow board, tie the ski down in the middle, the jig will cost you <10$
Ski racers remove every bit of wax with scraper & power brush for the fastest skis
For years, I have been rubbing wax on the ski bottom, then ironing, brushing, and buffing. Not messy, and seems to work just fine.
Toko makes a great vise for alpine skis – but it fixes using the binding, so it’s no good for dynafits. For that I use their snowboard set up, which is friction based, like this, plus, you can put the skis on edge.
Does the Eggbar work with rocker ski’s as well, or is the tip device to narrow for that?
I have used the Eggbar vice in a professional setting, in they come from. They work better than any other vice at accommodating any kind of ski or snowboard. Other than that, they don’t do anything else very well. The tip of the ski tends to catapult out of the vice while scraping tails, edge work is less precise, and you can not wax the tip of the ski at the same time as the rest of the ski. Granted the tip of the ski doesn’t really need wax in most instances, storage wax is pretty much it. It still is annoying. I always recommend these to people with xc, alpine, and AT set ups so they don’t have to have two different TOKO vices.
Best vise ever is 2- 12 in long 4×6 mounted to the bench covered with old inner tubes and with a groove cut in each one at a tiny angle. Costs almost nothing and works with skis and snow boards. Easy to use for filing side and base edges too.
Vanessa, I use something similar for mounting and other types of work such as cutting skins, combined with a cinch when necessary. I like something like the Eggbar for waxing and flat filing. More vice!
@ XXX_rr – would you be able to mail me a picture of your setup? trying to do something here in my basement that is cheap and works: pharaoh (at) vtxmail.ch
thx!