Bees wax alternative

[Club Billiards]

The wax from Mueller's is weird it melts to easy and crumbles when you scrape it off with a razor blade knife. Not a big fan of thier wax I just tried for the first time on the last 4 tables I did it worked but took 4 times longer to work with, it acts like it doesn't want to stick to the slate new or old. This is why I think Bondo is still best less of a hassle to work with but both do have the good and bad points..


Craig

I've never tried the Meuller wax, but is there a chance the wax was so brittle because it's so DAMN cold out?!?! I usually have no problems, but this time of year it's always a little harder to work with, since most of the time we're either delivering a new table or moving one, the slate is being transported and is cold. You have to scrape it a lot sooner to get it to come of without chipping like that. Just a thought.

 

[n10spool]

Thats what I have been doing but it just feels different then this other wax I was buying in huge blocks, I was thinking maybe the heat from the torch was wrong. I did find heating up the slate worked good and just warming the wax worked good on removal of the excess. Maybe room temp has alot to do with it?

If FIXALL was as good as it's name imply's we wouldn't need bondo and wax right ......lol

Craig

 

[mechanic/player]

I like the blue sticks the best,in the past I have made my own by mixing Mueller's wax and the blue sticks , it works really well for me, but they are kind of messy to make so lately I just use the blue sticks and keep a block of it with me for when I have to fill screw holes.

I will add a few tips and maybe someone will beneift from them, prep your joints before you set the slate on the table,(remove wax,bondo or plaster from previous set-up)this allows the slates to fit together tightly and keeps the mess off of the table top.

As said earlier pre-heat the joints prior to applying the wax, wait until the wax just starts to set up and scrape it off slowly and evenly with a stiff scraper/razor blade, not a flexible one, a flexible one flex's and will create waves, a stiff one does not flex at all and will work alot better. Sometimes you have to do them several times before they are perfect.

When you finish off a screw hole with wax, fill them first, then do your joints because you will wait several minutes for that little puddle of wax to set up.The screw holes can be a beech to finish smoothly sometimes, if your having trouble try over filling the hole just a bit, then heat up your scraper and let the hot scraper cut thru the wax, this finishes them off smoothly,instaead of it breaking off roughly. Hope this helps.