Help with wax ridge between slate issue

gatorcc

gatorcc

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have had an issue that last 3 years or so where a small ridge of wax forms between two pieces of slate. Each time this happens I have had to have someone come out, remove my cloth, scrape the wax then reinstall the cloth and rails. Is there anything that can keep this from happening? I thought it was do to a temperature change but this year the room that it is in has been averaging 70 degrees all winter. I hate to keep paying $100+ to get it fixed each year. Any ideas?
 
Happened to my garage table here in Southern California. I thought about insulating the bottom of the table, alas being lazy I never did it. Just a thought.
 
I had the same type of thing happen to my table. It's in the basement where the temperature range is controlled.

My theory.... I ran a dehumidifier to try and keep the table as fast and springy as it could be. I suspect the conditions were such that the wax dried, over time, and developed flakes and particles. With the balls rolling over the seam, it would accumulate the loose particles and create bigger pieces, which then would create more loose particles and the process accelerates. And if you have even a tiny step between slates, eventually, you get a ridge. Another contributor to the wax particles was chalk through the cloth.

I most definitely will be using bondo next time.
 
Alright guys, I don't even know why I bother answering any more but this will make since to all of you when I explain it. Wood expands and contacts with the level of humidity in the air...OK. Now, put the slates all together, level them up....don't glue the slates together to keep the seams LOOKED to each side.....the FRAME grows in length, and shrinks in length with expansion and contraction....got it? Now, when the frame contracts, shrinks...the frame pulls the slates together at the seam....squeezing the wax up out of the seam, and for all you that suggests bondo is the answer to stop this action from happening....you're wrong...Rob....the slates will still move unless they're LOOKED together, proof of that is when you take the table apart, pull the slates apart....and notice that nice little 1/4" wide piece of slate seam that broke away from the sharp 90 degree edges on both sides of the seam....leaving you that nice little ditch at the seam that requires more bondo to fill it in the next time it's assembled.....CLASS OVER.
 
gatorcc said:
I have had an issue that last 3 years or so where a small ridge of wax forms between two pieces of slate. Each time this happens I have had to have someone come out, remove my cloth, scrape the wax then reinstall the cloth and rails. Is there anything that can keep this from happening? I thought it was do to a temperature change but this year the room that it is in has been averaging 70 degrees all winter. I hate to keep paying $100+ to get it fixed each year. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Take a deep well socket, lay it across the seam of the slate. Take a small board or something flat that you can lay across the deep well socket, then press down on the socket with the board and roll the socket back and forth the length of the seam, that'll press the wax back down into the seam.
 
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