Skin Re-Glueing

You can now drop your skins off at 2nd Wind Sports in Hood River to be reglued. The cost is $40 and you will normally have them back within 3 days.

sounds pricey, a bottle of glue is like 5$, and paper bags are free.

The few shops around the country that will even do it charge $30-$40. A can of Black Diamond Gold Label Glue costs $12.95 and will do 2 pairs of skinny skins. If you just want to save money, do it yourself. My service is for those who don't want to hassle with it themselves.
Wishing you a Happy New Year and many good backcountry adventures in 2007.

Just did three pairs of full coverage fat skins last night with 3/4ths of one $12 bottle. If you remove all glue it's usually like 1 1/2 cans per pair, but that isnt really necessary just to renew the sticky, a single thin layer usually does the trick.

Are you guys just using can of Gold Label or have you ben able to order bigger batches from somewhere? I've been trying to find skin glue by the gallon but gave up on it. I make my own skins, and sometimes make for others so I use a lot.

Jerm, you make your own skins? That sounds like something I'd like to try. Where do you get the raw materials?

I was able to buy 54" wide fabric by the yard from a place in Idaho (owf-inc.com) awhile back, they emailed a few months ago telling me there was more available but I didnt order any. I still have enough for ~2-3 pairs. The problem is that the fabric comes unlaminated, meaning it doesn't have the cotten backing that the sticky glue soaks into. So you have to laminate it yourself, and finding the laminate glue is hard. I got lucky, my old boss knew someone at a company called Bemis, which makes the stuff. It is basically a 5 mil polyurethane sheet. I was able to get a 10 yard sample free, but I dunno if I'd be able to pull that off again.

Another, much easier but more expensive option would be to order a bullk roll from Coll-tex. They sell 30 meter rolls complete with sticky glue, you just have to cut to fit and rig a tip/tail kit (which is super easy using brass grommets and some nylon cord). I think these come out to around $60-70 per pair, whereas the other way is less than half that but much more labor intensive (although there is a side benefit: applying two cans of gold label will get you high as a kite). Trick is finding a Coll-tex dealer that will order it for you.

There is a new company called climbingskinsdirect.com that has the price down to under $90/pair for fat skins. That isn't bad considering new Ascensions will run you close to 150. Seeing that their skins are grey, and the Coll-tex roll is grey (at least on the Colltex site) it may very well be the same stuff. That isnt much of a profit margin, I hope they can swing it.