Since I'm using the masonite as my mold (nothing underneath it in my vacuum bag) anyone have ideas on how to do a better job of pre-bending it? Basically I need it to hold it's form on it's own once I remove it from the jig. My method was to steam it over a pot of boiling water for probably 20 minut...

Good solution! The other part of my problem though is that I'm using it in a vacuum bag as my form so I need it to hold it's shape.

Well, I sucessfully bent a test piece of masonite this week. I had it ready to go for a test layup which I ran into a problem with (plywood doesn't bend to easily...). Anyway, I let the piece of masonite sit for a few days while I was working on some other stuff and I noticed last night that it's lo...

Sorry to hear about the shifting. Did your core just slip up on top of the locator?

Are you using the same method to bend your masonite that you've used to prebend your cores? I think that was you that steamed your cores and let them set in a jig right? Do you have any photos of the bending process? Thanks again. I'm pretty close to bending and want to make sure I'm using a good ap...

What material do you guys use for your top and bottom molds in your vacuum bag setup? I think that I'd like to use the same method as you for vacuum bagging my skis but I don't want to spend a ton more money to make it happen. Are you just using masonite?
Thanks!

I'm in the process of testing out my vacuum pump before I do a dry run with my bag. When I plug the line for like 2 seconds I start to see something that looks like smoke coming out of the oil fill/exhaust opening. It doesn't smell like anything is burning and the pump still seems to be working fine...

I'm going to be doing my first layup in the next few weeks and wanted to get some quick advice from those of you who use vacuum bags to press your skis. I'd really like to use inserts since I have a history of breaking skis and pulling bindings out but I am a little concerned with keeping the core a...

I gave the vacuum table a test run tonight on a core that I had previously given up on since it was so uneven and I was worried about getting a flat surface to work with. The vacuum worked fantastic. The core didn't budge one bit. I also experimented between side to side and front to back profiling ...

I would guess that they did something like BigKam did with his pallet project? Here's the link to that thread: viewtopic.php?t=810&highlight=pallet
It seems like as long as you staggered the joints a bit the ski should still have some good strength.

That's my damaged core that's just used for testing now. When it sucked up into the router, I ended up putting a hole all the way through it. It already had some significant damage that I was going to try and put some extra work into salvaging... not after the latest round of damage.

Well, I ended up trying the Hot Glue and still ran into a couple of problems when I got down to a very thin core. I decided late this week I was just going to take a shot at building a vacuum table. I kept it pretty simple, just build a small box out of 1x1/2's and a piece of scrap 1/4 inch siding f...

Thanks for posting that site. I really haven't done any reading about using the router since it seems like such a basic tool (I know, unsafe assumption). So it sounds like i've been doing a few things wrong. 1. I need to do a better job of keeping my core down it sounds like the best options are tap...

Nevermind, I just found your post that has some details. I'd still be interested in seeing a few photos if you have them available.
If anyone else is interested, i found the post here: http://www.skibuilders.com/phpBB2/viewt ... m+profiler

So what's the setup look like for a vacuum profiler? Do you have something that slides along as you go over that spot? Or do you just basically have a kind of trench that runs the length of the core?
Do you mind putting up a couple of pictures or explaining in a little more detail?
Thanks!