Did you call MEI? They make these blankets fast, less than two weeks delivered.

Check the links tab on skibuilders main page.

-S

Symmetry is the key to success. The day you receive the P-tex, split it down the middle and set it aside to relax. You will be surprised how much it moves over time. Ignore this step if making a snowboard. Make sure your template is symmetric. I usually hand shape one half of the template using 1/4&...

Vertical. There really is no grain in bamboo. The boards are comprised of many rectangular strips of bamboo turned on edge and glued together. These strips are cut from the tubular shaped bamboo shoots. Each strip is approximately 16mm x 5mm in cross section. The strips are stacked together and glue...

The QCM resin is rather thick and cannot be pumped. The QCM curing agent is easily pumped with the West Systems pumps or similar. You need to get a nice digital gram scale so you can zero it out (tare). A postal scale could work, albeit not as well unless it has a tare function. I use 5-oz paper cup...

Kingswood uses bamboo for their cores: www.kingswoodskis.com I am currently building two pairs of skis using vertically laminated bamboo. I started with 6 foot flooring planks that were 16mm thick. A box of the stuff cost $60 and will make eight skis, so it's rather cheap. My cores have black UHMW s...

This is kinda interesting:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=GdpMAA ... dq=2406628

We're all messing around with sixty year old concepts (mixed with space-age materials.)

-S

Search eBay for "pid temperature" Any of these units for $40 or so are great for our needs. The included thermocouple is not suitable however. Nor is any imbedded thermocouple in your silicone heater blanket IMHO. I simply taped a type K thermocouple from Omega --> http://www.omega.com/Tem...

Finally found the perfect tape for protecting both the base and top sheet during heated ski pressing. 3M automotive painting tape, type 233+ It can handle 250 degrees F and peels off clean and easy! I press at 40 psi and post-cure bake at 185F for a few hours under pressure. This tape peels off perf...

MEI makes a great product. Our blanket arrived within the quoted delivery date and functions exactly as expected. We had a type K thermocouple embedded within the blanket near one end. Had to carve out a groove in the wooded ski form to accommodate the bump where the TC is. Fortunately the TC bump p...

Pressed our first pair of phat powder skis today. We chose QCM epoxy after reading the interview with Roy W. posted on the Ski Builders web site. Dealing with Josh E. at QCM was a pleasure and he really encouraged this project and offered many useful bits of info. We bought EMV-0043 epoxy and ECA-03...