What if you use washers of various sizes to build those rollers? Washers will work. After I saw Skeviks' video w/ the edge bender I had to have one. I have been using an tube bender ($15). I cut a small groove in it to hold the edge but it was still awkward to use and the steel edges tend to twist ...

When I made my first skis I started with a 1/4inch piece of plywood an used that as a spreader. I wasn't sure if the epoxy was working into the fiberglass enough so I went to using my hands. That worked well but now my hands are cover in epoxy. Yes I was wearing gloves. But when I had to mix more re...

Is a pallet rack the hd racks that are used in big box strores like Home Depot? That sounds interesting. There's many styles of presses here in the forum. I don't think I've seen a press built from pallet rack material but I have seen one here built using steel/aluminum trussess. Check 'em out by do...

Thank! I couldn't have done w/o this forum and all the knowledge people who experimented before me. I already have a list of tweaks and improvements to start on. First is a new planer crib the gives a better profile. My current one doesn't taper enough making the skis extremely stiff. Had the skis c...

Blandford Ski Area, if I put bindings on them. I'm making a pair for their 75th anniv. More as a commemorative piece but would like them to be skiable. I joked that if they sucked we could mount them over the fireplace and if they were really bad we could through them in the fireplace.

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated. I will try your suggestions over the next week. I found a great video the other night. I should have stopped and took the time to try it out before pressing. Live and learn.. ... http://www.vimeo.com/6523899 I will definetly tune the lay up process and the co...

I am finally an official ski builder. I pressed my first ski yesterday. :D I wish I could say it came out the way I had it pictured inmy mind :( I'm looking at this ski sbuild as a learning experience. Not sure if they are worthy of bindings or not but I may put some on just to learn how. I had plan...

Remember the groove down the middle of the bottom of the ski? What was that supposed to do? Wonder if that will make a come back. Other gimmicks that come to mind - the damping weights K2 puts on some of their skis, or the little oil shocks (these are also functional, but again... how noticable to ...

I've always wondered the same.... If you had a blind test of different ski manufacturers w/ skis that were generally the same dimensions if the avg skier could tell the difference (aside of being soft or stiff) whether one ski had a wood core, foam core, fiber glass or carbon, etc. I thought when th...

Nice setup! I like the way you're supporting the cat track. Great idea! I'm going to try the same thing. I bought HD bungy chord and it works good but it doesn't pull up enough of the cat track at the same time. I'm going to thread some wire into my cat track so the bungy chord pulls up more of the ...

I like the pics! A good organized shop doesn't really need to be big, but like you say it helps. I spent a good part of the weekend cleaning mine and I can actually walk in it with out tripping over stuff. ;) Now that my epoxy has arrived I'm bound and determine to get my first set of skis made by t...

Yeah! My epoxy arrived from QCM today! I have all my material now to start pressing. I hope by the weekend to have pics of some new skis. Wish me luck! Woo-Hoo!

Looking forward to seeing the pics. Hope it all goes well. Good luck.

The wood is OSB (oriented strand board) plywood in sheets of 3/4 x 4 x 8. Don't use partical board. No problems so far. I tested the deflection on it and it deflects under 1/8 inch (about 3 mm) which is acceptable for me. If I were to do it over, but still use wood beams, I'd use something like glue...

Nice looking board. I like the top veneer sheet. I think the wood look is going tomake a come back. I plan on making skis w/ wood veneer topsheet. Nice job!