It's 18mm MDF (like 3/4" I think), pretty standard thickness in Australia. I see what you mean about the centre suction maybe causing a warp. I think the easiest for me would be a cap the same diameter as the hole with 4 slots in its sides matched up to the channels radiating away. It's good ha...

On my jigs the channels are 5mm deep and cut with a ball end cutter so they have a semi circular channel. I got the idea from Kingswood. There's looked like they started out cutting the grooves by hand then went to CNC. They look to have reduced the amount of grooves they use over time to just have ...

Copy of post from my journal: After a nervous moment wondering if this idea would actually work with our household vacuum cleaner I am pretty confident it will be a success! Base material jigs were cut with CNC to create a groove for the router bit to run in against the desired shape outline. On the...

After a nervous moment wondering if this idea would actually work with our household vacuum cleaner I am pretty confident it will be a success! Base material jigs were cut with CNC to create a groove for the router bit to run in against the desired shape outline. On the "island" created in...

A few pics of the "research" trip to Japan! My friend Benny testing out his new PM gear Lhasa pows (poach ninja special edition) http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4031/4393779699_8695a987fb.jpg My girlfriend Bridget in the trees. Real powder skiing breakthrough this trip for her. Not sure who...

A bit more progress before and after a nice 2 week trip skiing in Japan. I have had tip and tail molds CNC cut by a local CNC service. It has worked out OK I think. Didn't start out that well when the first sheet of MDF actually caught on fire when allignment holes were bored through. The wood was g...

Finding clean pieces of wood wide enough for ski cores is more difficult/expensive, hence lamination. Horizontal lamination leaves the adhesion between pieces of wood in the plane that sees the most force when the ski flexes. Horizontal lamination would be prone to delamination and create another la...

not true I don't think. If the bottom beam deflects then the bottom of the layup will conform to this deflected shape. If the top beam deflects the top of the firehose will conform to the deflected shape, but because it can inflate it will conform still to the top of the layup and will apply even pr...

thanks Chris
that vertical laminate unfinished flooring at the top of the page looks great.

has anyone tried routing bamboo cores? it seems like the fibers in the bamboo might screw up that option.

You can rout it.
Kingswood skis shape their cores with a router and bridge. Their finished cores look pretty nice.

I got it from a supplier called Crikey Bamboo out in Mt Waverley area. The stuff I have is floorboards that are vertically laminated. They are however varnished which is a bit of a pain. The boards are 15mm thick, 1.9m long and 150mm wide. The same bloke said with a 2 month lead time it would be pos...

Hi chris. It's from a company called Colan Australia.

They must have just got tired of bending edges and routering the sidecut!
I guess straight skis worked for a long time. Square tip is pretty extreme - you would think it would grab a lot it pow turns unless the rocker kept it floating all the time.

Practice for the edges I reckon but I'd say all the clamps help too!

Hi Everyone. Have been thinking a lot about ski building and design lately as everyone starting out (and I imagine those well versed too) seems to do. I have two thoughts about possible designs that might be stupid or revolutionary. 1. Concave bases - people say skiing powder is more like skiing on ...