Eastern Powder Ski's

So, did they work, and how were they? Show everyone proof that your ride was a success (or even a complete failure)!

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tonyt
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2005 8:36 am
Location: Halifax Nova Scotia

Eastern Powder Ski's

Post by tonyt »

I tried out my new home builts this past weekend and was very pleased with the results. First some details 125-92-115 with 8mm camber, they are a 21metre radius ski. The core is 9mm thick at the center and tapers to 2mm at the tip and tail, they are fairly flexible but not dissimilar to my Dynastar Big Fats for flex. The core is poplar, sidewalls and tip fillers are UHMW, the layup is 8 biaxial+18oz triaxial then core then 18oz triaxial and then 8oz texalium which is visible through the topskin of clear p-tex.
By the way texalium is just aluminized fiberglass so that it looks like silver carbon fiber.

We had typical Eastern Blue Powder, which makes really good drinks but won't cover the steel edge on a powder ski. The amazing thing was that they carved nicely on the hardpack and never let loose on the ice. These skis were not made for these conditions so I'm really looking forward to a backcountry trip out West in 2 weeks to test them out in appropriate conditions. My daughter is at Whistler and finally got bindings for hers so she is skiing perfect conditions for them right now. She telephoned from the top of Spanky's to inform me she loved her skis. I understand she stuck Armada stickers on them so they don't look home made.

The skis were made using MAS epoxy and pressed at about 12 psi in a vacuum press. I see no indication of delamination even though I carved them hard over ice on the weekend.

Once I figure out how to upload my pictures to a website I'll post them, I'll try and get some photos out West so I can show how they really work.

I used 1.2mm clear Durasurf as the topskin and my one disappointment is that it is hard to see through to the nice fabric underneath.

Do you think it is the extra thickness that makes it so opaque? I ended up coating the durasurf with a clear coat in order to make the topskin more transparent but I'd rather have a much clearer topskin. This stuff seems strong though
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hose-man
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Post by hose-man »

Nice tonyt! Sounds like a great success. Looking forward to seeing those pictures.
kelvin
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Post by kelvin »

Nice! I'd like to see pics too.

The p-tex top is not very clear. We are using thinner ptex for the top and it is more translucent than transparent. One thing that helps is to spray armour-all on it. It's not permanent, but looks good for a while.

-kelvin
tonyt
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Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2005 8:36 am
Location: Halifax Nova Scotia

Post by tonyt »

kelvin wrote:Nice! I'd like to see pics too.
Here are a couple of pictures,
Image

Image


Tony[/url]
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bigKam
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Post by bigKam »

sweet looking skis!
kelvin
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Post by kelvin »

Too bad the texalium doesn't show through better. Still looks great though.

Is the texalium only cosmetic or does it have different physical properties? Where did you get it?

-kelvin
tonyt
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Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2005 8:36 am
Location: Halifax Nova Scotia

Post by tonyt »

kelvin wrote:does it have different physical properties? Where did you get it?

-kelvin
The Texalium is used in a lot of commercial skis because it covers up the cores and provides a nice surface, I decided to use it because the triaxial glass that I have access to is 18oz. I noticed that the +/- 45 fabrics were the same as the 23 oz cloth that you guys are using but the longitudinal fabric was 5 oz lighter. The texalium and the glass I used on the bottom were both 9-10 oz biaxial so that gave me the 5oz I wanted and also put some transverse fabric in which I think makes sense as the ski gets wider since the edge loads are getting further from the center of the ski. As far as properties go it is only fiberglass so the aluminizing of the cloth is purely cosmetic. The material comes from sollerpaddles.com. They supply some pretty interesting material and he is the best mail order place I have ever bought from. Always ships the day of the order and sends copies of reciepts,insurance and waybill by email. They sell a range of carbon and fiberglass sleeves which I notice K2 wraps the core in to make a torsion box out of the core. They also sell coloured fiberglass and carbon/kevlar fiberglass tapes in a variety of thicknesses.

I am going to try a ski without a topskin because the epoxy that I use is very clear and provides a nice surface with the tex fabric. I wonder what materials ski manufacturers are using to provide such a transparent covering.
woodi
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Post by woodi »

My concern with having no topsheet above the epoxy would be that epoxy is not really uv reistant at all. It will break down and virtually disappear with a lot of exposure to the sun. We had a few wooden canoe gunnels we coated in epoxy but never got around to varnishing and within a year of being outside they looked like nothing had been done to them at all. I would say if your just gonna use epoxy throw a good clear coat on top and that should fix the uv problems.
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