big ear snowboards' cloth press

Document your personal work here. Show photos, movies, and share your secrets.

Moderators: Head Monkey, kelvin, bigKam, skidesmond, chrismp

WhitePine
Posts: 141
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2010 10:27 am

Post by WhitePine »

Ah. Gotcha. Thanks.
User avatar
shopvac
Posts: 160
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2008 2:23 pm
Location: Colorado

Post by shopvac »

Our skis are holding up fine. My brother and I still ski on the 2nd and 3rd pair of skis we built back in 2008. We have never used heat on any skis and press anywhere from 40-50psi. Never had a delam or really any other problems. The cloth bag ski press works fine if you do your homework.

I would personally build a press like Mongo if I were to do it again. They don't weight that much, cost that much (compared to buying I-beams from a steelyard at full price), or deflect very much. Kingwood has a nice press too as well as a bunch of other folks on here. Not trying to take away from the cloth as they do work and are relatively simple. Montucky is the man for sewing those up too!
User avatar
chrismp
Posts: 1443
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:00 am
Location: Vienna, Austria

Post by chrismp »

here's my ride for this season. it's a 156 true twin with 7.8m radial sidecut and a hybrid rocker/camber profile (3mm camber in between the bindings and 4mm rocker outside the bindings).
core dims are 2.8 - 6.8 - 2.8 mm. i used 400g uni and 320g biax glass on both sides and some carbon strips running in a v-shape from the insert packs towards nose and tail on top of the core.
sidewalls are made of polyurethane resin.
the topsheet is regular plotter paper printed on an epson 2100/2200 inkjet. i seal the underside of the paper with a few coats of white acrylic paint to stop epoxy from seeping through and after pressing it gets a couple coats of 2k poly varnish.
the base is a clear base that i painted with black and white acrylic paint (i was pretty lazy on the base graphic).
i started doing edges that extend just a bit over the contact points instead of a full wrap and i'm really happy with it. makes edge bending soo much easier and i couldn't notice any difference in durability.

some pics taken on my cell phone after two weeks of heavy park abuse:

Image

Image

Image

Image
rockaukum
Posts: 558
Joined: Fri Nov 03, 2006 9:23 am
Location: Placerville area

Post by rockaukum »

Got a question on the base. You said you painted with an acrylic paint? Is that all there was to it? Any problems with it? If you wouldn't mind giving a bit more detail on the process and the results that would be great! I've got a bit of clear base and Just don't like the way it looks clear.
Thanks much,
ra
User avatar
chrismp
Posts: 1443
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:00 am
Location: Vienna, Austria

Post by chrismp »

basically yes, that's all there is to it.
i just went to the hardware store and bought regular water based acrylic varnish. i even had them mix some custom colors.
then i thinned the paint with a little water and painted something i thought looked cool with a brush. let it dry for a few days and that's it.
you could also apply the paint with an airbrush and do some really complicated graphics.

i've done some more sophisticated paintings with this method as well...but i don't have any photos of that on my hard drive.
User avatar
chrismp
Posts: 1443
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:00 am
Location: Vienna, Austria

Post by chrismp »

this is a board we built for a friend as a birthday present.

Specs:
155cm overall
118cm running length
25,4cm center width
29,7cm tip/tail width
7,8m radius
true twin shape
paulownia core with beech under the bindings
core profile 2,5 - 6,8 - 2,5 mm
6mm camber between the bindings and 5mm rocker outside the bindings

as usual the topsheet was done on my epson 2100 inkjet printer on sihl true color 130 matte paper and coated with white matte acrylic paint on the back so the epoxy doesn't seep through and tints the graphic.
the base graphic is hand painted with matte acrylic paint on transparent base.
sidewalls are 95A polyurethane resin poured into a channel routered into the core.
the topsheet is protected by a 2k polyurethane varnish (two coats applied prior to cutting the flash to apply some initial protection and another three coats after cutting it out).

here's some crappy cell phone photos:

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

this is the base attached to the aluminum cassette along with some parchment paper to keep everything clean. you can also see two inserts superglued to the base acting as core locating pins.

Image

Image

Image

Image

and finally the top graphic in all it's beauty. the guy we built the board for is a huge fan of the comic and tv series "the walking dead". the base graphic is a tattoo he has on his butt :D

Image
amidnightproject
Posts: 378
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:59 am
Location: Portland Area, Maine
Contact:

Post by amidnightproject »

so do you get any chipping on the poly when you pass it through the planer? I'm contemplating doing the same thing with the planer. Only I'll be doing the pouring in a different fashion (at least in my head it seems viable)
User avatar
chrismp
Posts: 1443
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:00 am
Location: Vienna, Austria

Post by chrismp »

no chipping at all. the sidewalls come out with a really nice semi-rough finish that looks pretty good for bonding. we don't apply any sort of treatment to the PU to enhance bonding and all our boards are still going strong.

how are you planning to pour your sidewalls?
amidnightproject
Posts: 378
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:59 am
Location: Portland Area, Maine
Contact:

Post by amidnightproject »

Im thinking of making some sort of box to set the core into and then pour the urethane until it comes up flush with the top of my stock core. I'm already at half inch " thickness which is dangerously close to my underfoot thickness already on my skis. So I fear if I route a channel like you do I'll be pushing it far to close. Only way to know will be to try it though :D
User avatar
nrgboards
Posts: 69
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2009 5:38 pm

Post by nrgboards »

How do you like your ciss for your printer, I just ordered one for my epson 1400 and wondering how well they perform. BTW those graphics look awesome.
amidnightproject
Posts: 378
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:59 am
Location: Portland Area, Maine
Contact:

Post by amidnightproject »

nrgboards wrote:How do you like your ciss for your printer, I just ordered one for my epson 1400 and wondering how well they perform. BTW those graphics look awesome.
don't mean to hijack Chris' thread here but I also have a 1400 with a CIS. Works great. It WILL take you about a dozen prints to get rid of the old ink still hanging around in the print heads which will make all your first prints look like crap. And you'll get extremely disappointed, then it will get all better and you'll be happy :D
User avatar
nrgboards
Posts: 69
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2009 5:38 pm

Post by nrgboards »

Thanks amp.
User avatar
nrgboards
Posts: 69
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2009 5:38 pm

Post by nrgboards »

@amp thanks for the print driver hack for the epson 1400 btw!!!
User avatar
chrismp
Posts: 1443
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:00 am
Location: Vienna, Austria

Post by chrismp »

@chris: i rip my cores from a block on a big bandsaw. usually the cores a around 11mm thickness and the channel is 8mm deep, which leaves me with 3mm of core. i guess i could go down to 1.5mm, but i don't dare to do so.

@nrg: the ciss works fine! i just ordered the cheapest one i could find on ebay. here's the same model i have just for your printer http://www.ebay.at/itm/Empty-CIS-CISS-I ... 563dd9a49a
amidnightproject
Posts: 378
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:59 am
Location: Portland Area, Maine
Contact:

Post by amidnightproject »

Underfoot my cores are 9mm-11mm depending on length. I start with 13mm which doesn't give me a whole lot of cutting room. that's why I was thinking some sort of frame.

I was thinking of making sure the core was center, then pouring around it. Not sure if It's viable but worth a shot. I'll probably try your method first. If my router bits are sharp enough usually I can get within 2mm of bottom of the core without anything bad happening. Usually... :D
Post Reply