Here's a few notes on how I built the skis. Most of these ideas or processes have already been posted here, I just thought I would let you guys know what worked well for me and what didn't.
I profiled all of my cores on an adjustable router table. I saw one in a layup video (I think it was from kingswood skis) and tried to copy it.
It works great in the sense that the uhmw sidewalls dont explode off, like I was getting with the planer. I also liked doing two cores at once, as it was a bit faster than one core at a time.
It wasn't so good because if I didn't hold the router completely steady, the cores could be off by as much as 0.3 mm. I think I could fix this by routing one core at a time, and switching out the adjustable rails for solid wood ones.
The rails were thin pieces of steel supported by bolts. The bolts threaded down into lock nuts that were hammered and superglued into place on the lowest piece of plywood. On top of the steel rail was a piece of 1/2 inch plywood, a smooth surface for the wheels to rolll on. I secured the cores to the table by hot-gluing in 4 spots on each sidewall.
I think planers are a lot better for dimensional accuracy, but I would rather have my cores off by a little bit and have plastic sidewalls. With solid rails and a new carriage, I should be able to get them in tolerance.
(Eventually I want to buy or build a cnc, which seems like the best way.)
Check out the k'nex wheels on the carriage haha-
All of my cores were glued up using pipe clamps, which I like since they are easy to use. I used gorilla glue to hold the sidewalls onto the core
I cut out the skis with a bi-metal bandsaw blade, 10-14 variable pitch tooth. The metal blades last longer than the wood ones for cutting out skis. It is hard to get a perfect cut, and when there is epoxy left on the ski edge I usually clean it up with an angle grinder with a sanding disc. I like the edges to be smooth so that when I cut the sidewall bevel the router bearing has a smooth surface to roll on, resulting in a clean, consistent sidewall. Also, I like to deliver my skis to the local shop where they grind the bases and edges epoxy-free. The uhmw sidewalls eat up the grinding discs pretty fast, so I started cutting a bevel into the skis on the bandsaw. I added a little shim to the block of wood that the ski sits on -
This also makes it a little bit easier on the router.
I have never tried cutting the sidewall bevel on a router table, I am too scared to screw up a ski at that point. Last summer I used a laminate trimmer and got the sidewalls to about 20 degrees in two passes. Since I had to bevel 88 sidewalls this time around, I didnt want to have to cut it in two passes, so I built a new base for the heavier duty router I was using. A little bit more efficient, worked pretty good.
Last summer I put epoxy on top of the wood veneer topsheets, and this year I experimented with prefinishing the topsheets with spar urethane. It worked good for the thicker veneers, or the ones that were darker where you tell that the epoxy bled through. For the thinner veneers, they turned out kind of blotchy
I put a spar urethane finish on tail of one of the skis, and it did not help. I am now trying to spread a thin layer of qcm epoxy and cure it at shop temperature in late october, a huge PITA. For these veneers it would have been easier to put epoxy on the topsheet in the press, and sand it flat later.
I had really good results with these veneers-
http://www.veneersupplies.com/categorie ... d__Veneer/
They are really expensive, but they dont let any epoxy bleed through and seem to hold up better for skiers that like to hit their skis together.
From now on, if the customer wants a hard, durable topsheet, I am going to put epoxy on the topsheet in the press. If they wanted a better looking, smoother topsheet, I will brush spar urethane on the topsheet before it goes into the press and put no epoxy on the top. Either way, the topsheet gets sanded and more coats of finish once it is out of the press.
Twenty two pairs in a few months, stoked! All thats left is a few topsheets to finish, waxing the bases, and then they are off to the customers.
