Twizz 2010/2011

[twizzstyle]

Figured it was time to start a thread for the season. Since I no longer live with KevyWevy in the Ski Haus, I'm not going to keep adding to our Ski Haus journal thread. Here's my own

The first skis I'm making this year are the Crabby Sticks. I'm going for a stiff-ish all mountain ski, since all the skis I've made so far have been super soft. Want to try something different.

They are 170cm length, 118/85/105 I think? (can't remember the exact numbers without having the CAD file in front of me). I am using bamboo flooring for the cores, with bamboo sidewalls. They also have threaded inserts for my Look bindings.

Now here's the cool part. I am doing two identical pairs at the same time. One pair will be a traditional wet layup with 22oz triax fiberglass. For the other pair I am using the pre-cured pre-tensioned fiberglass/carbon fiber from Snowboard Materials. Hypothetically these skis should be stiffer and lighter weight than the wet layup... but I won't know until they're out of the press!

I have a few more edges to bend this week, but then everything is ready to go, just waiting for the sublimated top sheets to arrive. The bases are cut, cores are profiled, inserts are epoxied into the cores.

























I also made a new mold. The tip/tail molds are normal vertical ribs bolted together. For the camber section I used a single piece of 1" MDF, and used the planer to cut the camber shape just as you do for profiling cores. It worked perfect, and I have a perfectly smooth and flat (laterally) camber section. Now if I want to make shorter or longer skis, I just make new camber sections and swap those out!



That's all for now, hopefully I'll get the top sheets soon and I can press all four skis in a day.

[OAC]

Nice and clean! It will be good to hear about any differences between the skis.

[skidesmond]

Great progress!

[Jekul]

COsurfer and I are also using the swap-out camber method. I've got one pair and he has a couple. So far seems to work great!

[OAC]

..the swap-out camber method.

When people read the "ski builders dictionary" (Out in 2015..), they will wonder!...

BTW: I use it to.

[SHIF]

Very cool. Looks like the exact same flooring that I use.
I’m curious to know what method you used to profile the cores. Also more about the inserts. More pix please.
__________________
S

[twizzstyle]

Very cool. Looks like the exact same flooring that I use.
I’m curious to know what method you used to profile the cores. Also more about the inserts. More pix please.
__________________
S

My floor is EpoxyCoat brand, plain taupe with no flakes and no clear coat. I did it myself shortly after buying the house. I LOVE the floor, but it can be very slippery when its wet or has sawdust on it.

The cores were profiled with a planer, normal method. The inserts are the 7mm ones from SkiBuilders with the magnetic caps (I've never used these before, excited).

I finished bending the edges tonight, what a pain, but they turned out great. Now I'm ready, just waiting for those topsheets...

[Richuk]

Wow ... and wow!

[thefreshpimpofbigair]

Nice looking start.
Lets see that pre-cure stuff.....
Did it come with carbon stringers across the full width or just the middle?
(I remember you were concerned it might just be down the middle)

There is a supplier / manufacturer nearby that reportedly does some pre-cure /tensioned uni glass for never summer (as well as bow limbs and other stuff...). I'm gonna go try to beg some scraps.

-R

[twizzstyle]

Lets see that pre-cure stuff.....
Did it come with carbon stringers across the full width or just the middle?
(I remember you were concerned it might just be down the middle)

Yeah that was a big concern of mine. Luckily it has stringers across almost the whole width. There are I think 4 close together, then one alone in the middle, then another 4. I'll just cut it in half down the center stringer.

I'll take some pictures of it tonight.

[NeilG]

That scooter looking thing is rad...

[twizzstyle]

That scooter looking thing is rad...

Heh, K2 Kickboard

[MontuckyMadman]

are you not conserned with the gaps at the end of the core where your sidewalls are or am I missing something?

Did you cut that off?

[twizzstyle]

are you not conserned with the gaps at the end of the core where your sidewalls are or am I missing something?

Did you cut that off?

Good eye So I made the cores and glued the sidewalls on after cutting the sidecut. There were the gaps, but I was going to cut that off anyways for the tip spacers, so no worries.

Now - all my past skis I have had the thickest part of the core at core center, and all of my skis have had soft tails (I think this is a common occurance among home builders?). So I decided (after I had profiled the cores mind you) that I would shift the cores back so the thickness center was at boot center. Problem is now that the cores are shifted back, I couldn't cut enough off the tips to avoid the gaps. The tails are fine obviously.

Also, it was only a few inches of shift, so the sidecut/sidewalls are still ok.

I am going to make little wedges of bamboo from the scraps I cut off to fill the gaps.

Long story short - good eye on spotting the gaps, they will be filled

[MontuckyMadman]

right on thanks. I thought I saw that but I was confused. I had the same prob on a few pair but luckily the core was long and I cut back to the flush part of the sidewall.