First pair of skis!!

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samski24
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2020 9:01 pm

First pair of skis!!

Post by samski24 »

Hey, I'm Sam. I'm an 18 year old high school student and I just finished making my first pair of skis! First, I just want to say thank you to the people that started this forum and everyone who has contributed to it. I started this project in August not knowing anything, but just wanting to make a pair of skis. Needless to say, I've spent a lot of time on here and it's been a huge resource. The skis I built are 100mm underfoot with poplar cores. I just made the press out of plywood and used plastic storage containers filled with water as weights to apply the pressure. I don't have a lot of tools so I just kind improvised a lot of stuff. Anyway, they turned out pretty good. I'd put a picture of them up, but I can't figure out how to make the image small enough. I do have one question that I was hoping someone could answer. When the skis came out of the press I used a belt sander since I didn't have an actual base grinder. It kind of made the bases fuzzy like the parts were starting to get pulled away by the sander but didn't come all the way off, I was just wondering if anyone else has had something similar happen and what to do about it. I don't think it's a big problem, but definitely something that can be improved.
mammuth
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2014 3:48 am
Location: somewhere in the alps

Re: First pair of skis!!

Post by mammuth »

try to post some pics. with a normal sander you need to be careful not to overheat anything
Tom
pmg
Posts: 479
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2012 8:59 am
Location: Sonthofen

Re: First pair of skis!!

Post by pmg »

Hello,

having worked in a ski service for 2 seasons, I can definitely say that using a normal hand belt grinder to grind the base is a bad idea. I will try to point out the most important issues with that:

No cooling. Professional grinders have a decent water cooling to prevent the base from overheating which happens easily.

Sanding belt not dull enough: This may sound strange, but the belt of professional grinders are very dull. Otherwise, they create a "hairy" result and produce a rough surface which won't glide properly on snow. Making a belt from a hand grinder dull is not an option, as in this case it will hardly take any material off and be more prone to overheating.

In other words: Try to find a ski shop for the base grind. They usually have a stone grinder to finish the base which produces superior results compared to a belt sander.
samski24
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2020 9:01 pm

Re: First pair of skis!!

Post by samski24 »

Ok so I read somewhere else on here that someone uses a belt sander and they use a light spray of water to fix the cooling problem, but this guy was saying that he uses 80 grit since the UHMW doesn’t sand easily. So I guess just to clarify what your saying, is it the overheating that causes the “hairs” or is it the grit being too rough?
pmg
Posts: 479
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2012 8:59 am
Location: Sonthofen

Re: First pair of skis!!

Post by pmg »

Hi,

if its only hairy its only the roughness of the belt.
Overheating during grinding causes small melted round or rectangular parts in addition to the hairs (about 0.5mm max size I'd guess, haven't seen it in a while). They are not easy to spot. If your base is black, it also tends to turn a bit grey when overheating.
sammer
Posts: 933
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:37 pm
Location: Fernie B.C.
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Re: First pair of skis!!

Post by sammer »

Sam

I've had hairy bases before when using new belts (especially ceramic) on the grindrite. You can remove it with a hot wax and scrape. I use a single edged razor to scrape the wax off and most of the hairs come with it. It might take a few wax scrape cycles to get it all off. Let the wax cool hard before scraping.
My advise is get off your wallet and take them into a shop. Check to see how flat your bases are and get a proper grind on them.

I just took my latest pair in for a stone grind. They put a structure on the base, hand filed my edges, and hot waxed for $35 cdn.

sam
You don't even have a legit signature, nothing to reveal who you are and what you do...

Best of luck to you. (uneva)
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