Bluegrass Rockers

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

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L8APX
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:40 am
Location: South of ADK

Bluegrass Rockers

Post by L8APX »

I have always wanted a big powder ski that work in tight eastern trees. (currently skiing mantras) So after lurking here I finally picked up some material (thanks kelvin) and started designing my very own Bluegrass Rockers.

Being a recent transplant to the northeast, I grew up skiing on a 400' vert ice mound outside of Louisville, Ky. This taught me a valuable lesson, to enjoy powder whenever possible. Trips out west always delivered and so on, but it wasn't until I moved to the northeast that I felt I needed a powder ski.

On to the skis.
The bluegrass rocker is a flat chamber rockered fat ski
The specs
Length: 180 cm
Dims: 150-125-135
Chamber: no
Tip Profile: 5.5 cm rise 25 cm long
Tail Profile: 4 cm rise 16 cm long
Core material: maple & aspen (maybe all maple)
Sidewalls: white UMHV or maple
Composite: 22 oz Triax FG
Graphics: unsure maybe something Ky inspired while I'm there.

I'm going to use this thread to share all of my growing pains and hopefully some best practices, and to keep me honest.
I plan to start the build on 4/22, so if you guys don't see anything by 5/1 you'll know I have failed for now.

Til next time,
Late
Harvest the ride.
L8APX
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:40 am
Location: South of ADK

Post by L8APX »

Just wanted to add some EC pow stoke since it is nuking out right now on April 15th!
Image
&
Image
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G-man
Posts: 600
Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2006 3:58 pm
Location: northern sierra nevada

Post by G-man »

Welcome L8APX,

Wow, great snow pics. Looks like lots of power outages in the works.

Sounds like a great powder ski. How thick are you planning to make the core? The core thickness will have much to do with how stiff your ski will be. My recommendation is for about 10mm thick at the waist, 2mm tips and tails... you probably don't want your powder specific ski to be too stiff. Lets see what other folks think.

If we don't see anything by 5/1, we won't think you failed... we'll just know that the realities of ski building have asserted themselves. Lookin' forward to seeing the Rockers whenever they are done ;) .

G-man
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bigKam
Site Admin
Posts: 538
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2005 5:15 pm
Location: Park City, Utah
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Post by bigKam »

Hi L8APX, welcome as well.

Glad to hear you're getting snow up north! We have rain here.

G-man's suggestion is a good place to start. 10mm is a nice target for pow-skis. If you're just getting started, I'd recommend leave out the sidewalls to simplify the process. Also, leave the inserts out too.

I'm excited to see the graphics! Looking forward to seeing photos.
plywood
Posts: 499
Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:13 am
Location: wilen, switzerland
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Post by plywood »

i just finished my first pair with rocker - and i can pretty much recommend it. it just kicks ass. unfortunately i didn`t had the opportunity to ride them in pow.... but with a 150 tip you can`t do anything wrong ;)

so the 5,5cm tip height with 25cm rocker in front... is this hight already with the rocker built in? then i would recommend you to build higher: on my pair i`ve got a rocker rise of about 2cm and the tip itself is bent up another 5cm, so my tip is 7cm over ground. i definately would recommend such a height.

about the other dimentions... 150-125-135... well, it`s okay. but it depends on the mounting point of your bindings. so with a difference of 15mm you don`t have to mount the bindings too far back i think. as i said - sadly we don`t have pow anymore, so i can not say how my pair rides in pow. i made 150-120-140 with a binding setback of 7cm...
plywood freeride industries - go ply, ride wood!
L8APX
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:40 am
Location: South of ADK

Post by L8APX »

Thanks for the kind welcome, this place is truely special. Some answers.
the core will be 11mm at the waist and 2mm tip and tail. I'm going to try and get a nice smooth round flex. I don't see myself hitting top speeds on these at a place like MRG, so softer would be better.
BK, no inserts as I'm a alpine/ AT binding kind of guy.
Ply, 5.5 is the tip shape 9 cm will be the rise over the length. After looking at dp lotus 120's I may lose the tip shape. see below.
Image
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L8APX
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:40 am
Location: South of ADK

Post by L8APX »

Getting ready to pull them out of the press. wish them luck...
Harvest the ride.
teleman36
Posts: 79
Joined: Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:22 pm
Location: new england

Eastern POWDER Skis

Post by teleman36 »

New guy here. First post. Have been building since Sept. Could not of had the resolve or the results without this incredible site.THANK YOU to all of the K's, and all of the many entries to this forum. The wealth of knowledge and insight is has made skillbuilding a lot easier for me. We have quite a collection of skills here. I am a full time blacksmith and sheet metal shop owner, so if I can post any photos or insights you may see where I am coming from. It seems that now that ski season is winding down there have a rash of new builders joining in. I apologize for not posting earlier with my results on Eastern pow skis, and Ihope your skis turn out to ride nice. Core thickness is critical on very wide skis,as Ifound out on the first pair laid up. Way to stiff for even an overweight King Kong to bend. 142 cm long 167-155-145 core 6.5mm. layup was a simple 22oz. triax above ons below with black pigmented epoxy and clear topsheet. This layup turn out with a sweet flex that even worked on groomers. I even patrolled on the for a few shifts this winter. However, the first pair had a 10.5 mm core.with same layup that could not even bend. They will make a nice coffee table , maybe with some ski poles for legs.

Trip Report: Silky smooth effortless powder turns, either alpine (heel down) or tele. With so much surface area they tended to bounce you around in the broken stuff when making alpine turns. however as soon as you drop into a nice deep tele they would just crush through anything. Bumped up glades required a deep tele stay low all the time style. With such width I found that very little input to to ski would get more output, or results than you wanted. At times just a little more than just thinking about pressuring the ski would get the job done.

We ski tight Eastern trees where not many can go so the second batch, that will be pressed this week will represent a slightly narrower ski for more sneakiness. 142cm 161-123-135 with 7mm core as well as 1 layer of 9oz. uni carbon on top of the 220z glass. Will post results if we can get on them in good snow. Maybe we should plan a trip to Chile this summer to test all of the skis we make in the next few months. Looks like these dimensions are very similar except for length. Let us know how they turn out. These will have 10mm of camber, as did the first pair.
P.S. Are those photos from the 15th from Jay. We were there then and they look pleasantly familiar.
L8APX
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:40 am
Location: South of ADK

Post by L8APX »

Well the skis came out of the press after 15 hrs. I like pictures so I use them to tell the story.
Me geared up
Image
edges bent
Image
cores layed up
Image
went for a mt ride while the cores dryed
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Got back and started to mill the core
Image
edges on skis
Image
Suck the air
Image
they're out
Image
cut apart but not yet finished.
Image
More to come
Last edited by L8APX on Tue May 01, 2007 3:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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plywood
Posts: 499
Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:13 am
Location: wilen, switzerland
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Post by plywood »

sweet skis!
and an interesting camber :D so you just made a wider radius in tip and tail, or what?

and they seem pretty fat ;)
plywood freeride industries - go ply, ride wood!
L8APX
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:40 am
Location: South of ADK

Post by L8APX »

more finished pictures.

Image
Image
Image

All in all I learned a great deal about making skis and I can't wait to build my next pair...

The Powder Kegs -
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Idris
Posts: 382
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2005 3:34 pm
Location: Chamonix, France
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Post by Idris »

L8APX wrote:Image
Nice one ......... coming from a fellow powder maggot. ;)
Image
L8APX
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:40 am
Location: South of ADK

Update

Post by L8APX »

Some testing shots. So far, real good results and lots of homemade smiles.
Bluegrass meets snow.
Image
Bluegrass likes snow
Image

One happy bluegrass rocker!
Image

Skied killington twice with them.
Next up is the powder kegs.
Coming some time this fall
Harvest the ride.
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