New for '09

[Nick's Sticks]

Now that it is winter I haven’t had as much time for building as I would like. Between work, skiing, and the holidays I barely had time to think about my current build let alone get it done. But, after far too long, they are finally here and they look like a pretty good start for the new year. These are the first pair I have done with a heat blanket and I have very happy with the results. I don’t know why I didn’t use one before. Actually I do know, I work for the man and he doesn’t pay very well. The build from the bottom up is as follows:

1. Black ptex base
2. Triax glass
3. fir/cherry core with fir sidewalls. Each ski has two cherry stringers that run just outside the bindings. Originaly they were as much for looks as practicality but since I covered them up, so much for looks (we all know its whats inside that counts anyways).
4. more triax glass
5. even more triax with matt to reinforce the binding area
6. and finally flat cut prima Vera veneer.

I didn’t put any vds rubber in these skis. They are clearly not designed for groomers or ice and therefore don’t need as much dampening. I thought that at this girth any extra liveliness would probably be a good thing. I used MAS marine epoxy to stick it all together. I haven’t upgraded beyond marine epoxy yet but I also haven’t felt the need. I am a fan of MAS over System Three or West System. I find that it wets out better, has better color, and doesn’t trap air bubbles like System Three seems to like to.

The dimensions of these skis are 155-130-135. The widest part of the ski is set about 400mm back from the nose, as is the start of the rocker. Every person who has seen them so far has said “wow, you built water skis.” But unlike water skis they have side cut, be it only a little. The turning radius underfoot is 25m. Since the side cut area is much shorter than traditional skis the side cut depth doesn’t have to be nearly as large. Back to back they line up nicely the bases are, as far as I can tell, perfectly matched. There is also a little rise in the tail, only about 10mm. I stopped the edges shy of the nose and didn't have to pre bend them much at all. All in all they came out really clean.

I am stoked to test them. Unfortunately fourteen inches of rain in the mountains washed all the stoke away.

The skis and tip rocker detail


A close up of the veneer topsheet


Side by side girth comparison. Wee, not so wee, and fricking huge.

[voodoo]

What did your mold look like to get the rocker?

Good looking skis.

What are the benefits of a heat blanket that you personally have seen. I'm debating to get one or not. I've heard positives, but does it justify the cost?

[Nick's Sticks]

I built an adjustable length mold for my press. The camber is fixed but I can move or chance the tip and tail sections. I took out my normal tip section and replaced it with a slowly tapering one. I used a traditional tail section to provide a little tail rise but nothing too dramatic. The ski is a little pintailed and I didn't want to try too many new things all at once. I've built twin tips in the past but never skis like these so I stuck with what I am more familiar with. With each build I try not to change too many parameters so I can tell what I like and what I think sucks. I'll post photos soon.

The most important aspect of the heat blanket is that it insures a constant temperature for the epoxy (the epoxy question thread deals with this and has a lot of good information). A heat blanket is only one solution for this, I've seen people build heat boxes, stoves and fans, etc. in order to keep things warm. In the most basic terms cold=bad heat=good (when dealing with epoxy, snow is quite the opposite). It is like a pizza, if you cook it at 275 it will take forever and not be very crispy. Of course there is a lot more that goes into it than that and someone will undoubtedly read this and object to the simplicity of my statement but they are thinking to hard.

As to one cheep way to make a heat blanket. I ripped the heating element out of a heated mattress pad and stuck them to my cassette. I just make sure that the wires don't get pinched. Not rocket science but works really well.

[Nick's Sticks]

To illustrate what I said earlier. This is a close up of the tip rocker with mold under it. I just cut the pieces out of a 2x8 and stuck em all together. I built my mold by first deciding upon the total tip rise and then the distance I wanted it to rise over. I made a sketch of the curve and then used a battone to draw a perfect curve. My other tip and tail sections meshed with the mdf camber mold, this one sat on top of the mdf.


These are just a couple of other photos of the skis. I had better light in these and the veneer stands out more (as does the chip in the tip of the right ski). This was the first time using veneer in on skis. Even thought I can't complain, next time will be better.




I tested them the other day in terrible conditions. No powder, so I can't really tell what they will be like under 'normal' conditions. When I designed them I gave the ski a little side cut underfoot. The sidecut really helped make them carve and I had no problem putting them on edge. This said, even on corn they felt like a playful powder ski. I could easily pivot them with my ankles and the pintail released without effort. They were very stiff in the back. Without taking them in powder it is hard to tell if this will be a problem but I suspect they will be a very fast ski. If Ullr cooperates I will know.

[plywood]

nice! how high are those tips?

[voodoo]

I'm looking at the rocker tips that you did. i'm trying to picture them laid up in the mold cassette, if you have a picture do share.
also interested in your heat source idea, i'm working on a similar idea.
some pictures would be great.

i really like the look of the ski good work i'm impressed.

[Nick's Sticks]

The tip rise on these skis is about 95mm and starts about 400mm back from the nose. I don't have a photo of the ski in the press but if you look at the tip profile shot just imagine the 2x10 wood tip mold sitting directly on top of my mdf camber mold.

This is my extremely high tech heat blanket. It my not be a work of art but it gets the job done. The coils are above the upper section of the cassette. I have some foam that sits above the chords to keep them from getting pinched between the wood cat track and the sheet metal. It works great. The metal helps even out the heat and the foam insulates it, and for a total price of about 40 bucks you can't complain.

[voodoo]

Love the heat blanket.

I'm thinking about something similar.
So on the mdf section of your mold is there any camber and if so how much? Most powder skis don't have camber, but I 've seen a few that do and hear its helpful on cattracks etc, getting back to the chair if you are skiing slack-country (out of bounds skiing on a resort)

Ounce again, sweet skis and thanks for sharing them.

[Nick's Sticks]

Yes, there is camber. Underfoot the skis have a 100cm section of camber with a height of 5mm. I still haven't ridden them in powder but I was able to take them out on some corn. Although it felt strange, I could ark turns on corduroy. I chose to give them a bit of camber for the exact reason you stated. I've seen folks with no camber skis squirreling around on catracks. I would like to think that these will give me a little more grace. These skis are way to heavy to be practical in the real backcountry so, like it or not, getting back to the lift is part of the day.

[Nick's Sticks]

Old skis, new shape

These skis were awesome. They had super float and charged like nothing else I have skied. I emphasize the past tense because I went ass over teakettle and destroyed one binding and the veneer in the tail. Rather than retire, they evolved from pintail to swallow tail (I like birds). I also re-shaped the tip to look more contemporary. I've ridden them several times since they got their new look and I think I like them even better. They are several cm shorter than the old skis. I took about the same amount of the tip and tail so the bindings would be proportionally in the same place. The swallow tail doesn't seem to do anything but it looks rad. People have also stopped asking me how I put edges on water skis.

Re-shapes swallow tails


Couch surfing

[j-steezy763]

Where do you get a heater coil like that? i need to build one myself

[scrach]

yea, I would also like some details on that heat blanket? what type of foam did you use to hold the pressure?

[Nick's Sticks]

Ok,ok This is how I made my heat blanket. I went out and bought a cheap heated mattress pad. Something similar to this:
http://www.amazon.com/Sunbeam-Arlington ... 562&sr=1-5

Inside the pad itself are insulated heating wires like the ones shown here:
http://www.druflon.com/heating.html.
I cut open the pad and ripped out all the wires so I had one continuous wire loop. I then taped the cables to piece of flashing keeping them more or less evenly spaced. Finally I placed a 1/2" thick piece of minicell foam over the wires so they wouldn't get pinched between my cat track and cassette. The piece I cut covers the entire width and length of the mold. I used the thermostat that came with the blanket so I didn't have to purchase any controllers. Basically it is just a timer and simple rheostat. Unfortunately there isn't a thermometer so I don't actually know exactly what temperature the inside of the press is but it can get pretty hot.

From the to down my setup looks like this:
bladder
cat track
1/2"minicell foam
heating wires
flashing/top of cassette
ski,boad,etc.
bottom of cassette, yadda yadda yadda...

There must be a heat blanket discussion somewhere in the forum. I will post pictures there when I get a chance. I just moved my press and it is still in pieces.

[MontuckyMadman]

I used a similar setup but I don't think it made it over 100F.
You think yours gets hotter than that?