HELP!

[Waterskis]

alright cats,
I need some plastic experts to assist me here. I am a ski builder but I am building water skis not snow skis. I am building high performance jump skis, with a honecomb core and am using the same technology given on this site. My problems and questions arise when finding a plastic to use as an edge, or rail as it is called. the plastic will serve as the waterskis sidewall, protecting the honeycomb core. The plastic has to be plyble enough to wrap around the ski, be able to epoxy well to the core, base, and topsheet materials, (aluminum, fiberglass, and PTex) and has to be able to resist and take repeated blows and impacts. I am not familiar with plastics and need help finding one that will work.

any help is greatly appreciated.
this is a great site and has already helped me a ton.

thanks guys,
Luke

[Waterskis]

dimensions will be 3/4" tall and ~1/8 thick, thickness can be worked with.

[plywood]

how about abs?
i don`t know anything about waterskis, but on the wakeboards i once had a look at it seemed like they use abs for the sidewalls. i think you can`t wrap any plastic around edges, you`ll have to do it the same way as on skis: sidewalls for the running lenghts and tip&tail spaces for the rest (out of plates of abs)...

[MontuckyMadman]

hmmm. moment not putting food on the table?

UHMW would fit your needs I suppose. Visit tap plastics they are really helpful.

[knightsofnii]

some people use urethane too and cast their sidewalls right to the core during the build by building some kind of "moat" around the core and just pouring the mix in and letting it cure

[Damon]

Are you bagging them? If so, I would do a cap construction - which is typical of most watersports equipment.

[knightsofnii]

most are capped, but still contain sidewalls inside the cap, for some reason, not sure why, i guess because foam has the potential to take in water at a much faster rate than wood? or maybe they're looking to stiffen it up a little, not sure