VSSP: the very simple ski project

[ThomasR]

Hi all,

First of all, awesome forum, i never thought i'd find someting like this.

I'm a student in Belgium (some tiny country in europe) and would like to build my own pair of ski's (obviously ).

The thing is, i am going to try to keep it as simple as possible, using basic tools and materials.
If you guys think i'm nuts, feel free to tell me so, i'd love to learn

The thing i'm thinking of:

no camber, no sidecut, single tip, maybe a slight rocker or swallow tail.
185ish in length, about 120mm width.

using 3mm plywood as a base, (or solid poplar planks) and building the profile up on that using glue, carbon fiber tubes, some hardwood and maybe kevlar under foot for the bindings.

I dont have a vacuum system or a press, so i'd probably weigh it down with sandbags or so.


I can get hold of fibreglass and epoxy relatively easilyl P-tex and edges will be a problem.
Is there any onlinestore where i can get these from in Europe?

so: am i nuts or does this sound feasible?


grtz,

Thomas

[lucacasty]

Hi

You can find the material you need here:
http://www.boardbuildingsupply.eu/
I just bought some material and had it shipped to Italy last month.
Ciao

Luca

[twizzstyle]

I know you're trying to keep it as cheap/simple as possible, but you might consider at a minimum a vacuum pump for pressing the ski (since I don't think you're quite ready to build a pneumatic press ).

With your dimensions, under full vacuum, you'll have about 4800 lb of force pushing on the ski... That's 2.5 tons. There's no way you could get that many sand bags on top. (I took your ski dimensions, converted to square inches, multiplied by ~14psi... roughly atmospheric pressure)

Your core sounds complicated with carbon fiber tubes, etc. For your first ski I would suggest doing the "standard" layup of solid wood core, fiberglass top and bottom. Very straight forward.

Good luck, sounds like a fun project! Not often you see a straight ski these days!

[ThomasR]

Thanks a lot! this surely helps heaps!

I was concidering the vacuum idea, a problem would be the cost and place to get it from.

secondly, i do not own any tools apart form a drill.
Ok, i'll have to buy some, but i dont quite fancy spending $$$ on it.

Lastly, core material wise, i head plywood stands up ok, but how's the trade of on laminate vs solid planks?
i think laminate is the best, and plywood a close second, are planks useable at all?

(i assume i'll find this somewhere on the forum, so i'll look, but just asked anyway )

[Idris]

Fibreglass and epoxy there are many places in Europe (I'm based in France but from the UK) I use www.r-g.de

A simple and very cheap vacuum system is a fridge motor, some silicone plastic pipe and some plastic sheeting. And a connector to connect the pipe to the bag.

I have sealed my vacuum bag with packing tape, vacuum tape is easier use but not strictly necessary. A bag connector can be made out of plumbing parts but isn't very expensive from r-g or other suppliers.

Ptex makes a nice base but other things do slide - edges are necessary unless you are only skiing in soft snow - which is rare in Europe, you will almost always need your edges at some point in a run.

If you want to avoid lots of machining of your wood core, you can laminate thing layers of ply to make up the core profile 1mm layers are available in hardware stores. But you can get really cheap routers if you look around supermarkets - I've seen them for 30 euros.

All the cutting duties can be managed with a simple handsaw - I recommend a pull (Japanese style) over a push type.

With a handsaw, a drill, and a router you have all you need to make a pair of skis. Others here have done so with less!!!

have a good look at davide's build journals they are good and simple

[Dr. Delam]

I made a ski similar to what you have in mind and it sits on a shelf in my garage now. It is ok in pure powder but I have made other skis with just a little sidecut that I like better in pow. I thought it would be a happy medium between a reverse sidecut and regular sidecut but it never impressed me. If you do a no sidecut ski I strongly suggest giving it reverse camber.

As far as cores go, planks work out great and are super easy. If you do plywood, you probably want to make your own. Generally the stuff you can buy is full of voids and filler crap except for maybe baltic birch which seems to only be available in 5 ft lengths which is too short for my skis. But maybe where you live there is some better stuff than here in the states.

Building skis seems very complicated at first but after you have made a few pair it gets way quicker and easier. I have a pretty good collection of tools which makes the process more efficient. I suggest getting someone to go in on the project with you and that way you can share costs, ideas, tools and equipment.

Keep reading everything you can on this site and good luck!

[ThomasR]

That was also my reasoning Dr. Delam, having started out on straight skis and all.
I might put some sidecut in it, 130 120 125 maybe

The epoxy and fibreglass wont be a problem, i know a guy who makes car parts and he sells everything.

Core wise i might opt for vertical laminate, having thought it over.
i'm thinking of using poplar, 11 ish under foot going to 2-3 ish on the tips.
simply because i can get hold of it easily:)
i'll probably get myself a jigsaw and router to do the mould and shaping etc.


i'm thinking of not putting any inserts in, but think of doing a full wrap around the binding area before laying it up.
i have some 160g twill around the house, a few layers of that should do i figure.

does anyone know a place in europe where i can order vacuum bagging stuff?
i could get the pump of ebay, but havent found any breather, peelply, plastic or tape yet.

thanks a lot for the awesome forum and support of course

[Idris]

That was also my reasoning Dr. Delam, having started out on straight skis and all.
I might put some sidecut in it, 130 120 125 maybe

The epoxy and fibreglass wont be a problem, i know a guy who makes car parts and he sells everything.

Core wise i might opt for vertical laminate, having thought it over.
i'm thinking of using poplar, 11 ish under foot going to 2-3 ish on the tips.
simply because i can get hold of it easily:)
i'll probably get myself a jigsaw and router to do the mould and shaping etc.


i'm thinking of not putting any inserts in, but think of doing a full wrap around the binding area before laying it up.
i have some 160g twill around the house, a few layers of that should do i figure.

does anyone know a place in europe where i can order vacuum bagging stuff?
i could get the pump of ebay, but havent found any breather, peelply, plastic or tape yet.

thanks a lot for the awesome forum and support of course

You can just use plastic sheet from a hardware store and cardboard,

Or order the nice stuff from www.r-g.de

[sammer]

Poly (plastic sheet) works good.
For breather cardboard works, I've used it along the side of the ski so as to not leave corrugation marks.

sam

[jiri23]

Hi,

I am planning to build a ski in a very simmilar way as you. I am going to use a 3 mm birch plywood glued together in 3 layers what will give me a 9mm ski underfoot. The flex pattern will be done with increasing leght of the plywood layers. It should be a pure POW ski with reversed camber and no/reverse sidecut.

For pressing I just bought a vacuum pum for € 50 from net. I am sure you will find an friend to build your skis than you can split the costs for material and epuipment. Basicly only machine you will need is the pump, cutter, good saw and loads of sandpaper? Correct me if I am worng

Cheers

Jiri

[KevyWevy]

you'd probably want to go closer to 12mm under boot if you're making skis. otherwise it will be very very soft.

as for the sandpaper, we don't use much. unless that how you're thinking your going to profile the core. in which case it will be very difficult to make two skis the same.

[jiri23]

actually it should be a soft ski for powder days only with about 130 underfoot - I measured the thicknes of Hellbents and they are about 10 mm underfoot and they have about the right flex.

as for the sandpaper - I am planning to use 3 layers of 3 mm ply in different lenghts to make the flex pattern. To avoid cracking in point where the shorter (upper) layer ends I want to make an 4-5 cm long transition with sandpaper and that excentric machine, hope you now what I mean - This type of flex pattern (but with vertical laminated core) is used by Dynastar for their big trouble skis and works OK

Do you think that 9 mm is really too thin for this kind of ski?

In future I am going to buy a router to profile the core but now I am short on budget.

SORRY Thomas for messing in your thread!

Cheers from Alps

Jiri