You may want to completely avoid white pine (or any softwood for that matter) in the future for anything that will be under pressure. Not only will it crack but the structure of the wood is such a way in which it will compress easily. So even if it doesn't crack it could lead to your molds cupping and dimpling. Which sucks when your trying to flatten your skis.
Yeah you're right, not going to go with pine anymore for molds. Definitely going to use MDF next time. We are in the process of building another mold right now.
Wow I'm a little bit surprised what happened to your mold. I just made new tip/tail molds using 3/4 plywood. There's no gaps between each rib. Holding fine.
interesting, maybe it was our gaps then. we've been pressing at 45psi. or it could just be the softness of the pine we used like chris mentioned. How did you work the plywood mold...trace the shape, jig-saw, sand to get a template, then route?
Buz wrote:interesting, maybe it was our gaps then. we've been pressing at 45psi. or it could just be the softness of the pine we used like chris mentioned. How did you work the plywood mold...trace the shape, jig-saw, sand to get a template, then route?
You're probably right. Plywood is structurally stronger. Although if you had a mold of white pine w/o the gaps I don't think it would crack, it's basically a solid block of wood at that point, but it would be prone to denting and dings because it's soft.
yeah, for the next one we spent the extra bucks and got mdf...though i'm sure we have some plywood floating around, that might be worth a try, thanks desmond
Thanks for the info. I've been keeping my eye out for any carpenters, cabinet, sign makers, etc in the area who might have a CNC that I could ask, no luck yet.
Buz wrote:Thanks for the info. I've been keeping my eye out for any carpenters, cabinet, sign makers, etc in the area who might have a CNC that I could ask, no luck yet.
Just call and ask EVERYONE. At some point someone will have some. I found a cabinet maker that does mine now. Very nice guy and always trying to get me to let him cut my cores on his machine haha. Probably will do that at some point.