WhiteRoom 2012/13

[skidesmond]

Nice work!

[Upper Left Coast]

beautiful inlay work! And very helpful core profile info since i'll be pressing a similar ski in the next couple of days. thanks and keep up the good work!

[vinman]

Pressed the 8th of 11 pair for this season today


Vitals
185cm
130-139-115-123-115
weight 4 lbs 11 oz each
19oz glass with 6 3K carbon tow stringers top and bottom plus 6 basalt stringers top and bottom.
ptex sidewalls, 4001 base.

core
maple/poplar/mahogany/cherry
2.2-11.7-2.2, flex is medium-stiff

inlay up front is 1/2 snowflake 1/2 maple leaf with some blue abalone shell inlay for accents, eucalyptus and makore in the flake, spotted limba main background. Very pretty.

all in all a good press, minor tip defect, pushed to tip too far forward on the mold and it sort of gave a funny little flat/ almost reverse arc in the very last 1/2 or less in the tip. annoying and cosmetic. the guys at the shop will have a fun time with that one... I may have them try to belt grind first then hot p tex gun some extra material in there.

[ben_mtl]

Wow ! I hope I'll see those when I'll go skiing @ Jay Peak

[vinman]

You probably will the guy these are for is a Jay skier.


I stumbled on a way to speed the drying time of the spar varnish I'm using. I varnish the skis in my basement storage room where the dehumidifier is. I run the dehumidifier set to 35% (lowest setting) humidity and close the door. What normally takes at least 12-24 hrs of drying time takes about 6-8 hrs. This lets me get 2 coats a day...on weekends anyway. Since I do 4 brush coats and a rattle can spray coat of varnish this really cuts my finish time by a lot.

[vinman]

Current line up pic, missing 2 finished pair from this pic

[MadRussian]

You probably will the guy these are for is a Jay skier.


I stumbled on a way to speed the drying time of the spar varnish I'm using. I varnish the skis in my basement storage room where the dehumidifier is. I run the dehumidifier set to 35% (lowest setting) humidity and close the door. What normally takes at least 12-24 hrs of drying time takes about 6-8 hrs. This lets me get 2 coats a day...on weekends anyway. Since I do 4 brush coats and a rattle can spray coat of varnish this really cuts my finish time by a lot.

If your varnish oil base adding of little bit of acetone will speed up the drying time. Only make sure never put leftovers back in original container.

Also just a thought.
You can turn your press into hotbox for drying. Put skis back in the press do not inflate firehose. Run only top blanket close around the opening to reduce heat loss set the temperature to maybe hundred degrees


Your lineup looking great

[vinman]

Pressed again today



vitals 9 of 11 for the year

185cm
35cm tip rocker, 30 tail rocker, 4mm camber
130-139-115-123-115
19oz glass with 8 3K carbon tow stingers top and bottom
core 2.2-12.1-2.2, 7 deg bevel on sidewalls
weight 4lbs 10 1/4 oz, 4 lbs 10 5/8oz per ski

top sheet
blue paua shell lightning bolt from Grateful Dead logo
makore, alder and ash veneers as the center lines of a peace sign.

nearly flawless on the layup. I did loose about 6 inches of VDS in one ski. Forgot to scrape the excess epoxy off the edge teeth.

Pressing #10 next week!!![/url]

[NeilG]

Vinman,
Those look incredible.
A quick question, how are you getting the veneer pieces to stick together during pressing?
I just read in one of your older posts about you using porous paper first aid tape. Will any paper tape work? What are you using? (if you don't mind telling)

Thanks a lot.

[vinman]

I think the name of the tape I use is medipore or micropore, not sure which. It is a thin porous paper first aid tape. It has good adhesion, wets out with epoxy well nd is very thin. So far no issues from using this. I use this to attach tip and tail spacers also.

[falls]

I bought and used some of the micropore paper tape today for veneer jointing and attaching tip spacers. Looked to wet out well and held the tip spacers on really well.
About to go and get the skis out of the press now....

[sammer]

Vin, are you making your cores thinner to account for the stiffness added by the veneer.
All the veneer topsheet skis I've made have been too stiff.
Just curious what core dims you are using

Skis look awesome!

sam

[vinman]

I do generally at least think about the added stiffness. But I've never built a ski without veneer yet so all of my knowledge and how I approach a stiff ski vs a soft ski is already taking into account the veneer.

This ski above with a 12.1mm core is for a pretty big guy (~240-250lbs and ~6'2") who is a strong skier and likes a stiffish ski, also why I added 16 stings of carbon to each ski... I really like the stiffness of this ski, stiff but not too stiff

I'm not sure this answers your question or not.

[vinman]

Pressed my 10th pair for this season, 17th all time. today. one left to go before skis season opens in 2 weeks.



30 cm rocker tip and tail, 4mm camber under foot, 178cm length. Dimensions 125-134-107-123-111.

2.2-11.5-2.2 mm core, 19 oz. Fiberglass with basalt and carbon fiber stringers with a medium flex. Offset surf style stripes for a surfy tip shape with limba, makore and alder veneers.

Nearly perfect layup and press.

[skidesmond]

I like the way you did the veneer. I tried that will some burl I had with teak. Looked good in my head, but the burl chipped so easily, it was difficult to get a good seam. Great job.