Yup, my girlfriend helps me build the skis!!! How lucky am I?
We are also trying to make the skis capped, not sandwich. This means we will have to preform our topsheet so that it can press nicely in a vacuumbag setup. To do this we are hoping to thermoform the UHMW (clear, thin, durasurf base materal) with our new heat blanket. We finally have the temp controller and blanket running well after lots of help from Kelvin and G-Man (thanks!).
On the left is our outlet for plugging in our blanket and on the right is the 220 power cord to plug into the wall.
Here the topsheet is thermoforming over a shaped core. The core had to be on risers to prevent the plastic from webbing under vacuum. The heat blanket is above the plastic and the kevlar breather insulates the blanket from the bag.
This is the topsheet after forming. The cap section is trimmed to the height of the core.
The two edges were glued on simultaneously to prevent the base from torqueing. An aluminum plate and two clamps was plenty of pressure to clamp a significant length of the base.
This is the edged base. Presented by the lovely Katie.
This is the base after rolling the tips with a PVC pipe. Also, the base is protected with packing tape.
We present to you, the Shane LeGOnkey Pro Model ski. This is prior to trimming, hot off the press...err...vacuum.
The next ski in the pair will have a few improvements. We should have wiped a little resin into the rice paper graphics before laying up the topsheet (there are a couple small dry spots). Seems like it might be stiff, but it is an ice ski after all...and it needs to be broken in
The ski is finished trimming and the final weight is 1400 grams. A mini hand plane worked great for trimming the flash from the tips.
The next ski is being pressed this week.
The pair is finally complete! Their first run will be this weekend.
