Pressing a nice Cap - first try

[the.quass]

they look really great. That fabric is rad.

[MadRussian]

skis looks nice.

imo cotton on the sidewall will not be durable unless you going to use EXTREMELY durable topcoat $$$$$$. Sidewall take a lot of beating especially in the bumps. If you don't want to use P-tex for sidewall wood is good option

[chrismp]

Can't you plane a slab of sidewall material on the same sled setup as you use for the core and then attach the sidewalls to the core after you've profiled them both separately?

[gozaimaas]

Nice job!
What are you using your waste timber for?

[pmg]

@chrismp:
thought about this already, might give it a try. From what I read making the rabbet for the edge after attaching the sidewalls usually ends up in the sidewalls being off the woodcore again. So I would have to take away this 0.8mm as well, so the sidewalls will be quite thin when they are planed... so it would be good if the sidewall material was wide and cut into stripes later, but how do cut them precisely? And also attaching them to the core when being so thin... Sounds like a lot of problems ;)

@gozaimaas:
The waste timber is used in the barn. The ground there often is slippery because of a light cover with cowshit and so on. We put the planer chips there so no one slips when working there. Afterwards everything left goes to the dunghill, and of course only organic material ma go there.

@twizz:
Had the thought with kevlar already as well. The cotton won't look that nice for long, but as long as the layer of aramid below isn't destroyed the ski stays intact.

[amidnightproject]

I had very good luck with durability when I was doing wood sidewall with a nice coat of entropy resin as a finish. It held up quite well and if it ever get really mashed by edges you could always just sand it and do some touch up work. I had success with it. Maybe give that a shot? I found entropy to hole up real well as a top coat.

[twizzstyle]

I profiled a slab of sidewall material and then ripped it into sidewalls for one pair once. It worked ok. I didn't bother epoxying the sidewalls to the core, I just tacked them in place with some superglue and let the actual layup do the work. I was nervous the sidewalls would pop off during pressing, but they didn't - but that would be my biggest worry. Also whatever method you're using for profiling (planer or router), you better have a REALLY good method of holding the material down. If it lifts at all, it'll destroy the entire slab of material real quick. I did it on my CNC, and it went ok.

[pmg]

Well, there is one wooden sidewall I would totally trust: ebony :) I made quite some knife handles of ebony, this stuff isn't impressed by water at all. But will go for some local wood if I decide to try my luck with wooden sidewalls. Or pouring...

Well, will see how durable the cap is, and if it isn't enough, THEN I will think about sidewalls.