Well, My son and I finally made one set of skis. We are currently in the finishing stage of the process. Here are some of the things I learned while doing the build process.
First we amassed the proper tools for the build. Then it was off to the races. We trimmed the wood to 3/4" and glued them up using wood glue. after letting them set up I went to the planing process. Mistake #1 in my opinion was to plane the cores one at a time. We used a planer to profile the cores and by doing them together you will get an even match to the skis. I used hot glue to keep the cores on the jig. In order to remove the cores form the jig, I took a piece fo sheet metal and ground an edge to one side. Insert the metal under the core at the center and slide it to hte end of the core to cut the hot glue bond.
Nest was to trim the core to shape. Mistake #2. I forgot to bond the sidewall to the cores prior to planing! Feeling prety stupid now. We epoxied the sidewalls to the cores anyway and went bact to the planer.
I appered to work okay.
I used an old ski (K2 world piste) as a template to cut out the base (durasurf). I used a break lind tubing bender to shape the edges. This worked fine however I will be visiting my frien with a machine shop to modify the rollers to hold the edges in place.
We used super glue to attach the edges to the base and then taped the bottoms good. Then set these aside.
Back to the cores. Using the original ski as my template We figured out the binding location and set to work on the inserts. Epoxied into place and set aside.
Next we cut the fiberglass (triaxial 22oz) and rolled up each piece and wraped with plastic.
Next was the topsheet material. cut and set aside.
I thought we were ready to press and on Sunday we went to work....
All in all I think it went okay however we now have an idea as to hoe much epoxie to use. we may have used too much and maybe a little too little pressure (after reading the epoxie QandA). I do not have a heat blanket so we did the next best thing. We used a pellet stove to heat a small room in the shop. The temp went up pretty quick and the highest temp we say was 96*. We let the skis cure under pressure for the night and in the morning I released the air pressure and lfet the skis in the press. Have to wait for my son to get home from school. So I went skiing. Fantastick powder day!
Skis out that night and we were excited! this is when the picture taking started.
I have trimmed the skis and found that the core had shifter in the press.
I used a piece of sheet metal on the bottom mold and then placed magnets to hold alignment of the pieces. I'll figure someting else out next time.
As for the lessons on the press... I am going to adjust it to make it higher and wider. We pressed both skis at one time and the epoxie ran out into the plastic. Once it hardened it became too wide to pull out the mold from the press.
all in all i think thing went pretty good. I'm not dissapointed in the proccess at all. We will begin shortly on my sons snowboard (can I say that word on this site?)
Please check out the pics that are posted on photobucket. I'm the one with the beer and the good looking one is my son.
http://s170.photobucket.com/albums/u242/rockaukum/
Show and Tell Time
Moderators: Head Monkey, kelvin, bigKam, skidesmond, chrismp
Two full days on the sticks. I have to say they work great. As those familliar to the tahoe area, the mornings are firm then soften up for the afternoon. The skis are fun to be on. Have had interesting chair rides with them. I am looking forward to some true corn skiing with them. They have a somewhat soft tip and when I hit the afternoon slush the tips really took off. they seemed to turn very easy and no real problems.
The skis weigh in at 3 5/8# and 3 3/4# without bindings. So on friday I will be hiking the mountains and they should be easier than the Atomic Kailas, well lighter anyway!
Have had no signs of delam on the edges. I am a bit concerned because I did not use the vds. So far So good!
I'm ready to start a new pair but as I have promised... we are building a snowboard for my son.
RA
By the way 82CJ5 had it longer than my wife. Enjoy it almost as much as her! (please don't repeat that because I'll deny deny deny)
The skis weigh in at 3 5/8# and 3 3/4# without bindings. So on friday I will be hiking the mountains and they should be easier than the Atomic Kailas, well lighter anyway!
Have had no signs of delam on the edges. I am a bit concerned because I did not use the vds. So far So good!
I'm ready to start a new pair but as I have promised... we are building a snowboard for my son.
RA
By the way 82CJ5 had it longer than my wife. Enjoy it almost as much as her! (please don't repeat that because I'll deny deny deny)