find out how Dave Lee did his vac mold for his ETT episodes.
It LOOKS like they pressed one in a press with board materials.
IMO it looks almost like he's using a larger, wider board with the proper bend, to envelope-bag boards on the fly as a portable setup.
Frustration OR A reason to get drunk AND I need advice
Moderators: Head Monkey, kelvin, bigKam, skidesmond, chrismp
-
- Posts: 1148
- Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:02 am
- Location: NJ USA
- Contact:
After quite some time I have an update on my first skis:
1. I improved my mold. The upper part is now made of "Siebdruckplatte", a coated plywood with two andvantages: Its is airproof and it is easy to peal of the vacuumtape.
2. The next ski came out pretty good except for a slightly shifted topsheet. The problem was that the ski has inserts and those were marked on the topsheet. But since i could slightly feel one insert, it was easy to figure out were the others are.
3. Then my two prepared cores were used and I had to make a new one.
4. Yesterday was the time for the next layup. I wanted to fix the topsheet with little wirenails to "wings" I previously attached to the core to prevent it from shifting. Worked great during testlayup. Did not work at all with all the resin around. I simply couldn´t find the whole where the wirnails were to fit in. Why? The "wings" were made from small pieces of black plastik and the resin had a blue pigments. The resin filled the whole and I gave up searching because time was running.
So this morning unwrapped the ski and there were three ugly bumps under the topsheet, about 1cm wide, 5 cm long and 2mm high. Looks as if there was to much resin on the upper glasfiber. Besides that the topsheet bends upwards at the sides of the ski. During breakfast I decided not to be frustrated since the base looked ok. So I cut it out to try it.
Next thing I saw was that both skis were not exactly the same. I measured the template quite a few times...
So the next pair will have better templates.
And what I am thinking all the time (since I had twice problems with the topsheet while building three skis): What happens if I leave the topsheet away? In summer I made a longboard and I really like the look of the fiberglass. Has anyone tried this? I think the glasfiber is less durable then a topsheet but there are quite a few people around who use veneer on top. I see the mainproblem with ultraviolett radiation damaging the resin. Maybe there are coatings available that work like sunscreen?[/img]
1. I improved my mold. The upper part is now made of "Siebdruckplatte", a coated plywood with two andvantages: Its is airproof and it is easy to peal of the vacuumtape.
2. The next ski came out pretty good except for a slightly shifted topsheet. The problem was that the ski has inserts and those were marked on the topsheet. But since i could slightly feel one insert, it was easy to figure out were the others are.
3. Then my two prepared cores were used and I had to make a new one.
4. Yesterday was the time for the next layup. I wanted to fix the topsheet with little wirenails to "wings" I previously attached to the core to prevent it from shifting. Worked great during testlayup. Did not work at all with all the resin around. I simply couldn´t find the whole where the wirnails were to fit in. Why? The "wings" were made from small pieces of black plastik and the resin had a blue pigments. The resin filled the whole and I gave up searching because time was running.
So this morning unwrapped the ski and there were three ugly bumps under the topsheet, about 1cm wide, 5 cm long and 2mm high. Looks as if there was to much resin on the upper glasfiber. Besides that the topsheet bends upwards at the sides of the ski. During breakfast I decided not to be frustrated since the base looked ok. So I cut it out to try it.
Next thing I saw was that both skis were not exactly the same. I measured the template quite a few times...
So the next pair will have better templates.
And what I am thinking all the time (since I had twice problems with the topsheet while building three skis): What happens if I leave the topsheet away? In summer I made a longboard and I really like the look of the fiberglass. Has anyone tried this? I think the glasfiber is less durable then a topsheet but there are quite a few people around who use veneer on top. I see the mainproblem with ultraviolett radiation damaging the resin. Maybe there are coatings available that work like sunscreen?[/img]
I think it's tme for an update.
My first ski performer better than I thought even though it was a bit soft in groomers.
The next pair had a few updates.
1. better template
2. core made from ash instead of birch
3. a few strips oft carbon
4. Instead of topsheet I used peelply and coated the ski with resin afterwards.
5. a bit more camber. In Kombination with Super SAP CLR and a curingtemperature oft 35 degree Celsius the camber came out about half of the camber the mold.
Up to now I skied it three days. Performance is about as I wanted it to be.
Right now I am in Chamonix waiting for better conditions.
My first ski performer better than I thought even though it was a bit soft in groomers.
The next pair had a few updates.
1. better template
2. core made from ash instead of birch
3. a few strips oft carbon
4. Instead of topsheet I used peelply and coated the ski with resin afterwards.
5. a bit more camber. In Kombination with Super SAP CLR and a curingtemperature oft 35 degree Celsius the camber came out about half of the camber the mold.
Up to now I skied it three days. Performance is about as I wanted it to be.
Right now I am in Chamonix waiting for better conditions.