Made some skis for this season. I was able to place 2 pairs of skis in a local ski shop and I have another pair to drop off this weekend. Never hurts to ask! The owner was very open to having locally made skis in his shop. We both admit it will take a special buyer. At least they'll get some exposure and people can feel the skis. We'll see what happens.
All skis below are made with ash core, Ipe or Jatoba sidewalls, Flax, Carbon Fiber.
This pair here is 184cm 125-82-108 19.5M radius with kingwood veneer. These will be given to a guy who's been working on a video production for me. The video s/b ready by the end of november. I'll post a link to it when it becomes available.
This pair is 176cm 128-86-116 16.3m radius with a cherry veneer.
This pair is 172cm 125-82-108 16.8M radius with a walnut veneer.
Shit still happens even now. Was trying to press a pair of skis for a trip to colorado coming up soon. The cores were perfect and the layup went with out a hitch.
I was meticulous is the mixing ratio. I pressed the skis normally (8 hrs under pressure and then leaving it over night) and took them out of the press. They looked fine. HOWEVER, I think my epoxy resin reached it's subjective expiration date. After a day of sitting on the table the base in the tip area pulled away. The epoxy was still pliable. Freaked out and pissed off I grabbed the heat gun and tried to soften up the tips and through them back in the press for the day.
Just pulled them out and looks like everything went back together. We'll see if it holds. Probably not taking them to colorado now....
that sucks dude. can you throw some "grommets" in the tips as a safety measure? I'm sure they will ski fine. It sucks when unknown errors occur at our level. So flipping expensive and loss of time.
Looks like I was able to salvage the skis. There's some minor irregularity in the base in the ski tip which should grind out. These are for me so I'm not worried about any imperfection. The rest of the skis are fine.
Not gonna have time to get them done and bindings mounted for Colorado. Leaving wednesday the 14th and got other stuff to get done.
btw for the New Englanders here. Went to Mt Snow today, it was fantastic. A good 10-12 inches of snow fell and left ungroomed!
"It's always something..." :-)
I had the same experience a couple of pairs ago. Forgot to sand the tipspacers properly and didn't flame treat. After "redoing" that part everything was good again. I think you will be good! Happy travel and skiing.
I've tried various products over time. Right now I'm using System Three LPU. Although I seem to be having a problem using it on Kingwood veneer. It peels occasionally. I'm wondering if it's because Kingwood is a tropical wood and contains more oils than other hard woods. When the oil of wood tries to come to the surface it can cause the poly to peel. I'm pretty good about sanding down the top to remove any wax residue after pressing....Maybe could be the the LPU doesn't sick to the skim coat of epoxy too, but I always sand down the veneer and wipe with mineral spirits and let it thoroughly dry before applying LPU. It's always something...
