Success in W. Washington

[Thelongride]

It's so very quiet on here, but thought I'd share a success story. Experimented with vacuum bagging for a while. Which I found to be quite ineffective, and promptly switched to a rigid compression mold. Skis are entirely carbon composite, with a paulownia core, and damping is achieved with VDS inserts. After a little testing I've been pleasantly surprised by their skiability despite the low weight

Anyone else out in Western Washington successfully building skis?

[chrismp]

Nice one! Love the "steil ist geil" graphics...made me laugh!

[luokiteltu]

These are super cool skis! Very curious about what layup you used (triax CF? what weight?) and where you managed to find paulownia for your cores.

[Thelongride]

I know that you can order paulownia directly from paulownia world (though it is a bit pricey). It was amazingly available locally for me from a boat building supplier.

As far as layup: in my experience triaxial carbon fabrics aren't the best way to go. They result in skis that are much too stiff torsionally, and too soft/breakable longitudinally. So I use a biaxial layer and a uniaxial layer, that allows me to modify the weights of the fabrics separately for different width skis. I use ~ 9oz/yd2 uniaxial fabric and 5oz/yd2 biaxial fabric, for most ski widths and lengths, which has resulted in a nice slightly stiff flex.

[NxtGen343]

I am doing something similar with a snowboard right now. I am planning on using bamboo stringers and Sitka spruce as the core and biaxial 6oz carbon fiber instead of glass, and I'm thinking about adding carbon fiber A-frames on the nose and tail, also with VDS rubber on sides and a p-tex sidewall and full steel edge. I would appreciate any suggestions for getting a good stiff medium flex as this is my first time making a snowboard.

[pmg]

Yes, the "Steil ist geil" Ski really looks nice, especially when understanding german