In keeping with my Big Lebowski theme I have embarked on a new ski for some friends who wanted something a bit shorter than the Doods, and because I think they will be fun to ski on myself.
Here are the Nihilists. Named for the disbelief in objective truth that I, (maybe we) as a ski builder, hold in the products presented to me by the brand names.
Ski dims.
Length 175cm
Nose width: 135mm
Under foot width 99mm
Tail width 115mm
Side cut rad. 21 m
Running length 1500
Camber ~12-15mm
The pattern is ready and cut from particle board. The form is near completion. The surfaces are in need of some flattening, truing, and a bit of polishing.
I plan to do a pretty standard layup. Nothing too fancy.
Base and edges
VDS rubber on the edges
22 oz. triaxial glass
Ash wood core
22 oz triaxial glass
8 oz. Texalium (silver carbon fiber) topsheet
Maybe something with pretty colors on top to high lite the texalium
Glass and poly tip spacers if needed. I may try to steam and bend the wood core into the tips.
Core profile
Tip thickness 2mm
Mount thickness 10mm
Tail thickness 2mm
The mount area will start 125mm in front of the running length center and end 175mm behind. The flex predictor shows this ski to be a bit stiffer than the Doods and much softer then the Big Lebowskis. The width should allow for good float in powder and enough stiffness to hold on hard pack groomers. The width and side cut should keep them stable at speed for the short length of the ski… for me at least.
The sidewalls will be epoxy coated wood just to keep it simple. Beveled at 15-20 degrees.
It’ll be awhile before I can get back to this project. I have some cabinets to build and a roof to replace before I will be allowed to make more toys. I miss the snow. Wonder how much it would cost to go to Argentina for a ski weekend?
Hafte
Project Nihilism
Moderators: Head Monkey, kelvin, bigKam, skidesmond, chrismp
I have been back to work for a few weeks now and have made some progress on this project. Unfortunately not in a good direction. I decided to press one ski at a time since they were so wide. I didn’t want to have the parts interfere with each other on the form. There were a few wrinkles in the base even with the edges attached. In the past I was able to press out similar wrinkles on other skis. This time how ever it didn’t work. I left too much slack in the vacuum bag thinking that it would wrap round the ski better, and it did. The pleat that was created left too much slack in the bag so the core didn’t press into the base and flatten it out like it should have. There are waves in the base near the tail and the tip edge lifted away from the base so there is a large 2mm gap between the base and the edge that filled with epoxy and cured.
A couple of things I learned from this.
1. bend the edges to fit the curve of the form better. The bag film was not able to push the edge down to the base.
2. Make the bag a bit tighter. Don’t leave a pleat. Let the bag bridge a bit over the gaps between the skis and the edges so that more force is applied down to the surface of the form.
This was also a first attempt at resin swirls. The swirls on the clear base material are OK. The swirls on the top aren’t to hot plus the pigments I found are too pastel for me. They’re just not bright enough. I’m going to check on the pigments from here. http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/Product ... esins.html
I’ll get some pictures posted… some day when my wife lets me use the computer at home.
I’ll have some cores ready in the next few days and I’ll press up a full pair this time and see how things go.
Hafte
A couple of things I learned from this.
1. bend the edges to fit the curve of the form better. The bag film was not able to push the edge down to the base.
2. Make the bag a bit tighter. Don’t leave a pleat. Let the bag bridge a bit over the gaps between the skis and the edges so that more force is applied down to the surface of the form.
This was also a first attempt at resin swirls. The swirls on the clear base material are OK. The swirls on the top aren’t to hot plus the pigments I found are too pastel for me. They’re just not bright enough. I’m going to check on the pigments from here. http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/Product ... esins.html
I’ll get some pictures posted… some day when my wife lets me use the computer at home.
I’ll have some cores ready in the next few days and I’ll press up a full pair this time and see how things go.
Hafte
Nope, no particle board for me. I was just following the Big Lebowski theme. Here are a couple of pictures of the nihilists… well one anyway.
I may see how they hold up to a Elan test. You can’t see the ripples in the base but you sure can feel them. I’lll have to find brighter colors for the resin swirls.
Here is a shot of the tip problem
Hafte
I may see how they hold up to a Elan test. You can’t see the ripples in the base but you sure can feel them. I’lll have to find brighter colors for the resin swirls.
Here is a shot of the tip problem
Hafte
I have to do what davide does most times. I'll get an account set up here on the new picture site and see if that works better.-
hugocacola
- Posts: 191
- Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:00 am
hugocacola, I’m not quit sure how to take this. 
Are you referring to the ski in this thread? It was an attempt at resin swirls like they do on surf boards. I think it failed due to not having a substrate like foam for the resin to soak into. It looked good on the clear base but changed a lot when the rest was applied. The top colors were pulled out into the breather/absorbent ply due, as I said, to not having a substrate for the epoxy to absorb into first. And yep its pretty ugly
The Doods in the other thread are dyed silk and other stuff.
Hafte
Are you referring to the ski in this thread? It was an attempt at resin swirls like they do on surf boards. I think it failed due to not having a substrate like foam for the resin to soak into. It looked good on the clear base but changed a lot when the rest was applied. The top colors were pulled out into the breather/absorbent ply due, as I said, to not having a substrate for the epoxy to absorb into first. And yep its pretty uglyThe Doods in the other thread are dyed silk and other stuff.
Hafte