Creating the camber, tip/tails before final press

[cboyd55]

Hi,

I was curious to see if anyone profiles out the camber, tip and tail shape while profiling the ski. I realize this would take more material, but was curious to see if the camber, tip and tails would hold there shape better, or the shape of the ski not longitudenal with to the wood grain in sections would make it weaker.

Another thought does anyone use a steam box or some other method to shape the cores prior to bending, if so what do these set ups look like.

This was brought on in watching the kingswood video, it looks like his cores are already to shape before they go into the press.

Sorry if this topic has already been discussed.

C

[jlutz05]

yes, most people prebend there cores before pressing. I havnt not done it yet personally, but search the forums and you should find some discussion on it. I have heard of people using large diamter pipes etc. as a bending tools.

[knightsofnii]

we prebend ours right in the press.
water sprayer bottle, like 2 squirts in each tip section, top and bottom,
about 8 minutes at heat in the press. and its bent.

[sammer]

I clamped my tip and tails at the end of the running length in my vacuum mold (slowly)
with a wet rag on top and left it until the rag was dry. Gotta go slow.

sam

[Wannabebuilder]

if I don't prebend and I am pressing at like 100 Fahrenheit with poplar will my skis relax and I will have no upturned tip and tail ?

[chaka]

Loosing camber was one of the thing I was worried about when started building. I´m still pressing at room temp with unprebent cores and my skis have not shown any camber problem. Well, I actually prebend tip spacers but just because im using two pieces of 1,3 mm base to do this and i prefer to bond them together before pressing.
Maybe i´m wrong but i think that camber problems are more probable when you heat the pressing just from bottom or just from top. I´m trying to save some money to buy a press heater.... but I guess I´ll buy a couple so I can heat my lay up from both sides.

[chaka]

Anyway i´ve seen dynastars, atomics, volkls and salomons totally loosing their camber in one season... major brands don´t worry about this as much as we do on this forum.