Ski Builders Forum

Congrats Rich!

Got some good stuff happening here, my Facebook page SPLITN2 has a new pair of sub 1KG 160cm Super Tourers. These pics were before final finishing , they will get a light gloss to tart them up a bit. Pretty stoked they came out so light, they will be tough but obviously there are limits. These still have a 1.4mm base and meaty edge, plus the tough ash sidewalls, cured at 80 deg cel, kevlar/carbon topsheet and biaxial carbon plus uni bottom under core. Main core is cedar with foaming epoxy stringers. All experimental, damn good fun! Sorry guys you'll need to go to my Facebook as I have nowhere to post pictures. the pics include some basic photos of my vacuum holddown profiling bench which is pretty dialed right now.

CNC project is back on the front burner as I really need it to speed up development and production.

Good luck with your ski builds guys and thanks again for your advice and support.

Cheers
Rich

would like to here more about the foaming epoxy please. thanks

richie wrote:Sorry guys you'll need to go to my Facebook as I have nowhere to post pictures.

If you right-click on the images in facebook, you can get a direct link and then post them here with the IMG tags.

See?

Hi Montucky, I used foaming epoxy 20 years ago (its def epoxy and not polyurethane) to reinforce the polystyrene under footstraps on windsurfers we built. Its got a third additive that is called a "blowing agent" that makes it foam up to 8x its volume. Its got good compressive strength so as a space filler its good. Not sure but it should last as well as divinicell does, and its self bonding foam of course as it loves to stick to timber!!!

Thanks for the tip on the facebook Twizz! Here is the ski's for anyone curious, just after first trimming off the flash but before the final sidewall tidyup.



cheers
Rich

would like to here more about your vacuum holddown profiling bench.
thanks

Nice Rich!

well its pretty simple but it works well, I have my grandma's old Kirby vacuum cleaner, all 650w of it which I was dubious whether it would hold, then it sucks through a distribution pipe through the middle and each end of the table. On top of the table is another 2 layers of mdf that are channelled out to do further air distribution, then through holes in the top to rows and rows of very shallow channels. The work piece is sat on top and all masked around the edges to seal leaks. Then power up the vacuum and it pulls down , check for leaks and seal if necessary then start routing/profiling!!!! So far it has been good, you need to ensure the seal keeps good or the thin tips and tails can get flappy and its good night core then! My profiling trolley runs over cnc cut profile templates to then thickness the core, I find I have to keep cleaning the bearing rollers as they gum up a wee bit with sawdust and tape scraps combining to cause bumps on the rollers, so I do a few rough cuts, hoovering between each cut and cleaning rollers, then one or two smooth fine cuts to finish then a light sand with 80 grit to clean off any tool marks. Now this has gone from teh highest stress job to much lower stress, which I hope means less beer! BTSR is still too high, kilos are going on not off.....

Thank you.

You can try to use flanged or V-groove bearings or any other kind with smaller surface contact maybe it helps with amount of dust buildup.

How about leaf blower/vac for suction it produce lot bigger airflow

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... BRlj6NIk8c

Hey Richie,
Just looking at your vac bed there- That's it with the profiled cores on it in the facebook album of your touring skis, yeah?

Have you thought about routing those channels a little deeper, having a couple of central vac ports that would always be covered by the workpiece, then using some vacuum seal rubber to zone the vacuum to the area inside any specific thing you'd care to clamp?

We've just redesigned our CNC vacuum beds at work, and the improvement in workpiece hold down with deeper channels was dramatic. The other big improvement was moving from a complicated distribution arrangement to the shortest one possible - minimising that pressure drop between the workpiece and the vacuum pump.

Let me know if you need some sealing rubber, or pics to show you what I'm trying (probably poorly) to describe.

Im confused. these are 900grams for the pair or each ski?

Hi Montucky, yeah 990g per ski, crikey if I could build a pair @ 990g I think I'd get a few sales until they all broke!!! So far these 990g skis have passed the test , next ones will be 100g lighter but should be a lot stronger yet. these are for a super touring system, not everyday blasting pow and hucking cliffs. cheers, Rich

Hey Rich,

Awesome to see the kevlar/carbon combo, would be interesting to try for a lighter combo of PVC foam and carbon... not sure about durability though.

Cool idea with the expanding foam! How much do you reckon it saves overall?

Will