Ski Builders Forum

What about a wood veneer as thick as edge teeth routed to fit inside them?
No need to glue it to the core, just put it in place during the lay up. It also helps on tips when using full wrap edges.

chaka wrote:What about a wood veneer as thick as edge teeth routed to fit inside them?
No need to glue it to the core, just put it in place during the lay up. It also helps on tips when using full wrap edges.

Honestly, I don't think that would practical, or even particularly effective. it seems it would be difficult and/or take a long time to make, then trying to get the teeth aligned into the holes, then stay there while you move on, would be a stuggle. Also, this method assumes a full core. Much easier, IMHO, to get an exact cut on the base and "bury" the core, than it is to get an exact core shape.

http://www.grownskis.com/images.html Not for everyone perhaps.

Removed - thks SHIF.

Error in your link, has an extra dot at the end.

Try this:
http://www.grownskis.com/images.html

Nice looking skis. Looks like veener wood inside the edge tabs just like suggested in this thread. I'm not brave enough to use transparent base material, mine would turn out fugly.

Basalt fiber too, I don't know where to buy this stuff.

These skis have a good base grind structure (see image 10).

-S

UK: http://www.rtctextiles.co.uk/ - they have sent samples in the past. There appear to be a few in the US, but not sure what's local.

they look nice
with all these ski companies around I never know whether to be encouraged and think I should start one too seeing as everyone has a company that is going well, or to be discouraged that the market is so saturated that there is no way another company can be profitable!

For what it is worth I didn't get around to "shouldering" the core on my first pair and the bases came out flat. I pressed at 50psi in pneumatic press.

falls wrote:they look nice
with all these ski companies around I never know whether to be encouraged and think I should start one too seeing as everyone has a company that is going well, or to be discouraged that the market is so saturated that there is no way another company can be profitable!

.

Nobody is getting rich. Break even is "doing well". The only way to make any money in this industry is with volume, or very expensive custom builds.

I like those skis ( www.grownskis.com) I'm partial to the wood veneer top sheets. I like the mold they use to do the ski layup in. Wonder how they keep it clean from epoxy build up.

As for making skis for a living... For me, I'd have to sell at least 200 skis a year to make a decent living. Which means there's no way I could produce that amount skis out of my basement. So I'd have to buy/build/rent a separate place to build skis... hire some kid to help out... ie run it like a real business vs a hobby. But it's nice to dream about it instead of working for "The Man".

Yup, eventually it will become a job.
Then getting out of bed, to go spend another day cutting fiberglass etc, is a dreadful proposition.
Might be alright for a year or so.
But if your making enough to keep your minions employed and you can just go test ski designs it would be a pretty sweet job.

sam

Maybe it's better to have the dream than the reality

I didn't rout the edges in my first core and while the base ended up flat, there are visible indents from the teeth:



Initially I thought it was deformation in the edges from hand bending but the marks start and end exactly along the sidewall.

I've done the next cores, routed to the width of the edge using a rabbiting bit on a router table. Was easy as pie, just ran the sidewall along the bearing. Took about 10 mins to do 6 cores, plus a little setup time (my router is a little broken so can be finnicky to set up).

That technique seems to work really well alex for the wood sidewall skis/boards. There was a recent thread that showed it pretty crap for plastic sidewalls. However, I think the router table setup would make it more effective because of the downward pressure (?).

Alex13 wrote:I didn't rout the edges in my first core and while the base ended up flat, there are visible indents from the teeth:



Initially I thought it was deformation in the edges from hand bending but the marks start and end exactly along the sidewall.

It almost look like your edges shrunk.
Are you using heat / did you let it cool before you pulled it out of the press?
Something caused that but I'm pretty sure it wasn't not routing your cores.
I've never routed for my edges my top sheets come out concave but my bases are usually pretty flat.

sam

Yep using heat, I press at 85C and let it cool to 50C before pulling out.

I've got my second board going in to the press tonight, with routed edges. Will let you know what changes there are.

The teeth marks start and end exactly where the sidewalls meet the tip/tail spacers. The lack of routing to me seems the most plausible explanation. The wood I use for sidewalls is very hard and dense, a softer wood or plastic may not do the same thing.

I reckon the sidewall wood is so hard that when the pressure is applied the edge teeth don't indent the wood at all so they are forced downwards into the much softer plastic. When the sidewall ends the teeth are able to push into the tip fill plastic a little so they're not forced as hard down into the base material.
How hard (psi) did you press that first board?
The other possibility is I think you ended up with base plastic slightly thinner than the edge step? Might have something to do with it?