Ski Builders Forum

two out of the bag yesterday, first was another bamboo park ski, exactly like the first pair. only issue is i forgot my little logo (i hadn't yet put it on my giant layup checklist yet and realized it right before i put on the topsheet). other than that one of my tipspacers swam away a touch but nothing to write home about.


second pair out is a soft alder and ash park ski. these weren't even going to be cores a week ago, but when i checked them and they were at 10.8 i decided fcuk it and threw some CF in there to make a pair of jib sticks. more just experimental skis than anything at 10.5 underfoot which extends flat out in both directions pretty far. if they suck i'll just give them away to some teenager that's nice and light.


now for my morning disaster of a layup. twizz, the complacency you were talking about finally really hit. when i did my dry run, i centered up my FG on the tails and it looked good width wise, then i quickly ran it to the tips to check the length (didn't check the width) and folded it back up. this led during the layup to me frantically stretching the fiberglass down the center to try and cover to the outside of the vds, which it came very close to doing. then by the time the top layer came about i had the bright idea to cut the FG down the middle and split it, which i also had to do with the topsheet. we'll see if it all worked in a few hours.

no real way to tell if the stretching worked because the vds is covering it. but damn, are they pretty. 4" strip of 11oz carbon below the core.



and my first wood veneer pair, full width 11 oz carbon below the core and a 1.5" strip of 6 oz carbon above. these ones are for my old man.

Wow you have been busy

last layup is done. technically my worst pair yet! two of the tipspacers didn't seat all the way and overlapped the core and it appears i had some core shift, won't be able to tell if it cleared the edge til i cut them out, it's too close to tell.

ugh, i bit off a lot on this first run. at least if they're fcuked they can be pretty wall art.

Tape the tip spacer to your cores top and bottom with paper micropore tape. It wets out with epoxy and the spacer should stay put.
http://www.3m.com/product/information/M ... -Tape.html

+1 on the micropore tape! Guarantees you'll have no slipping or overlap of our tip spacers, and it's thin enough to not leave an imprint in the base or topsheet (I only do it on the bottom).

Those veneer skis look great. Just wait till you trim the flashing off, they're REALLY going to look nice!

I'm sure we can all relate to the panic feeling when things don't go right during layup and you've got epoxy mixed up and curing. I had a good laugh at the idea of trying to stretch the fiberglass. Especially with sticky epoxy covered gloves... I bet it was a mess. That's desperation if I've ever seen it! Glad they turned out ok!

twizzstyle wrote:+1 on the micropore tape! Guarantees you'll have no slipping or overlap of our tip spacers, and it's thin enough to not leave an imprint in the base or topsheet (I only do it on the bottom).

i've been using athletic tape with some dabs of superglue. i should he seen the writing on the wall, when i placed the cores+spacers on the mold i had to fight it to get it to pop into place over the core, i must have put the tape on too tight. then i'm sure when i wetted out the top glass they both popped right up.

the good news is my frantic glass stretching worked, the core shift stayed within the edges, and all of the flexes feel GREAT. the only debby downer of the whole bunch was the the veneer all the way to the left shifted at some point, so it looks like it won't completely cover the ski. the bevel MIGHT take care of it though, hopefully my luck continues...

Live and learn. Learn and improve with each pair. Some of the best lessons are learned the hard way.

Good looking skis. +1 for the paper first aid tape. I use it to do my veneer top sheets joinery and tip spacers. I've seen first hand a big snowboard company using it for their tip spacers and die cut bases.

Jus don't use too much. You want your epoxy to get into the tip spacer joints too.

i'll have to try out that tape you're talking about. i don't tape any of my veneer joints, i glue them a day or so before the layup. my absolute biggest area for improvement is core alignment, my current method just isn't going to hack it anymore. maybe i'll go to dowel style pegs or something.

just cleaned them up on the sander and bevelled the sidewalls. OF COURSE the first ski i did the collar below the bearing on my flush cut bit somehow vibrated it's way down and i gouged a chunk out of the sidewall, but oh well, those were just jib skis.

epoxy is curing on the sidewalls now, i'll post up some detailed photos and stats of each model tomorrow.

What's the collective noun for skis? A shred of skis? A lineup of skis? Nah. A quiver of skis!
Nice building speed. Make sure to create a process to stop the mistakes you have encountered from happening again. The same thing going wrong a second time really sucks.

That's one downfall of doing lots of skis in one run - you do the same process for each pair, right or wrong. Spacing them out lets you improve your process with each pair. We all do things a little differently on here, based on our own personal successes and failures (especially with things like tip spacer attaching and core alignment... we all have methods we swear by... like medipore tape and superglued dowels for core alignment, both of which I use and swear by )

Medipore tape:



I use a 3" wide by about 1" long piece across the middle of the tip spacer (I also just do a straight seam across the ski, no curves or points anymore), just on the bottom. By doing it just on the bottom, as its pressed in the mold the tip spacer is pushed against the core, but not allowed to overlap.

The Torc. 190 cm, 148-118-144, 1 cm camber underfoot. Alder and ash core (bamboo sidewalls) with 4" of 6 oz carbon fiber below the core. Weight per ski: 2400g


My favorite of the bunch, The Ms. New Booty. Oddly enough, because it is absolutely the worst as far as being technically sound. two tipspacers didn't seat, the core shifted, there's some awkward bulge underneath the topsheet (maybe i left a razor blade in there haha?), and the veneer didn't totally cover the ski. All of that aside, they have snappy flexy and are light as hell and i love the shape and feel of them. 186 cm, 154-128-148, flat underfoot. Paulownia and ash core (bamboo sidewalls) with full width 6 oz carbon fiber above and below the core. Walnut veneer with red oak noses. Weight per ski: 2250g


The Pappy Pro. 184 cm, 132-98-113, 1.5 cm camber underfoot. Paulownia and ash core (bamboo sidewalls) with 4" of 6 oz carbon fiber below the core and 1.5" above. Walnut veneer with a red oak stripe. Technically speaking the most sound ski I made, and thankfully so because my dad won't ski on bullshit. Weight per ski: 1830g


The Culo Flat. 180 cm, 118-91-118, flat underfoot. Bamboo core with 1.5" of 6 oz carbon fiber above and below the core, the pair without carbon is really soft. I plan on breaking all three pairs filming silly urban things in the cities. This will probably also be the last bamboo ski i make, they are heavy and "lunky" if that makes sense. Weight per ski: Avg of 2150g


The Culo Reg. 180 cm, 118-91-118, 0.5 cm camber underfoot. Alder and ash core with 1.5" of 6 oz carbon fiber above and below the core. Weight per ski: 1920g

Sweet! No idea how you have built that many skis in a few days...

finally! TR is up... http://www.skibuilders.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4591