Cornice Skis

Cornice · Post by **Cornice** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 11:07 pm

FIRST PAIR WOOOO!

Ok just finished trimming these things out and oh boy am i stoked.

All the crap ready to go. I put clothes pins on the VDS and carbon to keep it from unwinding. Worked great!!! Dowel pins on the bases works great!

The heat pad worked and i made 175F in no time.

I used a bit of double sided tape to keep the bases from sliding all over the place. The ink from the aluminum transferred right to the base.

The edges turned out 10x better. I could still spend some more time on this part and get a better finish but its better then most of my factory skis. I pre bent the tips this time. That kept the edges from pulling the base material away at the ends. Maybe thats because i dont have enough pressure at the tips...

White top sheets. Hopefully i will have some stickers later but i really dont care right now. I dont really want to spend benjamins on graphics until i am a bit more happy with the guts. OHHHH i also got some 6" vinyl graphics tape. Sticky as f but keeps the top sheets looking good. WAYYYY better then packaging tape and it was cheap! Peals off with zero effort.

I always wanted skis with different color bases and now i have them muhahaha. The bases came out perfectly flat. I still need to have them base ground. I dont have a grinder.

Specs are

142-109-126 width
193 length
Pressed 30 mins at 175F and 55psi.
Top heat only.
West systems Epoxy
Poplar core
Base material filler
1 Crown base and its yellow unknown friend
Black UHMW sidewalls
190z triax
7.5 oz carbon strip on top
Weight after grind

Skis are really hard to take pictures of. sorry

skidesmond · Post by **skidesmond** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:25 am

Nice! Tell me more about the vinyl graphics tape? Where did you buy it? I'm assuming you can run it through a home printer?

Don't forget to tell us how they well they ski!

Cornice · Post by **Cornice** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:03 am

skidesmond- It is the tape falls said to get. The application vinyl tape. To protect to top sheet not for printing on. Got it on amazon for $26 for 300 ft.
that make more sense

dane · Post by **dane** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 12:10 pm

I use something called Oracal from US Cutters. Same thing, just a vynil application tape, but relatively cheap for a really large roll. I make snowboards though, so I needed more than 6" width...

SHIF · Post by **SHIF** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 1:21 pm

I'm curious, why just heat on top?

BTW, those skis look very good. I like the two different colored bases. I'm thinking of doing a pair with two colors; tip and tails different color with a butt joint at the mid-boot line (should make locating my drilling jig easier). Also having each skis colors opposite from the other.

I also use application tape to protect things during the lay-up: TransferRite 592u Application Tape - 6.5" x 300ft, cheap from eBay.

-S

troublemaker · Post by **troublemaker** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 4:09 pm

dane wrote:I use something called Oracal from US Cutters. Same thing, just a vynil application tape, but relatively cheap for a really large roll. I make snowboards though, so I needed more than 6" width...

You can get transfer paper up to 36" pretty easy. Oracal is the brand, they also make different tack. Low, medium, and high tack, medium tack works good for skis and boards and stuff like that.

Cornice · Post by **Cornice** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 4:34 pm

shif- I was hoping to get some reverse camber with the deferential heat. I pressed with a flat base mold except for a 3mm shim on the tip radius tapering off into the base. At its maximum i probably got 2mm of reverse camber measuring between the two skis.

TAIL

TIP

falls · Post by **falls** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 7:50 pm

nice work on pair number 1

Cornice · Post by **Cornice** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:50 pm

First pair are at a local ski shop getting a grind.
I have read others experience with taking their "homemade" skis to a ski shop for a grind. They were not met with any kind of enthusiastic response. In fact i should have just tried somewhere else but there are not many options. Dude complained that the bases were not flat (they are) and "proved" it to me by placing his square bar on a pool of epoxy and the other side on a clean edge. Of course there is a gap there! Dude also said he would need to take ALLOT off to get them flat with the belt and even then the stone would probably not get all the base because they were sooo "not flat."
Now i could tell right away that this guy probably is this way on a regular day and probably complains about free lunch let alone anything out of the ordinary on his work day. But g dam kinda a pain to deal with people like this. Every factory video i have seen skis have to get a fair amount of grinding and a hell of a lot more then a factory ski with one season on it.
I guess REI has a machine maybe i will try them next pair.

vinman · Post by **vinman** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 3:21 am

If they are not used to seeing a raw base, of course they will not look flat. I got lucky with my shop they are stoked to see every pair I bring in, plus they change me only $20 per pair.

One thing that worked out for me this year was that I'm using edge with a1.3mm step height and the base is 1.4mm, so I've got an extra tenth or so to give that is heeling me keep things flat and not have them have to grind so much.

ben_mtl · Post by **ben_mtl** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 4:10 am

Since I moved last year it's been a pain to find a shop that would grind the bases correclty : the first one did EVERYTHING with the stone ! it took ages ! The second one (closer to home) had me waiting for 5 days before the "tech" said "I won't do that, those skis will break while grinding them and it's gonna ruin my belt" -» banned shop, it's a race-oriented ski shop at the base of my local hill. My last try was at a bigger sports shop "downtown", I was not expecting anything but the tech was super friendly and really happy to help, it was cheap and the job was OK... I hope he's still here this year as I have 6 pairs to bring him next week :p

Best experience was in Nelson, BC, I brought there the first pair I made, the base was not much flat, the tech was super nice, we talked for about an hour about ski building, He was telling me some of the big brand skis he received in the past had less flatness on their base after the factory grind than mine before it ! (I doubt it's really true but that was nice !)... oh and he was so stoked he ground the skis for free !

falls · Post by **falls** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 1:08 pm

The shop I get mine done at always use just the stone to grind them. They always tell me they are amazed by how flat the bases are and tell me too they are flatter than a lot of commercial skis after their factory grind. They told me their record of playing cards under the true bar on a new pair of skis is something like 6 or 7 due to a severe concave base.

MontuckyMadman · Post by **MontuckyMadman** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 1:17 pm

It should be only a couple passes with the 80 grit belt to remove excess epoxy and create flatness. You may have concavity towards the tip and tails but you don't ride there. Chances are he doesn't even have a belt with enough grit to take off the epoxy.
Ski Shop guys are either super cool or mega douches.
You can scrap them back or hit them a bit with a belt sander to remove epoxy from the edges and some pockets on the base.
Try another shop.

vinman · Post by **vinman** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 1:48 pm

I also go proactive and point out spots for them to pay attention to. And ask them not to go and nuke those spots to flatten everything and grind to much away.

carnold · Post by **carnold** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 1:16 am

Hi Tim
Do you want to give a plug to your guys? Dajavu in Essondon are OK but they are belt only.
C.

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