Ski Builders Forum

Sherpa Burns wrote:Twizz! Lookin good! Just bend the brakes with vise and a pipe. You can heat them up if you need. If the plastic melts, that's great. I've been replacing the plastic tabs on my brakes with bullet casings. Fill them with JB Weld and push them into place. I've never had so many comments after people see bullets for brakes.
Also, good to hear the bases are coming out flat now. What was it?

I don't know what was the smoking gun, since I changed a few things. The last few pairs I've done have had convex bases. For these skis I heated at a lower temp (150deg instead of 180 deg) and a lower pressure (50psi instead of 65psi). But I think the biggy is that I did not do an edge rabbit! I've always done an edge rabbit, but now I am putting a layer of cf down the middle, which has some finite thickness. I figure by leaving out the edge rabbit, maybe the cf is taking up that void between the edge tines. Whatever did it, they came out almost perfect, only a few passes on the grinder!

It's not leaving a low spot between where the extra layer of CF starts and the edge? I was having an issue awhile back where I was rabbiting too far in and the base was sucking up in the void between the core and the edge tangs.. It left a few small pockets that took too many passes on the grinder to keep me from stressing out.
I honestly think 50psi is plenty of pressure. I was trying super high pressure (80) and found the edges/sidewalls were denting my mold. Not cool when I am having 21 ribs CNC cut to make the bottom mold. 50 has been my sweet spot and I have been getting almost a perfect flatness (less than .1mm concave at present). Always something.

Skied on these today, they're great. I would say the best skiing skis I've ever made, but I think I say that about every ski I make, ha! Whatever, they're awesome!

Coolers!
I know the feeling! I've only have had one fail so far...

Just noticed the artist that I used the art from posted about the skis on her blog. Cool! Very nice to see her as happy as I was to use her art.

http://theorganicartist.wordpress.com/2 ... -on-skiis/

Also I fixed my binding issue - got the new Look Pivots, turns out the toe has the exact same bolt pattern as the old Looks, so that was easy. For the heels, there are 4 bolts. The front two were the same as the old ones, the back two were a bit forward of the old ones. So I machined these aluminum adapter plates that I bolt onto the ski, then the binding bolts onto the plate. Works great! Of course my heel is 3/8" higher than the toe, but I don't notice it at all skiing. If I really wanted I could make risers for the toes as well, but meh. Works as-is.

Riser plate.... I think there are some binding manufactures that put a riser plate on the heel to keep the racer forward, a good thing.

btw- My niece does art as well and I want to use her art for a top sheet for a one of a kind ski. We talked about it and she's all for it.

Cool stuff, nice art Twizz .

Twizz, is the art work on paper or did you have it printed on clear topsheet material?

skidesmond wrote:Twizz, is the art work on paper or did you have it printed on clear topsheet material?

Sublimated white nylon, by Miller Studios The stuff is awesome, just a touch more expensive than the PBT, but really cool stuff!