Sun Dogs

[Nick's Sticks]

Frame: I built my press frame out of 2x4s and plywood. It might not look as bomb proof as some of the others out there but wood is a fantastic building material. I built two box beams sheathed with ¾ in plywood, turned them sideways and BAM! The top and bottom of the frame are done. I used 5/8" all thread and 1" square stock to hold the thing together and so far it works like a charm.


Mold: The mold was made using mdf. The tip and tail sections are not attached to the mid sections so I can adjust the length of the the mold. Unfortunately I can’t adjust the camber but shortening the mold only looses a few mil of camber. The mold’s tail section can be used to make either flat or twin tip skis.





Above the mdf is a layer of hardboard followed by a layer of sheet metal to smooth things out.



Bladder: The bladder was made from four lengths of fire hose I got at Boing Surplus. Since they only had 3” hose I had to several lengths to cover both skis. I layed another layer of sheet metal between the top of the ski and the bottom of the fire hose.


Ski :
Layup and design:
From the bottom up…
P-tex base
22oz glass layer
Pine and poplar core
Two 4oz glass layer
Cloth graphics
Clear top sheet

the skis are 137-100-120ish.



The layup went pretty straight forward. I realized as soon as I inflated the bladder I had forgotten to nail down my cores so they wouldn’t shit. They did, but not so much as to be unfixable. Coming out of the press they feel soft. Better than my first skis but still softer tails than I would like. I think on my next pair I will ramp up the thickness of my cores.

[plywood]

nice idea with the multiple hoses! how do these work? one valve per hose?

and your radius in tip/tail looks pretty tight.didn`t you have any troubles with getting the woodcores into shape?

[Nick's Sticks]

The tip radius isn't really that tight. I copied the curve of my k2s to make the mold. Pressing at 25 psi was more than enough to make the wood flex into place. The tail section is very tight but I use mostly plastic back there and it flexes much easier.

As for the hoses I have one valve/regulator for the lot. It would be nice if they were larger but you can't beat cheap material.