Ski Builders Forum

I know this has been discussed but I would like to know if anyone is currently using base material as tip and tail spacer material and how it has worked and held up. We have a bunch of base material that looks to be abraided on both sides. We also have some base material that is abraided only on one side so I probably would not try and use that for tip and tail spacer for obvious reasons (unless somebody knows otherwise). I have been thinking about this recently as a way to "recycle" some of our scrap material and also to save in the amount of different types of materials we order. I know that base material is usually 1.2 to 1.7 mm thick depending on where/what you order. We have some 1.5mm thick stuff and we usually profile our cores down to 2mm so there will be a small gap. I don't think I would worry about this gap but if somebody has suggestions on what they have done or would do that would be great.

that half mm difference will make a softer tip and tail.

what if I double up 1.2mm to get 2.4mm. Will that be too thick/stiff?

maybe if you add another layer of light fibreglass or vds rubber to account for the small gap?
dont know it that would increase stiffness to normal.

I just finished a pair of 66cm skis for my little girl. I used the extra base material (lime green, 1.3 mm thick) for the tip and tail spacers. I used some coarse sand paper to texture the smooth side of the spacers, then flame treated both sides of the spacers. They are slightly more flexible, but still plenty stiff for tips and tails. They retained the mold shape just as well as (if not better than) other skis I've made. The thinner material complies to the mold shape easier than the thicker material.

In order to better match the thickness of thicker cores, you could use two layers of spacer material. I don't think two layers (2.4mm) would be too stiff either. My wife's pair of K2 Seth Pistols have 2.7mm thick spacers. My old pair of Volkl P10s have 3mm spacers. The spacer material I've used from snowboardmaterials.com and skibuilders.com is just under 2.1mm thick.

Thanks for the info rburgon. This is good to know. Do you think you have to abraid and flame treat both sides? We have a ski in the press right now with the spacer material from the skibuilder's store, but I think I will try the base material in the future.

I don't really know if abrasion and flame treating is much better than just abrasion. I have always flame treated polyethylene components prior to bonding.

It snowed about 5 inches on our front lawn this afternoon, so my daughter got to tromp around in the snow with her new skis. Fun!!!!

Happy Ski Building