tempering vs heated press

[sir.orange]

searching around, most people here that use heat to harden their skis do it with a heated press.
a friend of mine, he s building very high quality longboards http://313skateboards.de with vacuum bagging, they temper their boards afterwards in a self made box out of plasterboard. heated with light bulbs and a thermostat to control time/ raise/fall of temperature they get best results. it s cheap to build and accurate to control according to the references given with the epoxies.
i was wodnering if anybody has build something for the size of a pair of skis!???

[twizzstyle]

It depends on the epoxy you are using, some epoxies need a heated cure to achieve best results, some do fine with an ambient temp cure followed by post-curing with heat.

The ski/snowboard industry all use heated cures, so its probably safe to assume for this application thats the best route.

[MontuckyMadman]

It seemed to me that the same ski at the same pressure, same west system resin had a very different feel when cooked at 185 rather than just 100 ambient.

Much snappier and lively.

[Head Monkey]

Heat is always better, even for epoxies designed for a room temp cure. When I vacuum bagged I actually built a “hot box”. You can see it in the pics here: http://www.happymonkeysnowboards.com/mi ... umBagging/

I made this out of 2x4’s, drywall, and foam insulation in between, essentially just like walls with foam insulation. I heated it with heat wire designed to make heated tile floors. I placed the wire directly on the bottom floor of the box, and set thick terracotta tiles on top of it for some thermal mass that would survive opening and closing the door now and then. I used a temperature controller and placed the thermocouple on top of the bagged board before closing the door. One side was a big long door on hinges so it swung down. I put drawer slides on the floor of the box, and that’s where I set the mold. I could pull the mold out a bit to layup, then push the whole thing back into the box and close the door. Vacuum lines for suction and for a gauge went through the floor of the box, so I could check on the vacuum without opening the box. I set my temp for 120F and usually let it cure for 12 hours, but that will depend on your epoxy. The thickness of the wall and all the insulation made this extremely energy efficient.

This box was fantastic especially since I was in an unheated garage. In the winter I just couldn’t keep it warm, but I could properly cure my boards even when it was only 50F in my shop. It was simple to build, and pretty cheap. It was about 2’x2’x7.5’ on the insides… I suppose I used about 2 sheets of drywall, a bunch of 2x4’s, and a few sheets of 3” solid foam insulation. Thing was heavy though… it was a permanent fixture in the shop. I think it took me longer to demolish it than it did to build it!