Ski Builders Forum

What is used for the cat track in the mongo and I beam press's?
it looks fairly light weight.
Cheers

Aluminium square or rectangular hollow section. Some people use steel instead but Al will be heaps lighter (I think 1/3 the weight?). Having said that a 2m long cat track made up of 100 pieces 40cm wide (20mm square 3mm wall aluminium) still weighs about 20kg. And Al is generally a fair bit more expensive than steel. Al is easier to drill though.
You can either use the same size the whole length or some people use wider pieces in the running length then narrower (but with the same height) pieces in the tip curvature where you need the cat track to "bend" more. I think the biggest cross section you want to use expecially in the tips is 25mm x 25mm, but mostly people are using 3/4 inch (about 18mm). Ski tips are generally tigther radius than boards so I would recommend around the 18-20mm size.

I started off with a steel cat-track but it proved too heavy to suspend well and switched to aluminium instead - plenty stiff enough and hands very well.

sorry, but this is getting stupid.

nzskier, you need to learn to search the forums and use them correctly. Most of your q's have been answered many times and these repetitive threads do nothing but clog up the forum.

this has been discussed in depth so many times that it's ridiculous.

Hi I'm pretty new to this, In the process of building my first pair of skis, I have looked around quite a bit to find more information about cat tracks but I still don't understand why people are adding them to their presses, what advantage do they offer?

soooo many threads on this.

http://www.skibuilders.com/phpBB2/viewt ... t=cattrack

http://www.skibuilders.com/phpBB2/viewt ... t=cattrack

http://www.skibuilders.com/phpBB2/viewt ... t=cattrack

The search function on here has actuually improved it would seem

Oh, thanks a bunch. That was exactly what I was looking for but couldn't find for some reason.

MontuckyMadman wrote: The search function on here has actuually improved it would seem

best way to search any site is google.

just go to google type in "material for cat track site:www.skibuilders.com"

and you get to this page : http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=c ... ilders.com
which says this:

I then used 3/4" X 3/4" square tube for the tip and tail ends of the cat track, all material was .065 wall thickness. ...

On the top of the friggin page.

Really, google can answer almost all of lifes questions.

I made this for newb forum tardos

http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=01243 ... 6aso&hl=en

Not admitting to a being newb or tardo ....... I actually use the search function and it works fine.

But thanks for the Google search tips.