Ski Builders Forum

a.badner wrote:if any body is looking to make an incredibly cheap pneumatic press that works. i guess you can follow this.

NOT!
a fabric press will cost you around 100$ if done right and it's a proven and safe design.

mind you got most of the steel for free or cheap. not everyone is that lucky.

still, good luck with your press. i think you're gonna need it.

THIS IS IT. SOMEONE CALL THIS KIDS MOMMY.

PULL HIS IP FROM HERE OR NEWSCHOOLERS.

CALL HIS PARENTS.

YOU MUST TRIPLE OR QUADRUPLE THE TUBE STOCK CROSS SUPPORTS.

What you have is very dangerous. You have no clue.
You have proven in every one of your posts that most likely you will become a drain on society. It the interest of public safety for those around you, you must stop now and take a community college physics class next summer or increase the supports on that POS.

Adults are allowed to make decisions that may hurt themselves because they are adults, but when you put the potential for injury on others, severe consequences will happen, even if you are 15.

You have proven unable to make good decisions and it is time for the parental figures to step in.
I don't care about you but you may have a freind or family member who contributes positively to our society and we don't want them killed or severely maimed. We can only hope that in this instance the apple fell far from the tree and the adults in your life are smart enough to read and understand this thread and make the appropriate changes that must be made.

I am not going to post in this thread anymore but someone should seriously intervene here.

a.badner, call a steel supplier in your area and have them cut and drill some angle to support that beast. I used 4 sets of 3"x3"x3/8" angle iron, with 5/8" all thread and grade 8 bolts. It cost me a couple hundred for all that material and for the fabricator to cut and drill holes for me. You have already spent $1000, spend $200 more for a little piece of mind. I dont know all of the details of your press so I cant say these added angle bracket will be enough but your current set up is a disaster waiting to happen.

Again, are you even using "true" steel?

This picture looks like another piece of leftover industrial shelving, and it was never designed to carry a load like this. On top of that, who knows what the grade of material is.

Free material is great, but not when it kills or maims you.

Ok, I've never built a snowboard or ski, although I'm working on it. I've been researching the topic for about 3 years now and have read just about everything I can get my eyes on. I've played with forms, jigs, templates, ect. I think I know everything there is to know about building without having the practical experience of having done so.

I'm being patient, saving my money and biding my time. Why? Because I've gone face first into too many things that have cost me too much money or pain. I call this the "stupid tax" and that tax is indeed high.

That being said, vacuum bag it until you can make a proper press. Your stuff will turn out better. Coiler and Happy Monkey both did it for the first couple years and their stuff came out just fine. They just weighed a little more. That thing could throw a piece of steel as fast as a bullet and kill someone. Involuntary manslaughter, or your own death carries a rather hefty punishment for something so easily avoidable.

Clearly you're fairly bright, I think the expanding foam in the crib was brilliant! Don't be in too big of a hurry to "git 'er done". Mistakes will happen but don't make the ones staring you in the face.

little update.
still doing testing.
its fine.
no more deflection.
i have three cross sections.
currently working on a way to make them easy on and easy off.
next update, will be when i layed up one ski.

........

Funny thought: I'm thinkin' "Insomnia" is a good name for you, considering that there are probably a few people losing sleep over your press. :P Personally, I'm not losing any sleep, but my $.02 is that I agree with the other guys who believe that you are building a time bomb. I did some pretty stupid things at your age, but on the other hand, I probably listened to advice a lot better than you seem to. FWIW, I meant that in a constructive way- it wasn't meant to sound nasty.

Hey mate, you need to listen to these guys, this is the concerned voice of experience from several people who have either learnt the hard way or know better cause they have the nouse. Their only motivation in advising you is to stop you killing or maiming yourself or your family/mates. If your press didn't/doesn't break first time its used doesn't mean that its built or designed well to cope. The chances of a serious injury here is right up there. You ever seen or heard of a truck or tractor tyre exploding whilst being repaired and put back on the rim? its deadly and the pressures are pretty similar. Read this link below for an example if you can use google you'll find the info in seconds validating all the concerns that have been told to you http://www.tirecageinflation.com/ I strongly advise you step back and review the other designs out there, and take the advice very seriously. Nothing personal about it this is just advise you need to listen to bud.

hey guys thanks for all the feed back. wether good or bad.

but

the press works great. No deflection in any spot. Its no time bomb, ive been testing it every day. i got the hoses to inflate to 70 psi. but at that point i started to hear wood cracking. (either from the top mold or cat track. ) so i imediatley stopped.

made a aluminium cassette, waxed with somthing called k-wax. bought from plastic world. apperently it makes every epoxy resistant.

on another note.

i did some flex tests. since i got most of the materials, i started to do flex tests. so laying up skis with out bases,vds, edges or topsheet. i can do this because i ordered 50m of fiber glass, and 120m uniglass and 3 gallons of epoxy and hardener. so composites not a problem. and i bought a box of unvarnished ash floorboards. to my dimensions.

so first i profiled the cores.
and then cut variations of composites to size
next mixed the epoxy
layed up 3 different varitions and pressed them.

next morning, i went to check the flex templates.

so far what composite pattern work the best for me was
triax,
core
uni
triax on the under foot.
(a little bit too soft but i think bases and edges will make it stiffer)

i think the revchem epoxy is alot stiffer compared to qcm and west, because i layed this one up to be the softest. the stiffest (triax,core, triax) was like a two x four.

but just a little update for those who care.

but im still super happy my press didnt explode ... yet.

hey guys thanks for all the feed back. wether good or bad.

but

the press works great. No deflection in any spot. Its no time bomb, ive been testing it every day. i got the hoses to inflate to 70 psi. but at that point i started to hear wood cracking. (either from the top mold or cat track. ) so i imediatley stopped.

made a aluminium cassette, waxed with somthing called k-wax. bought from plastic world. apperently it makes every epoxy resistant.

on another note.

i did some flex tests. since i got most of the materials, i started to do flex tests. so laying up skis with out bases,vds, edges or topsheet. i can do this because i ordered 50m of fiber glass, and 120m uniglass and 3 gallons of epoxy and hardener. so composites not a problem. and i bought a box of unvarnished ash floorboards. to my dimensions.

so first i profiled the cores.
and then cut variations of composites to size
next mixed the epoxy
layed up 3 different varitions and pressed them.

next morning, i went to check the flex templates.

so far what composite pattern work the best for me was
triax,
core
uni
triax on the under foot.
(a little bit too soft but i think bases and edges will make it stiffer)

i think the revchem epoxy is alot stiffer compared to qcm and west, because i layed this one up to be the softest. the stiffest (triax,core, triax) was like a two x four.

but just a little update for those who care.

but im still super happy my press didnt explode ... yet.

That's a good idea - look forward to hearing whether they ski as you expect.

Have you sorted out your cores? Are you getting the results you want from the planner?

a.badner wrote:Its no time bomb, ive been testing it every day.

a.badner wrote:but im still super happy my press didnt explode ... yet.

Uh, OK.

lmao
while i was writing it i thought i was going to get some remark telling me that it will explode. and i wanted to avoid that. so at the end i added the yet.

a.badner wrote:lmao
while i was writing it i thought i was going to get some remark telling me that it will explode. and i wanted to avoid that. so at the end i added the yet.

Seems you shot yourself in the foot.