Ski Builders Forum

Hey guys, I have been researching building skis for quite some time now and I finally have an opportunity to maybe think about doing it. I have a couple of months before I start Winter semester at college and I have a decent sum of cash in my savings because I was planning on moving to Montana but that fell through.
That being said I now have 3 months of completely spare time and about $900 to work with. I did some rough calculations of cost based off of the pneumatic press design on the how to section and I got a total cost of around $775. That is including all of the steel, fasteners, and bladder. My question to you guys is whether this is actually a doable project for my budget. I am just talking about the press not any ski materials or anything.
Also, roughly how much will it cost per pair of skis once I get a press built? Thanks. Sorry if there is already threads on this, but I searched and couldn't find anything so I made this.

A long time ago in galaxy far,
far away ....

STAR WARS

Eposide IV

HOSE-MAN's CHRONICLES

It is a period of new adventure ... good luck!

It's doable, sure. If you have a budget of $900 I'd try to aim for cheaper materials somehow though, these costs have a tendency to blow out. Aim for $500 odd worth and you should get it done for $900.

I costed mine up before I built it and "everything" came to around $1800. Final cost ended up being closer to $4000. Having said that, mine's a fairly serious press, and I had to pay shipping from the US to Australia for a few things.

Have you costed in:
- cat track, fasteners for the cat track, wire rope, springs for cat track, bungee chord if running a cat track?
- mould skins, CNC time (if applicable) for moulds, glue for moulds, mould release agents, MDF for moulds
- paint, welding rods (if applicable), drill bits/hire of mag drill
- compressor line, bladder fittings (these can be expensive!), fasteners and end clamps for bladder
- heaters, PID controllers, wiring, SSR, control box if using a heated press?

Your best bet is a space frame press like falls, mongo, ben_mtl have done. It's more work, but less cost, though you'll need to find someone with a welder who knows how to use it, and preferably an engineer to run the structural numbers for you. If you can find I beams cheap then you may be fine doing it that way too.

I'm not trying to discourage you here. Others have done it on the cheap and you can too, but a bit of shopping around and finding second hand steel may be needed.

Alex13 wrote: Have you costed in:
- cat track, fasteners for the cat track, wire rope, springs for cat track, bungee chord if running a cat track?
- mould skins, CNC time (if applicable) for moulds, glue for moulds, mould release agents, MDF for moulds
- paint, welding rods (if applicable), drill bits/hire of mag drill
- compressor line, bladder fittings (these can be expensive!), fasteners and end clamps for bladder
- heaters, PID controllers, wiring, SSR, control box if using a heated press?

It's this type of stuff that can start adding up fast. Plus tools. Look for sales in the forum, craigslist, ebay. Plan everything out carefully.

So what about the fram design that is shown in the how to section of this site? I calculated all of the cost of the steel, brand new to be $600. I don't plan on running a cat track yet, I will just use an upper mold, but I plan on upgrading in the future if everything goes well. As for heat, again I plan on upgrading in the future, but for now I am just going to run a cold press. As far as everything else goes, I will worry about that when I get there, I just want to build the frame and bladder/ molds for now. Luckiily my dad is a mechanical engineer, so he can help me out with all of the load calcs and some design if need be. Also, one of my good friends has a pretty decent wood shop in his barn so I will have access to things like a router, bandsaw and table saw for the actual ski construction. I know it is a big process, but I figure I have to start somewhere so I will just build a press for now.

EDIT: After all is said and done, how much can I expect to pay for the materials for 1 pair of skis? Thanks.

I'd re-think the about using a cat track. But you can still make skis w/o one.

I just priced out the material the other day for skis. I paid $108 for epoxy from QCM and $329 for ski material which included PTex base, metal edges, VDS rubber, 220z FG from skibuilders. This was enough for 4 pairs of skis, 109.25 a pair.

Add in the cost of wood for the core. I was lucky enough to get most of my wood for free. Plus the cost of top sheet material (either fabric or wood veneer or what ever else you can imagine)

I don't use tip or tail spacers, plastic sidewalls or clear top sheets, so that would add to the cost.

So what is the benefit of using a cattrack? Is it just the versatility versus a top mold? I know it will be tons more expensive to build a cattrack given the price of aluminum and everything else, but is it really that much better. (Besides the fact that a top mold will just be a big pain in the ass)

Im afraid you need to do some simple searching here if you don't understand what a cattrack does and doesn't do.

if you are good you can get some stuff really cheap or free. My cat track is made from broken hockey sticks. It was free. I just had to call about 5 rinks and get any broken stick they had. Hockey sticks are all exactly the same size in the shaft 1.25 x .75. I used the 1.25 dimension in most of the track and the .75 dimension for the tips and tails for better flexibility. I cut them to 14 inch pieces and used cable tv coaxial cable to string them together.

I also picked up a full sheet of MDF on craigslist for free.

You don't need a steel press and getting things free or using others scrap is another cost effective approach only critical stuff needs to be new. The more you save, the more skis you make.

We should have a sticky about reading each section of the forum from the start, that's where all the info is.

I agree, a lot of the original posts have a lot of info, problem/resolution stuff. Thanks to the pioneers who did all the work a few years ago.

Vinman - I remember you were going to use hockey sticks, great resource. As a matter of I think I need to do what you need for thip/tail sections to get a better bend. I'm trying to solve a problem and I think using a thinner cat track for tip and tail will solve it. It's in the Post Section8 - Maple Pine Build. Thanks.

I also got some free trampoline spring to suspend the cat track and bladder. I have not hooked that part up yet.

I'm in the process of building a workshop for my operation. I'm hoping to have skis built by mid-October. After that it will likely be too cold as I don't have heat in my shop and do not have heat in the press. Next year on both hopefully.

if you want to spend 1000USd you can do it in a flash. if you have time and no money, just keep your eyes out for materials and they will find you for cheap or free. I just finished up a Auto CAD drawing of a frame. if you want it in PDF or DWG I can send it to you. (Email) Check out the blog as I posted it there. http://weskigrace.blogspot.com/2010/08/ ... unity.html

I will throw the latest JPG of the drawing up for you. You can source the drawing out to see the price wherever you are...

I did, and have been reading the board and getting all of the information before posting, but there was no info based on a low budget production. Everything I read just talked about how to and the best ways to do things, not the cost (or in my case the lack of)...

My $0.02
Your first pair of skis will probably be a good stoke, but will be destined for the wall of the shop as a trophy.
Your second pair will turn out better.

If you add up the costs to build your first 5 pair of skis including all equipment (big press etc) and materials you could probably buy 7 to 10 pair of last years models from EVO gear.

If you want to build your own skis 'cause its cheaper your mistaken.

If you want to build skis cause it's an awesome hobby. Then go for it.

If your planning on building for the market place ala iggy, be prepared to layout huge cash.

The cheapest way for a few pair is still vacuum.
Old fridge compressor mod = almost free
You only have to build 1/2 a mold. Etc


I don't want to discourage new builders but read all the posts.
If your looking at this as a hobby, and you have some disposable income, then go for it

sam