Ski Builders Forum

I was finishing my ski's sidewalls with router when suddenly sparks occurred. I stopped immediately and noticed that I had cut away more sidewall than needed. It was more than the steel edges. What happened was that my bearing that followed my steel edges had moved because the screw came loose. Now there is a gap in my ski! Does somebody knows a way to fix this? I was thinking of poring some epoxy so the hole will be filled but are there better ways to fix it? I will do my best to upload some pic's ASAP.

Sorry for my English, if I make mistakes, but I am from Holland and still in school. I'm 15.

I hope somebody can help me.
Thanks.

I had the exact same problem with a bad bearing. I just built damn like they show for epoxy sidewalls on this site and poured in some epoxy, then retried the router trick. I have over 20 days on the skis without any problems.

Or you could cut the piece of edge/base out and replace a short section of edge and base like you would with a damaged edge from skiing.

Welcome to the pain of routering sidewalls!!

Had the exact thing happen... Twice!!
Well, once the bearing came loose, the other time it just kinda hooked the edge and took a good sized bite!
Filled the "holes" with epoxy, so far so good.
Not routering sidewalls anymore just gonna use the belt sander to bevel them. Worked alright the first few pairs
Hate f-ing up a pair of skis in the final stages.

sam

Thanks for your help! I will try to fill it up with epoxy.

Mickey

Had about the same problem with my first ski too. I used UHMWPE sidewalls on them and fixed it by melting some base material and dribble it into the gap. Best way to fix the router ball bearing is to use some loc-tite on the screw.

Buuk

I did a similar thing. In my case I left too small a step over the metal edge, then lifted the bearing off the rail when the base of the router followed the camber. This, and another similar balls-up, has led to a good habit; a "dry run" with router turned off to make sure the height is right, no bumps, unexpected obstacles etc.

Thanks that's a verry usefull tip!

This has always been a do or die point of ski building. You can ruin a lot of work w/ one slip.

I'm going to start doing it the way Head Monkey did it. Get a tilt base for the router (or make a wedge for the base of the router like some have done), use straight cutting bit w/ a top bearing. Trim the edge with the base facing up. In this way the bearing is running along the metal edge with the ski being cut underneath and the router is on a flat surface instead of riding over the top profile of the ski.

Does that make sense? There's pics in another post somewhere....

Headmonkey's Blog Has it all.

OAC wrote:Headmonkey's Blog Has it all.

Yes it does. And by reading it I just found out about an exterior water based poly, Clear Satin System Three WR-LPU Polyurethane Topcoat. Wow, really does have it all.

You can reduce the risk by a bit of advanced prep. If it goes wrong at this stage, you have a chance to make a repair. There's still about 1mm remaining, but it's better to do a final trim than a substantial cut. Arguably this is an addition of another step, but worth the compromise IMHO