Ski Builders Forum

HI
Can anyone tell me, is it a good Idea to use old wooden skis as the core, and vacum bag the laminate around it, using the shape of the old ski as the "mould"

Are you just putting a top sheet on the old ski or will you be laminating fiberglass, ptex, edges, etc on the the old ski? IMO the ski would be extremely stiff. The old wood skis had thick tips and tails adding FG would make a rock hard ski. Not to mention the shape of the ski/core is not what you find in a modern ski.

You'd have to put on side walls OR be extremely precise with the cutting of the ptex base, placement of edges to match the current sidewall.

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I Thought of making wooden sides to make a more modern shape, and shave down the thicknes abt 4 mm in the middle. Then maby laminate edges and a base, and a topsheet in one operation inside a vacum bag. That way the shape of the old ski would decide the "pre-tension" and the tip shape. What do you think?

Ok, so I think I see what you're trying to do... It can be done but, I think it will be a challenge.... How I would approach is this way. Shave down the thickness of the ski, around the binding area like you suggested.

You'll have to cut the p-tex base out large/wider than the ski/core so the core sits solely on the p-ext base, the edges will be attached to the ptex base and should be as close to the core as possible, you don't want the metal edge under the core. Then you'll need to attach your side walls to the side of the core. The side walls should sit directly on top of the edges. The side walls can overhang the edges on the outside of the ski and be trimmed after you press in the vacuum.

If the wood core has a groove on the base you'll want to fill it in, in order to get a flat base. I guess you could leave it but it could cause the base to delam if an air gap exists.

So basically it boils down to putting a ptex base w/ edges on an existing wooden ski.

Take pics and post to the site, I'd like see the out come.