Ski Builders Forum

it is my first time making skis and i have heard mixed things wether to leave your heat blanket on the whole time or to turn it off part way through the pressing process?

Thanks

You should do neither of those things.

The heat blanket should be controlled properly, typically that means with some sort of closed-loop PID controller and a solid-state relay. People have done some variations, but that is the general idea. If you just plug it in and leave it, you'll burn your house down.

How hot you make it, and how fast you make it that hot, etc all depends on the requirements of the resin you are using. You'll also have other factors like a cattrack acting as a giant heat sink, making the blanket take forever to heat up.

I am not using a cat track so is it bad if it ramps up to fast?/

Just out of curiosity, will a heat blanket made for a bed work? obviously it won't reach 180F but would it help accelerate the cure time for west system 105/206? over top of a vacuum bag of course. Probably wouldnt work under pressure very well.

infinityskis wrote:I am not using a cat track so is it bad if it ramps up to fast?/

Depends on the epoxy but probably not. As long as it is controlled to the right temp.

ProbsMagobs wrote:Just out of curiosity, will a heat blanket made for a bed work? obviously it won't reach 180F but would it help accelerate the cure time for west system 105/206? over top of a vacuum bag of course. Probably wouldnt work under pressure very well.

I used 206 in my first build cause I was scared of it going off too fast but man that is one slow hardener.
If you must use it buy only the smallest bottle cause you will want to use 205 the next time.

ProbsMagobs wrote:Just out of curiosity, will a heat blanket made for a bed work? obviously it won't reach 180F but would it help accelerate the cure time for west system 105/206? over top of a vacuum bag of course. Probably wouldnt work under pressure very well.

That's all I've been using for heat.
Old electric blanket folded up so it's the same width as my mold.
Throw a couple bats of insulation over it and it works pretty good.
The heat isn't very even so some spots are quite a bit hotter than others and it's shorter than my layup so I have to move it part way through.
I've gotten temps of 140-150f but I wouldn't recommend that high using west.
When I used west I would set the stat to low and just use it to get the temp up a bit.
My basement is very cold so need to have a bit of added heat or the epoxy takes forever to set.

Found this was way easier than building a heat box but still not the best solution.
One of these days I'll PM troublemaker about a proper heat system.
Would be nice to have even controlled heat!

sam