Ski Builders Forum

I'm new to this and am going to build my first pair of sticks this summer.

I like to ski all mountain but also like to lap the park aswell, so i want to make a low swing weight, generally light, and quite soft flexing ski.

my current design is 170cm (115mm-85mm-110mm), it is 9mm underfoot and 1mm in the tip and tail. the core is ash underfoot and poplar everywhere else. I also want to use 18oz fiberglass on top of the core and 6oz plain weave carbonfibre on the bottom.

I am trying to make quite a light ski, but as i am new to this, i am not sure if this design will compromise the skis performance.

Could you guys help me out and tell me if this will work or not?

9mm is pretty thin even for ash. There's a lot of factors that play into the making of a ski and many are subjective. Typical ski tips use 2mm tip fill. A 9mm ski for me is way too soft but I'm 200lbs in street clothes. I have a ski that's 10mm w/ maple under foot and maple/douglas fir blend in front/behind the binding area and it's a soft ski but hold incredibly well in all conditions. I would go 2-10-2. The rest sounds ok. You never know until you ski it.

1-9-1 mm core profile is a noodle. Plus most binding screws call for a 9 or 9.5 mm hole for proper mounting. Unless you want a SuperSoft ski and risk drilling though your cores I'd rethink that core profile.

Like SD said even 10 mm is pretty soft. Heck IMO 11mm is too soft, but then again I don't like/hate soft skis.

I think if you read a bit more you'll find many of us use 2.2 mm tips, so that it matches up well with the tip spacer material and a core thickness in the range of 10.5 - 12.3 upto 12.5 mm in waist.

A change of even .1 mm will make a difference in stiffness. For me .3mm in waist thickness is very noticeable when hand flexing skis. And if I can feel that with my hands, I'm sure to be able to feel that with the ski performance.

Read as much as you can in the forum, do your research.

thanks for the advice guys.
as i say, I'm new to this and its really appreciated.
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You say 10mm underfoot is quite soft, how soft exactly, i want it soft for the park, but will it still shred the whole mountain???

SD is correct with: "You never know until you ski it"

look for my thread, i have a list of things for first time builders that you should read over. My first pair are 12mm and they are the softest ski I have ever ridden and would say they are a great park ski with their flex.

Good luck with you build and keep reading.

1mm will be unskiable.

This is for your first time? Forget the carbon, forget trying to make it as light as possible. You've got a lot to learn. Stick to a simple layup, the same triax fiberglass on top and bottom, and see if you can even make a ski first (you can!). Then pair #2, start experimenting! 2-10-2 with 18oz triax on top and bottom might even be too soft - and I like my skis soft!

I had good results with a foam core pair this past winter. Very light, and I was able to maintain the level of stiffness I wanted by increasing core thickness (compared to the same ski with a bamboo core).

If i were to make the skis 2-10-2, with 18oz triax glass on top and bottom, what sort of weight range could i expect???

With the dimensions you posted I'd guess at 7-7.5 lbs for the pair.

I make 125-74-115 in a 178cm length with 2.5-12-2.5 cores in bamboo with 22oz triax top and bottom and they are about 1.8-1.9kg a ski. So yours might be as vin says about 1.6 - 1.8kg a ski

Whereabouts are you at in NZ? If you're around Auckland you're welcome to come and have a yarn about skibuilding.