Ski Builders Forum

lately I have kind of been struggling with the whole core profiling process and have not been able to get perfect cores. I am currently using a router jig. would a hand planer work if i marked the depth i want on the side of the cores?

IMO if you can't get a decent core using a router jig, try the planer crib method. There's no chance in hell you'll get a decent core with a hand planer, unless you're Norm :-)

iirc somebody done it. check in the journal section. I think it's doable... will require skill of old-school carpenter

imo router bridge design in "how to" is problematic to say the least.

you might want to look this links for ideas to improve a router bridge. Also on the market complete bridge all would you need is a rails

http://www.routerforums.com/jigs-fixtur ... -skis.html

http://www.routerforums.com/jigs-fixtur ... i-jig.html

http://www.woodhaven.com/Woodhaven-3000 ... rchSize=12

momentz wrote:lately I have kind of been struggling with the whole core profiling process and have not been able to get perfect cores. I am currently using a router jig. would a hand planer work if i marked the depth i want on the side of the cores?

Do you mean a true old school hand plane or a power hand planer? I still think using a true hand plane would be far to time consuming with results unpredictable.

A power hand plane would have a better chance but i think you'd still need some kind of jig to create the profile.

I am assuming you don't have a benchtop surface planer. If you are serious about getting perfect cores, you will need one. A hand planer of any sort will be less accurate than the router bridge method.

Router bridge is essentially a manual, hand operated cnc router.
If your not getting a good core with the router bridge you have a problem.

Rails and bridge have to be solid with no flex.
All parts should move with little effort.
Take your time, light cuts, more passes.
Proper router speed for the bit and a good sharp bit.
Keep your router moving smoothly, don't stop when your cutting
If you do all these things you should be able to cut cores as good as any cnc machine out there.
You just wont have the repeatability, every core will be slightly different.
But if you take your time you can be close.
I try to make multiple cores on the same day and they are only fractions of a millimeter different.

sam

skidesmond wrote:There's no chance in hell you'll get a decent core with a hand planer, unless you're Norm :-)

HAHAHA!!!! Brilliant.

an actual hand planer? no chance

an electric-powered hand-held planer? sure, that's how i did my very first pair of skis, because i was more interested in the entire process, and i knew that i had all kind of holes in my process and just wanted to get thru the first pair and then go back to the drawing board.

if you're good, you will probably be able to get fairly close on the power hand-held planer, but the router bridge method works really well too. skibuilder's tray design isnt great, a better way to do that is remove your bottom plate of your router, and then bolt a flat piece of finish grade plywood to the router and then router is attached to the "tray" and moves with the tray. you get a better feel for the router this way. (you will need to counter sink into the plywood so the bolts are flush and wont snag the rails)



its an old pic, the router bit is not for profiling and the ski is just for a reference but you can see my super simple "tray" bolted onto my primitive router.

A properly tuned and sharpened quality hand plane can be a precision instrument in the right hands. A No. 4 smoothing plane could be used to fine tune or take off some rough spots left by a router but I'd deffinately use something else to rough it out.