Ski Builders Forum

Hey there!
it s getting colder so my minds fade again towards skiing and skibulding...

i d like to build a ski with spooned tip and tail sections (similar to the dps spoon) check out the pic attached. i think the middle on is teh better solution as it could be tuned on a service machine, except the outer parts. the right one could be grinded only by hand and a belt sander i guess..



i already had a little chat with nearls who does his snowboards with vacuum. i d like to do it with my pneumatic press as i want to sell these skis if the prototypes work well...
now i m wondering if metal cassettes are the only option to realize that shapes. or might there be another option? how much would it be to mill such a alumium 3d top/bottom mould?

To have aluminum molds CNC'd for this will cost you many many thousands of dollars (euros?). This isn't something a homebuilder should be considering.

A cool idea for sure, but it's going to be tricky to figure out how to do the molds. If you're planning pneumatic you almost have to have a CNC'd top and bottom mold, and your layup better be perfectly matched to those molds or you'll have uneven pressure. Vacuum may be the only option that makes this viable, then you only need a bottom mold machined (which could be done with MDF, and then some kind of surface applied to it, like polished epoxy)

You could get cnc molds cut for the tip and tail only and incorporate them into a traditional centre mold to keep costs down.

Concrete.

I remember I saw some nice molds made from resin by a guy who used to make carbon fiber model aircraft gliders.
I think he CNC-ed the positive out of wood, and made the negative mold by resin casting.

Only problem is that I don't think a resin cast mold would hold up to a pneumatic press, and I it's almost certain vacuum bagging won't give enough pressure to get the base into desired shape...

Unless you do a foam core That would press down easily into this shape. BlankSlateSkis has nice foam core blanks.

tomcat wrote:I remember I saw some nice molds made from resin by a guy who used to make carbon fiber model aircraft gliders.
I think he CNC-ed the positive out of wood, and made the negative mold by resin casting.

Only problem is that I don't think a resin cast mold would hold up to a pneumatic press, and I it's almost certain vacuum bagging won't give enough pressure to get the base into desired shape...

A resin mould should easily withstand the pressure in a pneumatic press! At least if it isn't heated to 120 centigrade...

make the "form" in the core and vacuum it upside down on a normal (top) mold?

i think vacuum bagging seems the most suitable to me... PTTRs idea is quite interesting, has anyone done it before?

does anyone of you know this guy, or maybe if he is here in teh forum??:

http://www.garywayneskis.com/skis/

Well, ON3P did it with the Pillowfights, then Rowen's Paddles. No idea what kind of a core, or mould they're using, but digging around on those two skis might be a good place to start.

Surface's Lab 001 is another ski to look into, but Surface isn't as posted or blogged about by themselves, so trying to spy on them from a video or factory pictures will be a lot harder.

NinetyFour wrote:Well, ON3P did it with the Pillowfights, then Rowen's Paddles.

Wait, what? You sure? I would assume everything they've done has flat bases.

nah pillowfights have a convex tip/tail (flat in middle with turned up sides I think).
http://www.on3pskis.com/skis/pillowfight/
Actually looks like this year flat on one edge and convex on the other.
ON3P Oar
http://www.newschoolers.com/ns/forums/r ... id/687115/

http://s15.photobucket.com/user/iggyski ... 6.jpg.html
if you look at the original image it seems they have shimmed the edges with something to create the convex areas.

Well I'll be damned! Thanks for the links!