CSpice Skis

Document your personal work here. Show photos, movies, and share your secrets.

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arwebs
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2016 4:33 pm
Location: Grand Rapids, MI

CSpice Skis

Post by arwebs »

Hello Skibuilders!

I've been lurking around and learning lots from this forum for about a year now. Here is an Imgur album that goes through my journey to a first pair of skis. imgur dot com/gallery/2ONzY Sorry for the broken link--I don't have the forum cred to share links yet, but that gallery is really the best way for me to share what I've done at this point.

Since this, I've made 2 more pairs and I have materials to make 3 more, although I'm waiting till ski season wraps up to build more.

The first 3 pairs have all been skiable, but far from perfect. The biggest issue has been that despite our best efforts, the core and base templates are not 100% symmetrical, so the sidecut on one side of each ski is more pronounced--for the next templates, I think I'll draw them up in CAD and then pay a plastic shop to cut them out to exact specifications.

I also learned the hard way how important it is to coat the base & topsheet with packing tape to keep the epoxy out--hours of sanding when I was so close to being done.

Thank you all for the information shared through this forum. I've made lots of mistakes along the way and (un)fortunately, for the most part someone else has already made similar mistakes. There's still much to learn.

-arwebs
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Akiwi
Posts: 370
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 7:48 am
Location: Olching (Near Munich) Germany

Post by Akiwi »

Here is a link to your gallery => http://imgur.com/gallery/2ONzY

Nice Photoblog.. Interesting following your progress.


The first skis look like a bit of a dogs breakfast, but I take it there is a bit of finnishing to be done there still.

I assume you are no longer putting a dowel through everything..
If you have any questions.. feel free to ask.
As an expert in making mistakes, I have found solutions to nearly all the ones I have made so far, and not repeated them.
I am nobody. Nobody's perfect, so I must be perfect.
artski
Posts: 149
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2009 8:48 am
Location: Boyne country, Mich.

Post by artski »

Hey Andrew, great meeting you this weekend!
Keep rocking your skis, every pair gets better!
arwebs
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2016 4:33 pm
Location: Grand Rapids, MI

Post by arwebs »

It was great to run into another ski builder on the slopes--thanks for taking time to share some wisdom!

Future pairs won't have a dowel in them, but the first 3 pairs do.

Now that I'm hooked, my current project is building a control unit for the press. It will be powered by a RaspberryPi microcontroller which will allow me to monitor and control the temperatures of the heat blankets.

As a side note, if you're looking for relatively cheap panel-mount switches or LEDs or relays for a control unit, you might want to check out EBrewSupply. The home beer brewing process can have a similar setup for controlling temperatures.
arwebs
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2016 4:33 pm
Location: Grand Rapids, MI

Post by arwebs »

This spring, a wooded lot near my house got cleared for construction. I obtained permission to take some wood. I now have 8 maple logs, each between 12 & 14 inches in diameter. I have a chainsaw milling attachment, so I'll be preparing these boards for next year's ski building endeavors.

In addition to that, I've been working on a control box for my press. The whole thing will be powered by a RaspberryPi and once it's done, it will control the temperature of the press as well as record data of each run. Now it's time to get down to programming so it does something besides just light up.

Pictures of both projects included here (sorry. it looks like I still can't post links yet) imgur dot com/gallery/awrAk
arwebs
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2016 4:33 pm
Location: Grand Rapids, MI

Post by arwebs »

Will this work now?
gav wa
Posts: 381
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2014 8:58 pm
Location: Perth

Post by gav wa »

Those logs look nice and clean, very few knots or voids. Grain looks so even i reckon you could get away with not vertical laminating some of them. Thats a really good score. I've always wanted to start from raw logs. Nice one.

That control looks pretty fancy, A heap of nice work dude, but then the hole in the face panel looks like it was cut out with a chisel.
arwebs
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2016 4:33 pm
Location: Grand Rapids, MI

Post by arwebs »

Thanks Gav.

I think I'll still laminate for consistency sake and that will hopefully minimize waste too, but we'll see. I'm just flat sawing the boards, so the ones from the middle are much nicer grain than the top/bottom ones.

I agree that the hole in the panel looks terrible. I'm planning to cut a shroud to put over it to clean it up a bit. When I work on projects, I tend to spend all of my patience for the first 90%, and then it runs out and I do dumb stuff like that at the end.
gav wa
Posts: 381
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2014 8:58 pm
Location: Perth

Post by gav wa »

We've all been there on that one bro. :D
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