Ski Builders Forum

hey guys,

completed my first build this spring after reading up on things on here for a couple of months.
got to ride the first board (splitboard) and found that it actually performed (!) which led me to build a couple more.

started from scratch on a completely new design. it's intended to be lightweight pow split, with some added bells and whistles like magnetraction on both outside and inside edges. i made the design in illustrator (don't have access to solidworks anymore) but found that it actually wasn't that bad. once i had the shape and profile figured out i started playing around a lot with junksupply's ski-calculator to nail down my core properties.
i wanted something lightweight and decided to go for a core with a mix of poplar/paulownia. aiming for a stiffness that's about 7/10 and ended up with a 2.5 - 7.7 - 2.5mm core profile.
started by routing out the shape of the cores using mdf template i had made.
i made a core profiler (router bridge style) from laser cut mdf. got access to a smaller laser cutter at work, but due to it's size have to cut everything in sections because the laser bed is only 800x400mm.
moved on to the base. i mentioned i had decided to go for magnetraction on both inside edge and outside edge, and i had been sweating over how to solve getting a good seam between the inner edges. so i decided to make a separate jig for guiding the router for the inner edge. basically i started by routing the outer shape of the ptex and after (while still having the outer edge template in place) i put the inner edge router jig which have guide locations that mate with the outer edge template. i'll also have a mating spacer in between the edges to guide them for equal spacing between each other.
last night i got to put the edges on. i'm not 100% satisfied with the inner edges. i'm gonna have small gaps in the finished board. the main problem is that the ptex has moved and changed shape a little.
i've been rubbing my brain for a better way to do this, but can't seem to figure it out. curious if anyone else have tried this and gotten successful results?
so basically this is the current status.

next up is starting on the mold. i'm going to be vacuum pressing it and I've got all the material so just need to cut the profiles.
hopefully have the mold ready before the holidays.

that's it for now. i'll post more soon!

thanks to everyone who's posted here previously and helped me get this far.

/O

Looks a lot like the Jones Mind Expander

To be honest, I never understood why Jones started to do Magnetraction on their inside edges. Even with using industry standard cassette molds it must be a nightmare to get the inside edges to fit well. I have seen their splitboards in shops and many of them do not fit together tightly (I only saw one board with close to perfect inside edge fit) - then again, many of the other big brand splitboards also have less than perfect inside edge fit.

If I were you, I wouldn't stress about getting them to fit too much. Get them as close as you can with grinding them afterwards, but don't overdo it, as grinding away too much of the inside edges will also mess with your clip distancing.

Yes its pretty much a mind expander. I was going to get one actually but didn’t like the full rocker profile. So decided to make my own but with added camber.

I’ll go with some grinding for sure. Its just bugging me to find out how the big players are doing it.

Anyways, got more challenges ahead with getting the graphics and artwork right.

Thanks for the feedback!

The big players do it with cnc machined mold cassettes. This gets them pretty close to a good fit.

Got it. But edges pre-bent with cnc or by hand?

Depends on the manufacturer I guess. There is a factory video by Mervin where they showed the tool they use to add their Magnetraction. It was essentially a small levered press that forced the edges into the wavy shape. Pretty simple tool - can be seen in the video below at 3:42.

Thanks for sharing that video!

chrismp wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 1:26 am Depends on the manufacturer I guess. There is a factory video by Mervin where they showed the tool they use to add their Magnetraction. It was essentially a small levered press that forced the edges into the wavy shape. Pretty simple tool - can be seen in the video below at 3:42.

Wow that's frustrating. It took me 5h to bend the edges for my last pair of skis with magne traction

Do you guys really think that magnetraction helps that much to go through all that hustle? I rode a LibTech Skate Banana for a few days in mixed conditions and wasn't really that impressed, but that might have also had to do with the full rocker of the board.

Honestly dude i’m not sure it would be worth it in the long run. I’m only building a few boards per season and i kind of like the challenge in the build. But i’ve only ridden one split with magnetraction on the inside and we had a bunch of new snow so didnt really get to try it out.
I guess in my case its fear of missing out, so decided to give it a try.

Yeah same here. I am too curious and it is more interesting to me to make some stupid stuff that might or might not work out. Otherwise i would just buy an off the shelf pair...

so, got a little bit of work done after a christmas break.

built the press and got all the materials prepped.
I only have two things left to decide;

1. decide how to cover the M5 inserts (for the split clips) to prevent resin from getting in there while pressing.
I thought about supergluing cut out pieces of masking tape, just around the holes. Thoughts on this? 2. need to decide on how to locate my inserts after pressing. the top of the inserts are pretty much flush with the core so adding magnetic tape would make "bumps" and i'm not sure how much that would translate to the top sheet.
Also, the magnetic tape really isn't very magnetic, so a bit uncertain if it would do the trick. Although I bought it from junksupply for this sole purpose.
Any insights here?

You could fill the inserts with silicone. Just make sure to not get any of that stuff on the core as it doesn't bond well.

For locating the inserts you could tape a piece of paper to the board and rub a pencil over the area where you suspect the inserts to be. They should show up nicely (just like when rubbing a pencil on a paper laid over a coin).

great ideas chrismp!

i think i'll go for silicone in the inserts.

as for locating them, do you mean to still add the magnetic tape to create the "bump" which the pencil will trace on paper?

I think you should be able to locate them without the tape. The holes in the inserts will probably create a small dimple in the top layers, especially if you press with heat.