Ski Builders Forum

Hi Everyone,

Firstly, a huge thank you to this community for the plethora of resources and information available to budding skibuilding enthusiasts.

Secondly, I'm based in Perth Western Australia and have been stuck here since the pandemic struck. I have had a dream to build skis for 12 months and have finally completed the build of my first set. I video documented the entire process beginning to end and am in the process of editing that now. I was so happy with how My initial set turned out I wanted to share some photos with you all ahead of a more in depth writeup about my process and design methodology.

Some basic information:

- 100% laminated maple core and top sheet, tip to tail. Maple core was profiled to 1mm for the tips and tails. The topsheet was only profiled tip and tail to 1mm, the rest is 3mm. Total max ski thickness is 9mm, I wanted the topsheet to contribute to the performance of the ski.

- Flax fibre composite layers and carbon fibre stringers between core and base and core and topsheet. West Systems epoxy 105 and 206.

- vacuum layup, I have an industrial Dynavac vacuum pump and pulled a near perfect vacuum for approximately 17 hours.

- Dims are 115 - 89 - 114, 180cm in lenth, early rise tip and tail, camber approx 6mm graduating. Waterproofed finish using 100% Tung oil cut with gum turpentine to penetrate the topsheet and core, 4 coats. Ski only weight for the set is approximately 2kg, the flax really helped offset the maple, was incredible to feel the difference in fabric weight and amount of epoxy between glass and flax. I will do a weigh on digital scales in the coming days.

- An overall all mountain gun. Based on a race stock junior GS ski, sturdy yet playful enough for all conditions. Plenty of rebound and a fantastic consistent flex. A nice stiff tail for really pushing hard in harder snow with the forgiveness of the early rise in the tip and a loose tail for washing off speed. I'm weighing in at 62kg and 162cm, so I enjoy riding on slimmer skis for edge to edge speed in steeper "balls to the wall" terrain. Dynafit Beast 14 bindings, I have them on a set of Whitedot skis and have the helicoil inserts so I can swap and go etc.

My partner, dog and I are moving to France January 16 2022 permanently to be closer to the mountains. We are in the mountains, the perfect base to test my designs. I used to ski guide and instruct all over Australia, Colorado, Japan and Austria for nearly a decade so really looking forward to skiing again more consistently.

More write-up and photos/video to follow. Thanks again to the community, this has been a fantastic project and I've started on 2 more sets for my partner and big mountain set for myself.

Photos:



James.

Welcome to the forum, James!

That's some great work for your first pair! Definitely an interesting approach with the topsheet...looking forward to the video and some ride reports.

What types/weights of fibers did you use in your layup?

Thanks Chris,

The topsheet idea is meant to achieve two things:

1. Aesthetically giving the impression a solid piece of laminated maple has been utilised with the ability to sand out dings and scratches, and fill any gnarly dings with epoxy and sawdust mixture to blend back in. There should be plenty of longevity with these if I keep them out of the lift lines and am a little more careful skinning with crampons.

2. The 3mm of topsheet gives me the ability to fine tune the flex profile as I begin to ski them etc. If the tail is too stiff or I want some more progressive flex throughout I have some wiggle room to sand/profile.

I love the feeling of pure maple skis I have never found a ski with such progressive flex and consistent rebound as when manufacturers used to place more emphasis on the core material. Yes a little more weight, but in the grand scheme of things when touring I can simply do without taking some 'nice to have' items on the trip or not drink a beer the night before if I really wanted to offset. I have weighed each ski on the scales (i thought I lost them) and they are a combined 2780g - admittedly a magnitude greater than my estimate but i'm comfortable they will suit their intended purpose as an everyday all mountain tourer/ripper.

Weights of fibres:

Flax fibre - Unsure what the weight is for this. It's sold as a cloth to the surfboard industry here in Oz. It is extremely light weight compared to glass and resembles more of a light weave t-shirt material (if that makes sense). https://shapers.com.au/flax-fibre-cloth-25/

Carbon Stringers - 6mm unidirectional 3k carbon. Again sourced from surfboard manufacturing supplier here in Oz https://shapers.com.au/uni-carbon-fibre-6mm/. I wanted the carbon stringers to accentuate the pop, rebound and drive of the ski working with the maple. I used 3 stringers between base and core, and 1 between core and topsheet. All tip to tail.

When i'm not in the shed or packing up things at home for our overseas journey, i'll be editing up my vid to show the process I went for.

James.

Hi,

I would love to see some pics. Unfortunately it does not show me anything on the google drive folder you shared. Anyone else having the same problem?

Best regards
Philipp

Try these links I updated:

Hi,

these work, thanks. The skis really look nice, and the concept of being able to take away thickness from the top is interesting, though I think it will be quite hard to do it evenly.

Best regards

Awesome work James! Sounds like we have similar stories...I too have been stuck in Perth since COVID. Used to do back-to-back winters (USA / NZ) but haven't been able to leave the state for 2 years now and it's the longest I've been without skiing. Kicked around building skis for awhile, and finally have gotten started the last few months to try and maintain a connection with skiing.

Couple of questions for you:
- Where did you source your maple here in Perth? Base material and other? (I've ordered some material online recently...)
- Have you seen a design like yours before? (I've surely not)

Your skis look great & I'm sure you're frothing to try them out ...I'm hoping my first set looks half as good as yours!

-JP

Hey mate.

Edges and base material from skibuilders - I don't think you can get it from them anymore as the US ceased shipping to Oz recently. DHL or FedEx might ship but you'll pay a grand in shipping for 5 sets worth. I'd try Europe.

For the maple, Perth wood school got it for me as rough sawn boards. I milled it all myself.

Good luck mate, it's challenging in Perth with shipping. My advice would be to build all your molds and templates first prior to ordering anything.

James

We still ship ski/snowboard materials to Australia and NZ despite the shipping restrictions. The shopping cart shows you rates with a few different carriers and also has a duties estimator for shipments that use DHL or UPS. Let me know if you have any problems- we are doing our best to make sure you guys can still get material!

jamesradny wrote: ↑Wed Dec 08, 2021 11:36 pm I don't think you can get it from them anymore as the US ceased shipping to Oz recently. DHL or FedEx might ship but you'll pay a grand in shipping for 5 sets worth.

Yea I've had mixed results from packages sent from family. Just picked up a parcel that took over 3 months to arrive...used to take about 10 days

jamesradny wrote: ↑Wed Dec 08, 2021 11:36 pm For the maple, Perth wood school got it for me as rough sawn boards. I milled it all myself.

Nice one. I've found a guy in Chittering that mills all kinds of logs. He's currently got a log of paulownia I'm getting rough sawn. Then I'll finish up the milling in my shed. Going to try Tassie Oak stringers as well as have a play with Jarrah sidewalls...cause that is what's around.

mattman wrote: ↑Thu Dec 09, 2021 6:53 am We still ship ski/snowboard materials to Australia and NZ despite the shipping restrictions. The shopping cart shows you rates with a few different carriers and also has a duties estimator for shipments that use DHL or UPS. Let me know if you have any problems- we are doing our best to make sure you guys can still get material!

Thanks Matt! I've ordered edges and VDS through you earlier and just placed another order for more material. Appreciate the efforts!


I won't hijack your thread anymore James, I was excited to see another Perth builder...Looking forward to your video!!

Hey mate I may have some materials for you if you like? I'm based in Canning Vale - I've got enough stuff for 3-4 sets of skis I reckon.

Hit me up if you're keen, it's been packed up in storage ready for the shipping container to Europe but if you are still waiting for materials I can help you out.

James

I love the look of that top sheet. I may need to give something like that a go.