Ski Builders Forum

I am trying to build my first pair of custom skis and I have read many different website tutorials, and have pieced together a rough understanding of the process. However, I am still completely stumped when it comes to knowing how a ski's shape and profile affects its performance, and how to decide what the ski's shape and profile should be. I have fiddled around in SnoCAD a bit but I honestly have no idea what any of the measurements mean or how they would affect the feel and ride of the ski. I have tried to find websites that explain it, but all they ever explain are the basics like what rocker & camber are and how a sidecut radius is measured. I also can't find any articles on how to decide where to mount the bindings or how to design a multi-sidecut radius. If anyone knows of a website that explains that stuff that would be great!

The reason you're not finding a definitive guide on this is because it would be next to impossible to make one.

This all comes down to experience, skiing ability and personal preference. I would recommend beginning with measuring a ski you already like and maybe altering it a bit or use a friends ski that you would like to ride and measure that and just get started building. Chances are you won't build the perfect ski on your first go, but you'll have a benchmark to go off for the next pairs - just make sure to write every parameter down so you can reference it later.

I talked to one of the R&D guys in the racing department at Atomic once and he told me that Marcel Hirscher tested around 100 different pairs of skis before the season started to find the perfect skis for his races. He would have preferred to test even more, but Atomic set him a limit. This shows how complex it is to optimize a ski design even for a large and experienced manufacturer like Atomic.

Thanks! You just saved me a bunch of time trying to figure that out! On a different note, do you know of any good videos that demonstrate how to put sidewalls & tip spacers into a ski layup without a CNC machine that cut out spaces for them in the first place? I know you would obviously have to make space for the tip fill and stuff, but the videos I find online all use CNC machines that cut out perfect slots for those materials. And lastly, just wanted to check, changing the core & composite material of a ski while keeping the profile & shape the same wouldn't be a problem, right? Just asking because the ski I intend to copy the shape/profile off of has a firmer core & composite material than the materials I want to use in my skis.

Most people that don't have access to a CNC use MDF templates for the core and base shapes. You can either cut these yourself from e.g. a paper printout or you could have someone cut them on a CNC for you.

Changing the core and composite material will change the way the ski flexes and rides - usually not a problem if it's within the limits of what is considered a usable flex.

Something to keep in mind when playing with bending stiffness is that slight changes in the thickness of your core has a much more dramatic affect on stiffness than slight changes in the laminates.

When adding sidewalls to a ski, do you just glue it onto the side of the core with the same glue used to glue on edges? Also, how thick is the average sidewall, or in other words how thick should I cut it?

All those questions have already been answered on this forum. You can use google to search the forum like this "[YOUR SEARCH WORDS] site:skibuilders.com/phpBB2/"

Also check out Head Monkey's Wiki page: http://www.happymonkeysnowboards.com/Mo ... /Main_Page