Ski Builders Forum

Hi All-

I've been lurking around the site for a while now and would like to thank everyone for making this site such a great resource.

I am getting close to pressing my first pair of skis; I've got my press, mold, core profiler, and most of my materials amassed - except triaxial fiberglass. I would like to buy as much stuff locally as possible. Has anyone found a Seattle area source for triaxial glass?

Also, do people flame treat their ABS tip spacers? It seems like they would warp from the heat. Or does the ABS bond well enough with no flame treatment?

Thanks,
Orion

Orion wrote:Hi All-

I've been lurking around the site for a while now and would like to thank everyone for making this site such a great resource.

I am getting close to pressing my first pair of skis; I've got my press, mold, core profiler, and most of my materials amassed - except triaxial fiberglass. I would like to buy as much stuff locally as possible. Has anyone found a Seattle area source for triaxial glass?

Also, do people flame treat their ABS tip spacers? It seems like they would warp from the heat. Or does the ABS bond well enough with no flame treatment?

Thanks,
Orion

In terms of fiberglass in washington, fiberglass supply is located in Bingen and they have triaxial in a 19 oz./yd.^2 variety. The link to them is http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/Product ... brics.html
If you want 22 oz. or 34 oz. triaxial go with http://www.raka.com/FiberglassCloth.html . Their customer service, shipping, and product is really top notch. I recently just got some of the 22 oz. from Raka, they supplied me with a brand called Matrix, and the stuff has a much tighter weave than the Vectorply 22 oz. I was previously using.

As for tipspacers, I use 1/16" beige ABS from Mcmaster and abrasion treat the surface by hand with some really low grit sandpaper to get more surface texture. With 1/16" material, it is so thin that flame treating it causes it to warp considerably. However, I used 1/8" ABS on my first pair, flame treated it, and had no problems. With roughing up the surface using sandpaper I have been getting really good bonding results.

Hope this helps. --Geoff

That helps a lot - thanks Geoff.

Orion,
We're getting our online store ready soon, but right now, I've got some 22oz triaxial for sale (25" wide $14.99/meter). I'm in Seattle. Let me know if you are interested.

If you want a huge giant roll (230 lbs), Composite One in Arlington, is a distributor for vectorply.

-kelvin