tip spacers or full wood core
Moderators: Head Monkey, kelvin, bigKam, skidesmond, chrismp
tip spacers or full wood core
It seems as though most of the skis the Kams make have tip spacers. Are they stronger for pressing? Would wood tips/tails crack when pressed?
the Doinks have wood tip-spacers, and because the tip and tail of the core is around 2mm thick, they bend easily during the pressing process. Kelvin and i didn't notice any cracking. leaving out the fancy tip-spacer (such as ABS) makes the construction process a lot easier. elsewhere on this forum there's talk about wood sidewalls. like wood tip-spacers, wood sidewalls makes things easier too. if you're not too concerned about the details, then i highly recommend building your first few pairs of skis this way so that you can get the process figured out. afterwards, get fancy and add tip-spacers, then go to sidewalls, etc. having said all of this, keep in mind that wood tip-spacers and sidewalls are not as durable. the Doinks are showing signs of abuse, but then again, i ski over/through rocks... it's my way to testing things.
I was looking at new skis the other day at my local ski shop with a new purpose. I paid special attention to how the skis seemed to be assembled. I notice that the tip spacer appeared to be rubber. At least the perimeter of the tip spacer which I could see was easily gouged by my fingernail then rebounded reletively quickly. The ABS sidwall ended at the end of the running length. I noticed this most readily in Rossignols which also have the 1/2 cap 1/2 vertical sidwall thing going on. That made it difficult to tell what the body of the tip was filled with. I looked at the Hippy Stix & they had a thicker tip, not rubber, but not hard like ABS. It was definitely a softer synthetic. Anyone have any inside knowedge with regard to tip spacers & possible dampening advantages to having a less rigid material than ABS as the core?
-J
-J