’07 Winter of Ski and Snowboard building

[Idris]

3 pairs of skis and a large snowboard. All made more or less the same way.

Not having any shop or garage space we had to get a little inventive on where and how to build our skis and Snowboard

Material prep, Bases first

Martin starting to mark out his base.



We built an adjustable sidecut tool. You see it propped up on edge in the picture above. You adjust the bolts to give the shape you want. Clamp it down and then just run a blade along it.

Edge prep. To clean the edges prior to gluing to the base. I used a wire brush on a power drill. Clamping the edge sections to a board made things a lot easier. This one large board (a discarded kitchen worktop) we used as our work surface for most things. Put across two chairs it made a nice portable table.



For most skis we didn’t go for full wrap around edges, just beyond snow contact. But this still required a little bending. This was done using various pliers and vice grips. On the Easy Riders and Martin’s board we did go full, but after those two decided against doing it again.

Edges being bent to fit.



Gluing the edge to base. Metal spring clamps would be nice, but we didn’t have the budget, storage space or transport space come season end. Martin’s board with the measurement marks in evidence and wrap around edges.



Yoshi’s much simpler edges, being glued a bit at a time, notice the duck tape strips holding the edge on while the super glue fully hardens. A bit of an overkill I think.



The tail on Martin’s board. This is about as complex a wrap around edge as I’ve seen without plate inserts or tailbone.



Next up core.

[SCHÜSS]

looking good so far! I see you dont do the full wrap around the tip with edges either. Thats what i did on my latest pair also. 'Great minds think alike!' haha. We havnt tested yet but we feel it will be durable. Have you used that method before? how did it go in action?

schuss

[hugocacola]

nice tail...eheheh, i like the design,, its for the snowboard???

[littleKam]

that tail design is awesome!

[Idris]

looking good so far! I see you dont do the full wrap around the tip with edges either. Thats what i did on my latest pair also. 'Great minds think alike!' haha. We havnt tested yet but we feel it will be durable. Have you used that method before? how did it go in action?

schuss

Two pairs of skis have just side edges, whilst one pair and the snowboard have wrap around. No duarbility issues thus far. But all aolder Volks and dynastars are built without wrap around edges. The volkl explosive is the toughest, longest manufactured (13 years bar the cosmetics) ski of all time.

[Idris]

nice tail...eheheh, i like the design,, its for the snowboard???

Yup

[Idris]

Easy Riders and Martins board had home made cores of Fir and Teak, with Mahogany Tailbones. Both the skis and board cores were made more or less the same way. Yoshi’s skis and The Basics were made from Hess.co laminated cores.

First laminate fir strips using a vacuum bag. To stop them warping/force them flat, they were laminated against a thick board (green particle board).

The duck tape is to stop the sharp edge of the wood from cutting the vacuum bag.



The sidewalls were added to the core after it had been cut to shape.



To profile the core we used a router bridge. Yoshi measuring rails before they are cut. They were cut out using a jigsaw and sanded to a final profile with a belt sander.



The completed router bridge and rail setup.




Yoshi routing some pre laminated cores from hess.co (many thanks Davide). The cores were held down by screwing them down. The cores were quite a bit wider than the skis we were making. With the easy riders I used double sided tape and with martins board hot glue. The screws were the easiest and most secure.



We pre bent out tips and tails before molding using a jig and hot water. About an hour in hot water and drying for about 12 hours in the jig.



We bent our mold in the same way, here it is drying.

[sleepycp]

cool prebending method.

[plywood]

really a smooth and easy way to prebend the cores! i`ll have to copy your method!

[Idris]

Layup and pressing.

To make getting the skis out of the mold easier. The skis and the mold are covered in packing tape. The skis are then secured to the mold with double sided tape. The edges were bent to match the shape of the mold.



The cores are test fitted into the mold to make sure everything lines up and has the same (or at least near enough) shape tip and tail. These are Yoshi’s skis we narrowed the core underfoot to have about the same overhang all the way down. Didn’t think we gained anything doing this so didn’t bother again.



With the Easy Riders I only had 10mm or less overlap. I had routed for the edge and though that this step would hold the core in place (the step being inside the edge). I end up with enough core shift to have no sidewall on one side and glass over the edge on the other side. To avoid this with Martin’s board we attached alignment blocks to the mold. This worked perfectly but was a lot of messing about. Since then I’ve just used extra wide cores (as seen above).

Layup was done as a pair. Apart from one random piece that I used on Martin’s board I didn’t have access to triaxial fiberglass so Unidirectional and +45/-45 Biax was used instead. Except for the Easy Riders which I had routed an edge groove. I laid the base side unidirectional layer between the edges. The logic being that it would be about the same thickness as the edge tangs thus avoiding a concave base. This does work to a certain extent.

I first used polythene as peel ply with corrugated cardboard as my breather fabric. But this lest the imprint of the corrugations on the ski. I then used some base material covered in packing tape. This eliminated the corrugations.

Here we are laying up the Easy Riders, the Teak sidewalls much in evidence



The most difficult step (for me at least) was getting the whole thing (mold and skis) into the vacuum bag. 2 or 3 people make it much easier. Having a solid, large table to work on also makes things easier. This is also when I manage to make the most holes in my vacuum bag



One end already sealed the other end was sealed using packing tape. Trying not to get any creases in it. I pulled the initial vacuum with a vacuum cleaner because it’s fast. I then hooked up my fridge compressor vacuum pump. I have a large syringe with a spring in it as a shutoff valve. It cuts out at about -12psi stopping the compressor from running continuously. Here I am chasing leaks – for me quite a chore most times.



To put camber in the skis (the tip and tail are pre bent) I put a slat (could be a block of wood or even 2 house bricks) under the center of where I want my camber. And then weight the base of the tip and tail. Here are 2 chairs being used to weight the tip and tail. Note the slats under and above the mold defining the pressure points.

[setto]

im looking forward, to see how its work.
It looks interesting.

[plywood]

you guys are awesome!
very impressive where/how you build the skis. and your switch for the fridge pump is just ingenious!

[Idris]

Trimming and finishing

Most of the skis were trimmed as others have done with a jigsaw. As others have said it’s tough on blades. We also tried cutting them out with a Japanese hand saw. As Yoshi is doing below. This didn’t take much longer and didn’t really do any damage to the saw. It was much quieter – this is important when you live in apartment block.



Sidewalls were finish trimmed either using a belt sander – reasonably quick, very messy and loud or by hand with a car body file (big round teeth) and then a finer file. This is a lot less messy and quiet. It does take a while and gives your arms a workout.



The Basics have a clear top sheet – Thanks to Davide and to LacroixSkis. All the others have Exterior Extreme weather PU varnish as a top sheet. Looks much nicer than my clear plastic. My sidewalls are varnished to keep the water out. The Easy Riders have an extra layer of glass under the binding mount area but I didn’t bother on any of the others. Martin’s board had inserts scavenged from an old Burton board.

[Alex]

Very nice report - i see many similarities in our skibuilding:

The kitchen is a great workshop isn't it (i must admit yours is much bigger than mine)

I prefer handtools too (maybe you try a handplaner for shaping the core - works fine at least with soft woods).

I've could a couple of those nice cores Davide provided too (many thanks to him once again). Just building the firsts ski with them. One question regarding the reprofiling you did on them: did you reduce the thickness in the center - how much?

As i'm into vacuum pressing too i did some prebending on the cores too. I steamed them over a pot of water on the stove. Afterwards they where pressed into the mold with vacuum.

[davide]

We also tried cutting them out with a Japanese hand saw. As Yoshi is doing below. This didn’t take much longer and didn’t really do any damage to the saw.

Right, the ryoba works great. I usually use a kataba "meiko".
http://aeg.isuisse.com/usine/kataba%20meiko.jpg
http://aeg.isuisse.com/usine/rifilare2.jpg