Attaching the vacuum bag to only the top surface of a mold is a perfectly acceptable method. You have balanced pressure on the mold and you are not crushing the tool under 14.7 psi. In fact you can vacuum bag a part to a wine glass but, if you put the wine glass inside a bag, the pressure will crush...

Look into VIST bindings. The colored plastic parts are replaceable and they make an assortment of colors. The North American distributer is Norse House (http://norsehouse.com)

Look into VIST bindings. The colored plastic parts are replaceable and they make an assortment of colors. The North American distributer is Norse House (http://norsehouse.com)

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Mark, Did you have some bonding issues with the aluminum layers in you last pair of skis? It appears like you are getting ready to prep your metal layers with AC-130? I considered AC-130 but couldn't swallow the cost for the smaller 50ml packages. Buying in bulk, 1 liter?, I think the cost went down...

http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/Oscillating ... le-Sander/
I really like mine. I start with 36-50 grit on the flashing and then 80-150 for finish work close to the edge. $200 at Home Depot and a lifetime warranty.

I have the oscillating belt/drum sander made by Ridgid. It's a great tool. I use a bandsaw to cut close to the edge and then use the sander to take it right up to the edge. A 36 grit belt to get the sidewalls close, then 50, and maybe 80 to take it right up to the edge. Bevel the sidewalls on with a...

I don't use it for tacking vds foil (i wet out both sides of the vds with epoxy before i put it over the base and edge) but I do use it to hold the tip/tail spacer in place on the core

Twizz, I've found the Airtech Tac-Strip to work well holding parts in place during layup. It's designed for using in place of spray tac adhesive when holding dry fabric in place for resin infusion. I have been using it to make sure that the metal tip and tail cap pieces that butt up to the base that...

If you are flexible in tailoring your design around materials that you have access to, you can get by without needing to use extremely high modulus alloys like AMAG's Titanal. As you know, you can change the stiffness of your ski significantly my changing the core thickness or increase the thickness...

I can't take credit for the entire project. I bought the project off a guy that built it when he was in graduate school about 15 years ago. He really did the hard work. He found the pressure vesssle and had access to a shop that was able to cut the end off. He had the custom flanges made and welded ...

Here are some photos of my autoclave that I've been making skis in. Maybe not the ideal way to make skis, but a way none the less. It also provides flexibility on design options, since it can do cap (or hybrid cap-sidewall) construction without having matched top and bottom molds. http://www.faceboo...

Onsrud's website http://www.plasticrouting.com/ has a lot of info on suggested chiploads for machining a variety of materials. The data is centered around their cutters but you can get a pretty good idea of what loading you should be looking for by comparing your cutter to a similar Onsrud model. I ...

The nice part about having ramp/soak is the ability to turn the heat off after the specified dwell time, and if your epoxy requires it, do multi-step temperature profiles. I'm thinking of changing my autoclave over to a controller with ramp/soak. Right now I'm using the JLD612 and a timer/alarm on m...

I have also used Partworks3d (shopbots licensed version of the Vectric Cut3d software) for cutting cores. It works ok, not as much tool path control as FeatureCam or other higher end CAM packages but ok none the less. I've played around with several different types if endmills (Onsrud and others) bu...