As to scrounging heat sinks... :) I don't know how big your SSR is but you could take apart an old computer and pull the fan/heatsink off the processor. The fan runs on either 5 or 12 volts, so you could run it on a couple AAs or a 9 volt or some AC/DC power cord from something you have lying around...

I was told by wooden canoe builder that they glass over the top of the wood and coat it with a poly-uethane to protect it from UV rays. I am thinking this would be my best bet to bring out the richness of my wood veneer They do do that. I'm pretty sure it's usually just 4-6oz glass. The first thing...

Some more pictures: ... Boo Geocities. :x It looks like you exceeded your Geocities bandwidth quota. If it keeps happening you could try posting your pics on flickr. ;) Maybe they'll be up later and I can get my vaicarious diy ski fix... Edit: Cool pics. It's great to see some body trying to keep e...

Very nice.

I forgot to mention that Flickr organizes pics by "tags," meaning labels. And a pic can have more than one tag. So you can tag all you ski pics with "skis" or "ski_biulding" {I think tags can't have spaces, could be wrong} and then say tag some of them "swallowtail...

Posting pics here is the same as posting on Ttips, but without having something like "Telemark Photos" where you can upload your photos. The easiest thing to do would be to sign up for a Flickr account and use that to post photos. After signing up and uploading the pics you want to post, c...

pm sent

As for bamboo, I was looking at the flooring planks from http://www.teragren.com/ . They have vertically laminated ones http://www.teragren.com/tera_flooring/un_signature.asp . Davide has had good luck using high quality plywood for cores, so maybe these would work well as is for a core. I was think...

There's an video interview with the guy from Lightning Boards ( solid woood skis ) over on ttips. Haven't watched it so maybe there isn't any good info.

http://www.telemarktips.com/Interview12.html

What's up with having both concave and convex ends on the cores? Just wondering why... Good work!

I've had better luck using abrasive cutting wheels [McGukins has em] on a circular saw than matal blades on a sawzall. They cut through a bike frame [for making choppers/tallbikes] like it's butter. But it's harder to get into tight spaces. Either way you're gonna burn through wheels blades pretty q...

I'm gonna guess it was an oxy-acetylene cutting torch. I think that you could rent one for a day, but if you've never used one they can be a little scary. Since you're in Boulder you've got some other options. There's a recycling dumpster behind the engineering center on campus that's usually full o...

I've been looking around the internets for info on deriving beam stiffness/strength when comprised of different materials at different orientations. But I have found anything that makes me think I can do it correctly. Any body know of anything? I'd prefer something online [and free], but I'm not tot...

Rock on! It looks like you have some great toys to play with building your skis. Best of luck, and I really look forward to seeing what your results are.

They're similar but not exactly the same. In UHMWPE the polymer chains are significantly longer than in HDPE. Since plastics are a little more variable manufacturer than say alloys with specific proportions of metals, which have standards, I'm not sure how different UHMWPE and HDPE actually are, and...