Most polyurethanes become brittle at colder temps and shatter easily when flexed. It's a good idea to freezer test samples before putting a lot of time and money into something that will fail when it gets cold. Water clear PU is especially brittle when cold.

G-man

I also only check in only periodically now-a-days, and haven't noted any glitches with the site... not that I have to skills or know-how to do anything about it even if I did notice a problem. I think that the main reason I was asked to be a moderator back in the early days was that I had a pretty c...

Thanks for that clarification Josh. As you know, we're working with some huge pressures with our pneumatic presses, and we've seen some pretty frightening set-ups in the past. We never know who's watching and 'learning' from the stuff we post. Myself, I'd probably still throw a couple of bolts throu...

Twizz, Yes, very nice, but dang man, where's your respirator when you're trimming the flash on the band saw. You know how itchy your hands and arms get when you trim the flash... just imagine how much of that crap is getting into your lungs when your face is that close the the cutting process. Yes, ...

Hey Josh, Your bolt set-up at the ends of your bladder scares the crap out of me. Over time, the fire hose could work it's way free of the angle iron pieces, and it could release with a lot of force. Could be ugly, even deadly. I suggest that you bolt through the steel and the hose in at least 3 pla...

I had a close call recently that could have really ruined my day, and thought I'd pass it along. I bought a few Bosch Colt palm routers recently and set each one up for a specific purpose. On the near fateful day, I was using one of the routers with a cutter that was about one inch in length, but se...

Currently, I'm up to 21 different routers. I use each one for a single dedicated ski building task. I use everything from trim routers all the way up to big 3 1/2hp routers that are mounted to shaper tables and CNC machines. As I move a ski down the assemble line, all I have to do is reach up and pu...

Have you reached you're wife's limits? I think I shouldn't answer that question because it'll only make you feel bad for asking. I suppose the CNC machine wasn't totally at fault. Truth be known, I think that having the CNC machine to focus on, helped me get through all those difficult months. It w...

What ever happened with G-man's? Geesh... been so long since I've been on the forum, I had to spend a bit of time trying to find my password. I run my CNC machine for a number of hours pretty much everyday. I've never had to do anything to it except for a slight backlash adjustment to a drive nut o...

Hey andi, It's my opinion that a CNC machine (when all parts are aligned and lubed properly) should move around quite smoothly when the router is not running. Servo motors can tolerate a bit more vibration than stepper motors can (steppers will lose steps if they are subjected to too much vibration,...

One more thought... I just saw the stress diagrams that you posted on the other thread. One of the main differences between your press and mine is that the bottom (and top) of my press is made up of longitudinally placed 2x3 rectangular tube (four @ 8 feet long), wall thickness .125 inch, with 2x2 a...

I get no notable flexing (lateral or longitudinal) of the lower steel press members on my press. I do keep an eye open for changes that take place over time with my bottom cassettes. Heat and pressure eventually causes the MDF to compress non-uniformly, which has resulted in bases that haven't been ...

Here you go:

http://www.skibuilders.com/articles/heatedpress.shtml

G-man

The thin stuff would make excellent top sheet material though.

Ah, yes... good call. I totally wasn't thinking in that direction.

G-man

I'm betting there were some big smiles at the bottom of that hill. Woo-hoo.

G-man