Ski Builders Forum

@plywood: yeah, you're probably right...we'll do an arched top anyway just to be on the safe side. i just thought that, judging from shopvacs video, the reason for deflection in their molds are the huge hoses.

@montucky: thats a great idea for an easy loading cloth press! i'll see if i can come up with sth similar.

@all: i'm planning on using particle board to make the pyramid shape for the pressure distribution blocks on top of the molds. it's cheap and i think it could withstand the pressure. each board will be 2cm thick so the whole thing will be 10cm thick (approx. 4").

width
10cm ----
20cm --------
30cm ------------
40cm ----------------
50cm --------------------

hi,
i 'm a french shaper , and i want to know where you buy the "cordura" for to do the press ?
it is a very good idea !!

well, i'll be getting mine from montuckymadman here on this forum.
he made the great offer to send out the remnants he has for free.

other than that you could try this german online shop: http://www.extremtextil.de/catalog/prod ... cts_id=741

15 bucks a meter?
I make mine with double thickness, so 2000 Denier.
Well, you will need a bit.

I can probably send you what you need, might cost $35 USD ?

Or I can perhaps make what you need, but if you have a good sewing
machine you can DIY.

A few weeks ago I saw a duct tape cannon on Mythbusters. (Yes it worked.) This got me thinking: what about using duct tape to make the bags instead of cloth? The stuff is certainly strong enough if you use enough, but I guess that's the main question. I was thinking for most of us that the duct tape would be much easier to get and also no sewing. If you use bigger rolls and wrap around in a spiral, there wouldn't be too many "seams." Maybe start with a layer of plastic and some spacers underneath, and then just wrap away. Any thoughts from you engineer types? Just an idea of course. I realize that a lot of duct tape might be expensive.

if you can't duck it f**k it!

well, you can tear duct tape apart from side to side... which means if don`t align it propperly the stress might get too much. furthermore it would be a pain to wrap ducttape around the whole mold....

@plywood: I agree with what you said, but my idea was to create reusable "bags," so I think it might be worth spending a few hours doing it properly. I also think alignment wouldn't be such an issue if you simply overbuild it a bit.

As you say, it sounds expensive. A roll of 50m Stockvik “silvertejp” (duct tape in Swedish) will cost you 100SEK/~$14 at Claes Olsson or Jula. Shopvac’s press was 40cm wide. Let’s assume that it was perfectly round, which it wasn’t. That would make the circumference of ~1,25 meter. A roll of duct tape will then give you 40 laps around the press and $35 worth (same as cordura bags from Montucky) of duct tape would give you 100 laps. I don’t know the physical properties of duct tape but I think your locking at a hell of a lot of duct tape to pull this off.
Where in Sweden are you?

Nice breakdown! I just threw out the idea without giving it that much thought. I still wonder if it's possible to do it cost efficiently. (Byggmax has it for 60 SEK / $8.50.) I didn't catch the whole episode, but on Mythbusters they even suspended a car for a while with a rather small amount of duct tape. I live between Östersund and Åre- heard of Nälden? I am in Stockholm all the time for work as well...

Can’t say I know Nälden but I remember seeing the name on signs on the E14 in the near of Krokom on the way to Åre.