I`m new to this and haven`t made eighter skis or a press yet, but I`m in the thinking prosess.
So i was thinking when you make the skis, if you fitted the bottom layer of fiberglass and the core to the base and then put the second layer of fiberglass and the topsheet on wider then the base and then pressed it wouldn`t it be possible to get them to fold around the sidewalls. A problem I see is gettin it to fold around the topp edge, maybe if you to cut the core sidewall with an angel to get it to fold around?
Another problem I see is getting the core and bottom layer of fiberglass to stay in the right place. (don`t know if this is a problem if you do some glueing.) But maybe could be possible to do the presing in two stages base,edges,fiberglass under the core and the core first. the clean up this and rout the walls in to a slight angel and then put on the fiberglas layer over the core and the topsheet and press it again.
Anyone tried anything like this? Or have any pointers on other problems that might come up`?
sidewalls
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Trod
I can try to give it a try.
1. Yes you need to control the veriables, but you need to press or vacuum it all at once. You control the veriables by gluing the metal edge to the base material so it is one piece. The Base can have a couple locator pin that part through a hole in the fiberglass and fit into the base.
2. The tip, sidewalls, and the core could be all one piece and prebent before you lay up.
3. From my experience for your first pair simplify. Skip HDPE sidewalls because they are a extra complexity and make very small mistakes in the core shifting a problem.
Good Luck.
1. Yes you need to control the veriables, but you need to press or vacuum it all at once. You control the veriables by gluing the metal edge to the base material so it is one piece. The Base can have a couple locator pin that part through a hole in the fiberglass and fit into the base.
2. The tip, sidewalls, and the core could be all one piece and prebent before you lay up.
3. From my experience for your first pair simplify. Skip HDPE sidewalls because they are a extra complexity and make very small mistakes in the core shifting a problem.
Good Luck.
I think Bruce Varsara at Coiler may use a two stage process for some of his boards. The only problems I see with what you're descibing are the fact that you'll be trimming along the steel edge twice, which may reduce edge life, and if you let your bag bridge over the side of the board you'll get epoxy pooling in the glass over the sidewall. I don't think either one of these is insurmountable.