new moulds/ canber

[dan]

hi. i am currently designing my mould and press for my first pair of skis. i have been researching this for some time now and felt its about time i done some thing about it. thank you all for the info on this site and else where as i would still be at square 1 with out it.

my problem is, if i were making a full on carv ski would i have to put a camber bias on. and by how much? the reason i ask is i cant find any thing about this subject (maybe im being dumb)

the reason i ask is, i would like to make a mould that is adjustable, i have a fairly good design for this and it will be adjustable between 160cm - 180 cm but the one thing i cant adjust is the camber or the bias of the camber. every ski/board i make will have to have the camber in the center of it. unless i fix the high point of the camber further back, but it will be the same for all skis.

also am i right in thinking that a camber of 15mm - 30mm will be fine for most skis

apologies if this is a silly question i just thought it would be a safe bet to ask before i start cutting up wood.

cheers

Dan

[jono]

Dan,
doughboy shredder has a mold with adjustable camber. From the looks of it he can make any camber shape he wants. viewtopic.php?t=1465&start=15
behold its simplicity and beefiness. Are you prepared to build such a thing in your quest for adjustable camber?
The amount of camber in your mold depends on how much you think your ski will relax when you take it out of the mold. After that, the amount of camber is a personal choice. If you are building skis that are 160-180cm it seems like 15 -30mm is a lot of camber. Are you measuring one ski's max lift from the ground or are you measuring the distance between 2 skis facing each other? I'm using the measurement of one ski's max clearance.
For "packed powder", hardpack and icy conditions I like a ski with a larger amount of camber (8-15mm at 185-195cm, circular arc). It is fun to pop out of my turns. My everyday colorado ski, built by me, has less camber (7mm at about 190cm, circular arc) which helps in powder conditions but it is enough camber to facilitate loading/carving/etc.
I have one adjustable mold that maintains the same camber shape but has tip and tail sections that move. I am also working on several different fixed molds that are rockered. I think it is easier to just make a few molds instead of messing around with camber adjustability. Ultimately, I'd like to make them out of concrete like Gordon Clark did for his surfboard blanks.
If you experiment with camber shapes other than arcs of a circle please post your camber shapes and how they ride.

Good luck and remember to keep things simple at first. Later you'll be able to justifiably let things get impossibly complicated.

edit: I estimated my camber by dividing the space between skis by 2 and moving them a bit to compensate for the ski brakes interference. I suspect my camber numbers are a little bit high.

[doughboyshredder]

multiple molds would be much easier unless you are planning on building a lot of different shapes.

One of the camber profiles I plan on trying will be almost flat from center forward, but steeply cambered from center back. Pop off the tail, float off the nose........????????????

hugocoala has a pretty cool adjustable camber press also. I know that thread is around here somewhere.

[dan]

i decided to just crack on with it and set the camber at 20mm expecting abit of relaxing in the ski once out of the mold. i am still going to make it adjustable but only by length so the camber will remain in the center of the ski.

i will start playing about with the bias once i get my head around building a ski as this is my first pair. agreed it is probably best to keep it simple at this point.

jono, i am measuring my camber from the floor to its highst point, is this not the normal way to do it?

i will keep you updated on my progress and no doubt will be on here soon with more questions.

cheers

dan

[sir.orange]

just a short interjection after seraching in the net without results:

what is the difference between "camber" and "bias"???

thx sir

[threeninethree]

with reguards to the highpoint location of the camber my mold is a fixed camber with adjustable tip and tail block. The high point of the camber peak is at boot center which is at 55% of the running length, measured from the tip end. Some people place it at different places within a cm or 2.