bigKam's latest core material

[plywood]

Am I right?

you are!

i think the argument that bamboo is "better" for the environment is total rubbish! it has to travel around half the world to get on your workbench (exotic woods in general). and as you said, it`s laminated. with glue. i suppose a lot of glue.

and bamboo is NOT laminated as regular cores. at least all the bamboo stuff i`ve seen so far. you think the bamboo fibres go through the whole lenght of the core? WRONG! the bamboo veneer, bamboo parquet floor, bamboo poles for fishing - they all consist out of little maybe 10cm long pieces.
bamboo has some sort of "knots", the stem of a bamboo plant is hollow in the middle. but every...maybe 5-10 inches there are such knots which kind of separate the stem in distinct cells. for the production of bamboo veneer and such stuff you only can take the wood between those knots. you got to press flat and dry these parts. then you have to fit those pieces together and start to build up a sheet of veneer. by glueing piece to piece.

at least that`s what i have been told and what i saw so far.

[Easy]

Am I right?

you are!

i think the argument that bamboo is "better" for the environment is total rubbish! it has to travel around half the world to get on your workbench (exotic woods in general). and as you said, it`s laminated. with glue. i suppose a lot of glue.

and bamboo is NOT laminated as regular cores. at least all the bamboo stuff i`ve seen so far. you think the bamboo fibres go through the whole lenght of the core? WRONG!

OK the environmental benifits of bamboo are arguable, especially when compared to local woods. Compared to exotic woods I think it is definately better, because bamboo needs less resources and space to deliver the same amount of construction material when compared to trees. But this is a personal opinion and everyone is free to have his/her own opinion about it.

About the laminate: You are right, the fibres don't run along the entire length. They run in short strips. But I have also seen ski cores from ski manufacturers which had a similar build/lamination. I know that this is the case in the trouble maker en legend models from dynastar. And since most european ski manufacturers all use the same suppliers, I would not be surprised if most ski cores are built/laminated this way.

[camhard]

Just somethings to consider with regards to bamboo. I posted this, along as part of a longer environmental monologue, in the "eco-friendly skis" thread.



Objective bamboo information is pretty hard to find right now, even when browsing journal databases, because it is such a trendy alternative at the moment. I am inclined, however, to believe that it has a lot of benefits. Sure some plantations cut down areas of other habitat to grow the bamboo, but most wood is currently clear-cut. The difference is that Bamboo grows back quite quickly, so once a plantation is developed, it will provide resources for a very long time. Once a region is logged for conventional wood, though, it remains essentially useless as habitat or anything else for a very long time. Because it is produced using conventional agriculture practices (for anyone who doesn't know, this is the monoculture, pesticide/herbicide type of growing), however, soil degradation and salination may be a problem. Particularly in China, where a lot of bamboo timber originates, water problems could be pretty significant. Reputable organizations, such as the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), developer of the LEED rating system, does support bamboo use. Credits are given under Materials and Resources Credit 6 (LEED NC-1); bamboo is considered renewable. Certified wood also receives credit, as well as re-used or recycled material. A lot of Bamboo is certified as well, so it does have the support of various NGO's, supported by quite a bit of research. Just to complicate things, however, regional materials are preferable, and also receive LEED credit. Many believe that local is more important than, say organic. I also wonder how stiff a bamboo ski would be.

[Bucky Mullet]

Corn Stalks... Coolest thing I've heard, long fibers, basically waste product, and have you tried to rip a (wet) corn stalk in half???
I wonder what impregnating it with epoxy would do to the weight...

[pentagram]

how about end grain glued together drinking straws, too plastic, how about some organic hemp stalks, the strongest natural fiber there is...anyone got some to spear???haha

[cr1msonth1ng]

has anyone done a ski with a paulownia wood core? i was thinking of using that with maple stringers at the edges and bindings.

[thermikboards]

some kiteboards have a wood core in pawlonia , i tried to search this wood in france , with no results ...

[cr1msonth1ng]

I know there is one company in the US smith lumber or something like that and there is a supplier from China as well

[camhard]

there's a snowboard company in the US that uses it in some of their boards.

[alloyguitar]

I'm considering using it in an eco-friendly snowboard company I'm proposing.

As far as bamboo is concerned, it seems to me that, since it grows so quickly as compared to other woods, it would be a good alternative as resource consumption continues to climb.

But I digress. For my experimental core I plan on using a 3-ply sandwich construction with a certain pattern cut out of the center ply.

Then, the "hollow" areas are to be filled with either the cardboard honeycomb (as mentioned earlier) or possibly a Great Stuff-esque plumbers foam. I'm leaning more towards the Cardboard method, since I'm going in a more eco-friendly route.

And the woods will be bamboo, and recycled hardwood flooring (in this particular board's case, walnut) for stringers.

Call me crazy, I don't really care. I'm going to do it anyway.

[doughboyshredder]

funny,

That is so similar to one of my planned core construction.

hollow areas with honeycomb or something of the sorts. so many possibilities.

[alloyguitar]

shoot me a message if you want and we can share design ideas.

I currently attend the University of Tennessee and through my brother (engineering phd) I have two structural engineering majors working on exactly how to hollow out the core and where to retain the most strength possible.

The way I see it is that it's either going to work, or it isn't.

[ben_mtl]

OK I'm away from my workshop for the winter so I have plenty of time for thinking about different constructions.
So I dig this topic out !
Why this topic ? because I thought about cork, a quick search on the forum to see if this has already been talked about sent me to this topic !

So here is my idea of using cork :
have a regular wood core (I use maple and poplar), with sidewalls (either wood or P-Tex) but inserting a thin vertical strip of cork between the core and sidewalls, this would maybe absorb impacts a little bit and also dampen your ski.
Any thought ?

Also when reading this topic I saw something about using carboard to make some honeycomb material, even if I can easily see in my head how to do that, does anyone already tried that (and has pictures), there was a link to this website www.silverfishlongboarding.com where in the forum someone tried cardboard as a board core but can't find it.. any help would be apprecied (I'm short on synonyms for "cardboard" to search in the forum as english is not my first language..).
I don't remember who, but someone here already used honeycomb to fill cutouts in his cores, might be a good starting point.
The foam core is also one of my project, with wood inlays for the bindings and sidewalls.

I'm also interested in using bamboo as sidewalls, don't ask me why but without any scientific justification, in my head bamboo seems to be a great material for sidewalls. I'm just wondering how it would deal with water (snow) if it's not treated (no varnish or epoxy on wax on sidewalls). At least that's what I'm searching : a wood that has good impact resistance and that doesn't absorb moisture when not finished.

As I'm thinking about lots of things for ski-building I might shortly just open a topic "Away from the workshop, Ben's thoughts" ...

[knightsofnii]

think about the fact that wood comes from trees, and it is in its nature to absorb water, .

You definitely have to treat it with something to keep it from pulling in water.
The question is what? And how often? Is there ANY one time treatment? aside from epoxy. Wood even keeps absorbing epoxy over time.

but yea bamboo is the way to go for woods, people are having solid results with it.