WTF?!

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plywood
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WTF?!

Post by plywood »

thought that it might fit in here....

Image

WHAT THE HELL are those beasts, showed on the front page of skibuilders.com. the black/blue ones. i WANT some detailed infos about them! they just look ridiculously fat!
plywood freeride industries - go ply, ride wood!
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littleKam
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Post by littleKam »

hahahhaa...those are my new beasts! Can't wait to ride them but with the conditions I'm facing with, looks I'll be using them at the beach instead. :|

So...the skis are inspired by the new "rockered" skis that are popping up everywhere. Basically it has zero camber underneath the foot for about 80-90cm with regular sidecut. Hopefully this will allow for more controlled skiing in the crud and hard stuff. The tip and tails rise early with lengths of 40-45 cm or so and are super soft for the pow. You can see that the sidecut looks reversed at these points but it's basically a really elongated tip/tail. The waist is 130mm with a 155mm shovel. It's a lot of ski. I think a similar shape in a 115mm waist would be much more practical. I don't know what I was thinking making such a fat ski. It barely fit in my press!

The idea behind the ski came while skiing at Mammoth and June during the big dump a couple weeks back. I kept switching back and forth between my regular skis, the Governor (similar to Seth's K2 skis), and the Birds (a slightly reversed sidecut, zero camber ski) as the conditions changed and new areas opened up. So I combined the two with a little bit of tinkering and hopefully it'll work! If not...it goes on the wall with the others.

Oh yeah you'll notice that there are ton of bubbles on the topsheet. I've been having bubble issues lately...more than usual. I'm not sure if it's the paper graphics I'm using or if I'm mixing the epoxy too vigorously. Or it may be something else. Anybody have a good solution for this?
- Kam S Leang (aka Little Kam)
plywood
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Post by plywood »

sweet!
first as i saw them i looked up to my skis on the wall and thought: damn, this is fatter than anything i built!
but now with the specs it`s pretty much of the same sort i built.

can`t wait to hear what you think about it. my prophecy(as far as i can prophesy for tele): they`ll shred powder. endless floatation, quick responsability and good control in general. you won`t have any troubles staying on top ;)
main problem: the 90cm with regular sidecut are not that much. on slopes they`re still skiable, if the snow is not too hard and grippy enough. then you may be able to even carve them. but as soon as it turns hard and icy they`ll be not so much fun to ski. loads of tip-and-tail-vibrations.

they are pretty similar to my evil twins and i skied them 2 days ago on slopes. in comparison to the new shape of the gunnar they just suck on harder stuff. of course in powder they`re great, but for slopes...not so much. there the experience i have taught me to use at least 100-110cm regular sidecut and camber underfoot. much much more stability and control on slopes, but still great for pow ;)

now for the bubbles: i always got bubble issues as i just layed the topsheet as final layer on the upmost layer of fibreglass. then you always have bubbles between fibreglass and topsheet. solution: i coat the topsheet with epoxy and lay up the grafic layer or the upmost layer of fibreglass on the topsheet. and then i put the topsheet together with the grafics on top of the "traditionally done" layup. causes far less bubbles!... well, maybe with this method the bubbles still exist, in a deeper layer between the fibreglass...? but never had any problems, so i just recommend my method ;)
plywood freeride industries - go ply, ride wood!
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littleKam
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Post by littleKam »

yeah I'm definitely not expecting them to rock on the hard stuff. I just want them to be manageable with some sort of edge control. It's scary when I use my reverse sidecut skis and having to flail around when I hit the hard snow. But I think you're right about the floppy tips and tails.

I'll give your graphics method a try. I'm assuming you use some type of roller to push the bubbles out right? This issue makes me wonder if the big boys have bubbles under their topsheets? It's just that they're hidden under the sublimated/silkscreened graphic.
- Kam S Leang (aka Little Kam)
plywood
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Post by plywood »

yep, i`m using a roller for the whole layup. but i think a scraper would also work, normally i don`t have to push out bubbles, because there are not that many ;) just cover the topsheet with enough epoxy, then it should work.
at least with fibreglass and other tissue it works great, no bubbles at all. on the grafics i made with paper i had some bubbles underneath. so my theory is, that the bubbliness depends on one hand on the method you`re using for layup, and on the other hand on the possability of the material to absorb epoxy. if a material soaks up epoxy really well you shouldn`t have any bubbles if you coated the topsheet with enough epoxy.
plywood freeride industries - go ply, ride wood!
doughboyshredder
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Post by doughboyshredder »

How do you apply your epoxy?

If you haven't try using a piece of topsheet material, cut so that it is about a 6x6" piece. Then using serrated scissors trim one edge so that you have 1/8" deep grooves. This allows for an even distribution of epoxy on the base, core, and topsheet. Obviously, you can't use the serrated edge on the glass. I bet that the bubbles come from having areas with thicker epoxy buildup than others.
rockaukum
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Post by rockaukum »

I had one ski with the bub issue. Now I take more time after the top sheet is applied and work out the air bubs with my hands. I try to give the epoxy some time to adhear to the top sheet prior to putting into the press. After working out the bubbles I look to see if the top sheet lifts, if it does I wait a bit more and do it again. I have thought about looking for a roller (heavy duty) that would work for rolling out the top sheet and pushing the bubs out as well. After doing several sets of skis I have come to be a bit more relaxed about the time factor. I feel I can take my time durring the layup and not worry about the epoxy setting up too fast. Of course this may be do to the weather being cold.
ra
Greg
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Post by Greg »

I remember looking at a pair of K2's a few years ago with clear topsheets and there were definitely bubbles, and knots. They actually looked worse than my homebuilts which made me feel pretty good.

Otherwise, those things are in the range of the Bremallows... not quite 200cm long though. :D
plywood
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Post by plywood »

well, K2 is kind of bad anyway ;) i don`t know exactely how they named this model, maybe it is the fujative. there they used some carbon rovings underneath a clear topsheet - the strings are way away from being straight and nicely aligned!
plywood freeride industries - go ply, ride wood!
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