I am very new to this iski building!! But I have a friend who I want to design my graphic for my skis and was wondering if you can apply the graphic as a top layer, as if the ski was already finished and then add a graphic. I was looking at having a local print shop to do the printing. My question is this possible to have a graphic stay on for a long time or would i have to worry about this.
2nd question would be any body used bamboo as a core, and if so what are the + and -'s of using this as a core. Do you need to change an characters of the ski.
graphics and bamboo core
Moderators: Head Monkey, kelvin, bigKam, skidesmond, chrismp
Re: graphics and bamboo core
about the grafics: depends on what sort of grafic you want to use and how you want to apply it.
some of my skis i just painted on the topsheet with a waterresistant marker and coated it with some clear varnish. worked well and holds up too.
on a different pair i applied some grafics by spray painting the skis. no additional varnish, no problems there neither.
well, i applied those grafics onto ABS topsheet, so the surface certainly has an influence. i think with abs you won`t have big troubles, but with other plastics it can be worse. and you`re somehow limited regarding the complexity of the grafics.
an other way would be to backprint a clear topsheet before laminating the skis. this would protect the grafic the best. but i`m always a bit concerned regarding the effect of the colour to the bond of the topsheet with epoxy...same problem here, you can`t do really complex grafics.
but you can do these methods by yourself and don`t need any printshop.
last method would be sublimation where you need a special topsheet, can print out the grafic with special sublimation ink and then transfer the printout with heat into the topsheet.
some of my skis i just painted on the topsheet with a waterresistant marker and coated it with some clear varnish. worked well and holds up too.
on a different pair i applied some grafics by spray painting the skis. no additional varnish, no problems there neither.
well, i applied those grafics onto ABS topsheet, so the surface certainly has an influence. i think with abs you won`t have big troubles, but with other plastics it can be worse. and you`re somehow limited regarding the complexity of the grafics.
an other way would be to backprint a clear topsheet before laminating the skis. this would protect the grafic the best. but i`m always a bit concerned regarding the effect of the colour to the bond of the topsheet with epoxy...same problem here, you can`t do really complex grafics.
but you can do these methods by yourself and don`t need any printshop.
last method would be sublimation where you need a special topsheet, can print out the grafic with special sublimation ink and then transfer the printout with heat into the topsheet.
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