Ski Builders Forum

Anyone have any advice on what materials you can/can't use for a fabric related top sheet. For instance is a silk based fabric better than a cotton based fabric, etc?

last year we did a lamination test on a couple samples...one polyester, one rayon, one silk, one cotton. Not surprisingly, polyester delammed the easiest, then rayon (almost as easily as the polyester), then the silk (with slightly more effort), and finally the cotton (the core material actually failed before the cotton adhesion did). so i would say cotton is by far your best bet...or porous paper.

I want to be clear on my original question. We are using a clear plastic top sheet, but was really asking about the layer immediately underneath. I want to use fabric with patterns on it for graphics. Is cotton still king?

we do the same layup...the test was to assure that the adhesion between fiberglass and graphic aswell as between graphic and topsheet remain strong. cotton is king....as far as i am concerned.

I just tested out a pair with cotton directly under the topsheet, and they held up well. The cotton seems to wet out quite well which probably helps.

just wanted to make sure i'm understanding this. you guys print your graphics on cotton, but what kind of cotton? similar to that found w/ t-shirts?

While I haven't tried printing on cotton fabric, I do use cotton for my graphic layer under the topsheet.
Any light weight 100% cotton fabric will work.
I wash mine in hot water and run it thru the dryer to pre-shrink it and remove any dirt, sizing etc. Then iron it to get rid of the wrinkles.
Just don't use any fabric softener as it will leave a residue that might impede bonding.
Also, use high contrast colors and patterns as they tend to darken quite a bit when wet-out. for an example of this see
http://www.skibuilders.com/phpBB2/viewt ... 7&start=15
the first 2 pics are before and after
I've been buying my fabric from a quilting shop here in town, its fairly expensive but the selection is fantastic

sam

I haven't tried printing graphics on cotton either. I used some red cotton fabric from the fabric store to make my skis red, then used some graphics printed on paper to spice it up...I even put a small picture (printed on photo paper) in the middle of my tail.

The skis have about 8 days on them and there's no sign of delam anywhere.

This is an iron on transfer onto a cotton fabric with a "factory" print.



I do not have the skis anymore but I'm sure that they are looking great!
Go for it and provide fedback.
ra