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Document your personal work here. Show photos, movies, and share your secrets.

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falls
Posts: 1458
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:04 pm
Location: Wangaratta, Australia

Post by falls »

No worries. Glad to be of some help, that's what this site is all about I guess.
Looking forward to your journal.
Don't wait up, I'm off to kill Summer....
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falls
Posts: 1458
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:04 pm
Location: Wangaratta, Australia

Post by falls »

Progress Update:

Press frame is half welded. Hopefully will be finished this weekend then can progress to painting and assembly the weekend after.
Finally found a decently priced and suitably sized electrical enclosure (note to myself and others that getting a bigger enclosure than you think you will need makes life a lot easier when planning the layout of components and assembling!). I ended up with a steel painted enclosure from Trojan Electrical http://www.trojanelectric.com.au. Its outer dimensions are 250x200x150mm (hxwxd). Price $67 next day courier delivery inc. Fits everything inside. Perhaps wish I had still gone 1 size bigger.
Spent today cutting holes in the box and asembling the wiring for my blanket controller.
Image
Controller innards.
SSR on heatsink mounted to plate in enclosure
Haven't quite finished yet (so don't worry about the bare wire ends!)
Image
Separate power supply for PID controller and heat blankets. These IEC inlets have a fuse built in for the live wire and a neon lighted switch.
Probably a bit of overkill and not necessary to have a separate power supply, but it made my wiring job a bit easier and I didn't need to use power distribution terminal blocks. Also the PID's power supply is fused at 1A whereas my blankets are fused at 12.5A
Image
Auber instruments PID controller with ramp and soak functions
Image
Powerpoint for plugging the blankets into
TC quick disconnect plug

I will mount the enclosure to the steel of the press and run an earth wire from my cassettes back to the powerpoint and therfore to earth in the actual power supply.

Getting closer.

About 2 months til snow season here.
Don't wait up, I'm off to kill Summer....
Jekul
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Post by Jekul »

Very clean looking electrical enclosure so far. I'm glad to see you're getting it all figured out.
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falls
Posts: 1458
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:04 pm
Location: Wangaratta, Australia

Post by falls »

thanks Jekul
Wiring to the PID is complete. I just took my life in my hands and tested it.
SUCCESS!!
It is 68F in our kitchen, whatever that means!
Image
Image
A bit extra money and wiring but red neon switch lights are so worth it!!
Just need 2 more 1/4 inch female connectors and the heating system is done. Very frustrated it is saturday and noone who has these in town is open. Just want to complete it!
Don't wait up, I'm off to kill Summer....
Alex13
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Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2009 12:01 am

Post by Alex13 »

That's what you get for living near Wang :P

Those switches look good though, I like the computer cable idea. I'll probably steal it. Pretty clean setup all up, very nice.
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falls
Posts: 1458
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:04 pm
Location: Wangaratta, Australia

Post by falls »

Image
Press Welding pretty much done!!!
Good day today.
Don't wait up, I'm off to kill Summer....
OAC
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Post by OAC »

JC...you have all the tooling! Do you live in that hangar? BTW I'm impressed by the finish of everything you build!

It's "beer season" here now. Later this spring I will increase my workshop with 10m2. Atleast I will will get rid of a "corner" that has annoyed me the whole "building season".

Looking forward to see some good skis coming out of that press

Cheers!
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falls
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Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:04 pm
Location: Wangaratta, Australia

Post by falls »

Thanks OAC
I am very lucky to have a skilled girlfriend and friends who help me along the way. The machine shop in the hangar has a few mills, a couple of CNC mills, a lathe, bandsaw etc. Very well setup to make parts from scratch for the aeroplanes.
The photo above is in a friend's shed who did the welding for me after we cut the metal and drilled the holes. The lathe in the background is the old one from the hangar. He has done a great job puting it all together.
I need now to build an edge bender then I have pretty well run out of excuses for not having built a pair of skis!
Don't wait up, I'm off to kill Summer....
AKtransplant
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:32 pm
Location: Connecticut

Shed?!

Post by AKtransplant »

[quote="falls"]The photo above is in a friend's shed quote]

Shed!? That's a damn nice shed, I have a shed that barely fits my lawnmower and a rake!

I'm with OAC, all your work has been top notch, lots of great ideas that I have undoubtedly lifted and used for my own build. Only wish I had your equipment and skills.

Can't wait to see a pair of skis.
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falls
Posts: 1458
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:04 pm
Location: Wangaratta, Australia

Post by falls »

Thanks. I guess we have a lot of space in Australia. Having a big shed is like a badge of honour in the area I live. I had never really seen the attraction until I started this project, but now I feel seriously lacking not having one of my own. My friend who did the welding built his shed and his house by himself. It is on a hill looking across the plain towards the mountains, very nice spot. He is the real skill behind how well the press has turned out.
Glad some of the ideas are helpful to others and remember I have lifted a lot of my ideas from other people on the forum too.

Sounds like the pressure is definitely on for me to build some good skis now!
Don't wait up, I'm off to kill Summer....
skidesmond
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Post by skidesmond »

Yeah that's quite a "shed". Nice build so far too. Looking forward to the first set of skis.

Funny, once you start building skis all of a sudden the basement or garage becomes too small. I'm in the middle of re-organizing my workshop to make it more skibuilder friendly. My shed is already full of shed "stuff" (lawn mower, snowblower, bikes, yard tools....)

Nice job.
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MontuckyMadman
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Post by MontuckyMadman »

since I have had so much sucess building skis I taught another guy who basically taught me how to make all the woodworking stuff better and more efficient. So this week he has cleared his shed and plans to build a real ski press and make it a full ski building shed. I call it a ski barn cause its real oldschool and more barn then shed like. But still pretty sheddy.

Yeah falls with all your knowledge and tooling we should see some pretty sweet skis.
Have you looked at DPS' shapes? Some of the more progressive in the industry.
I think you already have all that.
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falls
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Location: Wangaratta, Australia

Post by falls »

Yeah a 'ski barn' would definitely be the way to go. It would be great to have separated areas for the differnet stages of the process. Especially a 'clean' room for layup and pressing.

Montucky: A friend of mine almost bought a pair of DPS lotus skis, but ended up with some PM gear Lhasa pows. The advise he got was that unless you are touring a lot of the time it is hard to justify the extra cash for the full carbon construction and weight savings. I saw on their site they do however have a bamboo/glass option too that is in the better price bracket for buying. DPS are also the guys who are vertically laminating aluminium into their cores? I saw a thread about how to do this at home.
My woodworking skills aren't that great so I feel tied to CNC for templates at the moment. A bit of cost if every time you want to experiment you have to pay for CNC again. It would be nice to be like a surfboard shaper where there is a lot more 'art' and handmaking involved in the shape.
I have 2 lengths of a similar "5 dimension" design to start out with, then will see where I get to from there - probably a skinnier more realistic all mountain ski for australian conditions + something ridiculously fat and rockered jsut because I can!

The thing that amazes me about all the boutique or indy ski brands in America/Canada is the cheap prices! The Australian dollar buys about 93 US cents at the moment so full carbon progressive skis are only costing me about $1100 Aussie dollars + shipping. To put it in perspective generally a pair of K2 extremes (park skis) are about $750 aussie dollars and something like a Line prophet 90/100 or K2 obsethed would be about $1000 aussie dollars if you can find somewhere that sells them. Last winter I broke a binding in Wanaka NZ and bought new Dynastar PX12's for $450 NZ dollars - about $400 aussie - I had no choice, but the same bindings are between 100-200 US dollars online.
Don't wait up, I'm off to kill Summer....
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tufty
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Location: Northern Alps

Post by tufty »

Cheap prices for indy manufacturers are pretty much general, I think. One of the guys at work has a pair of hand-carved wooden telemark skis from http://www.skis-bois-tardy.com/, they cost him 400€. A pair of telemark-specific decks from Rossignol go at least 600€, and you don't get a personal handover from the builder.
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falls
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Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:04 pm
Location: Wangaratta, Australia

Post by falls »

things are a bit different down our way. The two boutique manufacturers charge about A$1000 (US 900) for a pair of skis. Our market is pretty small I guess and they make good products. Local shops are starting to see that the internet may bring them undone and prices are a bit better recently on commercial gear, but there are still plenty of places you can fork over 700 or 800 dollars for a ski jacket or 1500 for a ski and binding set. Not that many places you can fork over thousands and build them at your hosue though!
Don't wait up, I'm off to kill Summer....
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