i figured i'd just get a journal started a way to keep track of how things are going and bounce ideas off the people here on this forum. In any case as of today I have a few sheet of birch plywood, 3 gallons of resin research system 21, 15 yards of triaxial weave fiberglass, a bunch of vacuum bagging materials, and two sheets of aluminum all sitting in my living room, its a mess. At this point I still need base material and edges, which i should be getting within the next week. I'm really excited to get start building despite the fact im out the rest of the season (torn ACL) and as soon as i get busy i'll be posting pictures of our entire process. I am using a vacuum bagging method, similar to the method Michael Lish uses (guy behind 333skis) who has been kind enough to open up his little trailer and show me how he does it from start to finish.
In any case are there any pitfalls i should watch for as i start building my skis? I'm a high school student, working with some other high school students, we don't have a lot of experience with any of this and we arent exactly pulling huge paychecks every week soooo help would definitely be APPRECIATED! ( thank god for supportive parents who front their kids money without them this wouldnt have been possible :] )
kylehiroyasu wrote: ( thank god for supportive parents who front their kids money without them this wouldnt have been possible :] )
Yeah lets here it for the parents, me being one of them! Generally we're a pretty good group
Pitfalls?? There are lots. Use the search function in this forum. Most likely someone has already encountered a similar problem you may be having and have a solution or work around. Since you'll be sitting around with a torn ACL you'll have plenty of time to research ski building. As for advice, there's lots of that here too. Take your time and do a dry run before you actually lay down any epoxy. That way you'll find out any problems before wasting material and mom/dads $$. My advice is to research, plan, build skis, repeat (until the parents $$$ runs out)
3 gallons of resin sounds like allot. How many pairs or boards do you plan to build?
I think I made 6 pairs of long fat skis with 1 gallon of resin and 1/2 gallon hardener.
And I used way to much on three pairs.
I like to warm up my resin and hardener so its less viscous. You use less and it wets out the composite much easier.
I use a seed germination pad under the containers for a few hours prior to layup.
I also would not butt joint cores like michael does. A dovetail or finger joint would be much better. No voids should be left in the core either try and fill alignment holes with wood or something.
skidesmond:haha yeah thats the plan at this point, going to take the first pair slowly and carefully, try to avoid having too many wrinkles in my plans :P
montucky:thanks for the advice, and i got it cheap from a guy, that was the smallest quantity he could handle, but there are four of us building skis, so at this point i don't think i necessarily bought too much.
by the way what are you referring to with the butt joint as opposed to a dovetail or finger? are you talking about his method for making the wood core longer?
ohhhhh, okay yeah thanks for the advice, if i find that thats an issue i'd definitely try using something more substantial, thanks for the input![/list]
without them this wouldnt have been possible :] )
