The reason for this build is to compare a ski I made w/ a solid ash core (the quilted maple ski) to a glue-up core of maple and pine I’m making now. The solid ash core ski measures 168cm 122-70-116. The core on the ash is approx 3mm tip, 12-13mm center, 3-4mm tail (no wonder it’s firm….) No doubt this ski should be softer.
(* As a side note I originally had the pine part of the ski made up of ¼ inch strips of pine and ash with maple sidewalls and maple center. Well the glue-up was a total PITA trying to clamp the strips into the finger joints of the core. It was a total failure trying to keep the wood strips aligned. So I started over using a solid piece of pine in the core. I guess I could have glued up the strips first and then machined it for the maple core…. Maybe next time. *)
Post about the other ski:
http://www.skibuilders.com/phpBB2/viewt ... lted+maple
My supply of ash has dwindled. I have 5 other ash cores set aside ready to be shaped, but for this build I’m using maple and pine. Still have lots of maple. The pine strips run from in front of the toe area and behind the heel area. I wanted solid maple under the binding area which is 18inches long. The core is 5 inches wide. The pine strips are 2 inches wide. The sidewalls (if you want to call ‘em that) are 1.5 inches wide. I’m not using plastic sidewalls.
I have machined the maple/pine core to 3mm tip, 12mm center, 4mm tail. I decided to weigh the cores on the official kitchen scale. One core weighs 2lbs 8oz. the other weighed 2lbs 11 oz. That seems like a big difference. So I’ll have to give the heavier one a light sanding to get it closer in weight w/o changing the overall dimension too much. Wonder if the density of the maple is different between the cores???
I had a strange anomaly with the planer. As the cores went through the planer on the planer crib one ski seemed to plane out a little wavy while the other was perfectly smooth. This has never happened before. Not sure what caused that. But a light sanding afterwards took care of it. I’ll have to check the planer, make sure the blades are set properly. But it was weird.
I used hot a glue gun to glue the core down to the crib. That worked well. Just be careful when removing the core.
Just showing the placement of the core on the crib making sure the core lines up on my crib in the correct spot. The market on the left is the beginning of the binding are. the second line is the center line of the core.
The core before profiling:
Core showing the binding area placement:
That’s it for now. I’ll post more in the coming days.
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