Ski Builders Forum

After circumstances resulted in me taking this quarter off before starting college, I decided to build a ski press and start making skis. It is something I have been thinking of doing for awhile now, and I figured this would be the perfect time to start. I have been gathering the tools and supplies from Craigslist over the last week, and after one final trip to Home Depot today, our press build began.

We based our design off of the one originally built by Chrismp, but we did a solid structure instead of the hollow pyramid with supports. Our frame is made of 1" plywood:










The press dimensions are 20" wide by 8' long. The tier widths are 20", 16", 12", 8", and 6".

After we put together our frame body, we ran back down to Hoe Depot to get some materials for our cattrack. I decided aluminum is too expensive, so we got some 1 1/2 by 1" by 8' pieces of wood and ripped them into 3/4 inch sections that are 20" long to cover the width of our press.



I did not want to drill hole in each of those pieces and thread them together like a lot of the other tracks I have seen on here, so we got some painter's canvas and stapled the strips to the canvas to create our track. It turned out pretty well, very light weight and cheap. In total the track was $23.









It turned out very well I think. Plus it rolls up for very nice storage...



We now have the itch to finish. All either of us want to do is complete the press so we can start on the actual skis, but we are waiting on fire hoses for a bladder. We will probably start work on our top and bottom molds tomorrow. Our first ski is going to have flat camber with quite a bit of tip and tail rocker, so the mold should be fairly easy to make. I will be doing more updates as the project continues.

So far budget wise things are going very well. I picked up a router, belt sander, and table saw for $95. All of the wood for the press frame was $30, and like I said before, the cattrack was $23 in total. My budget was just over $700 to begin with, so I still have quite a bit of funding left. I realize I still have quite a ways to go yet also, but funds wise I think I am okay. Let us know what you think.

great idea on the cat track.

Yeah that's very clever with the canvas for the cattrack.

Nice press and cat track. How much does the press "frame" weight (roughly)? Are you going to do cordura?

Yes we are going to do cordura. I would guess each half of the press weighs around 75 pounds, so in total 150 maybe? I don't know, I am kind of a bad weight estimator, but I'm pretty sure it is close to that. Overall it is pretty light so far relative to some of the other presses on here.

looking good! you had the exact same idea that we had for the cat track works really well!

That's a good idea for a cat track. Roll top desks and bread boxes use the same technique.

Here is a quick update after awhile... We have not been dormant this whole time, but our progress has slowed. After our work today, all we need to do is get our cordura (on their way) and finish shaping our mold. Here is some more pics of our project:

Here is a picture of our bladder, 3- 6" layflat hoses.


The pinch seal on the end.


Here is our fill nipples. We just used hose barbs into a bulkhead with a lot of silicon sealer, washers were used to pinch it shut.


From our fill nipples we ran three hoses into a manifold to a ball valve and a male connector.


And a pic with some sick 185 K2 5500's for scale.


Here is our mold sandwiched in our press, we have not shaped our rocker sections yet, I just picked up a band saw last night.


and a shot of the mold from the front.



We are currently testing our bladder to see if it holds pressure. We plan to add hose clamps to all of the barbs but it seems to be holding so far. We have it sitting at 30 PSI and our pinch seals are not leaking at all so it seems to be working.
There you go. Next step will be cutting out our rocker sections and then making our top mold. Then it will be on to actually building skis!

Looks great!

I think I like the plywood idea if I can't get the i-beams I want.

Nice press and very nice cattrack

EricW wrote:I think I like the plywood idea if I can't get the i-beams I want.

Yeah, it turned out great. It is way easier to work with, and I got all the wood I needed for $30 on Craigslist so it is a much cheaper option as well.

I like the cat track also. I'm going to use MDF (like my last one) and HD fabric and staple it like you did. Great idea.

Ape, my shipping dept. held up your order. Sent today USPS priority. Should see it in just a couple days.

And by shipping dept. I mean the backseat of my GF's car, as she thought she shipped it with the other parcels on mon, but got dropped. I will wup up on her for you.

This is great. I'm researching in preparation for a press build of my own and I'm glad I saw this before shelling out money on steel beams and aluminum cat tracks.