Ski Builders Forum

What's up guys,

Been on here for a while but I've never really posted anything due to not having all that much to post...

But, I just got around to making my second pair of skis (in a year, I know...).

My first pair can be found here:
viewtopic.php?t=2343

And looked like this:


They were rad in powder, but were really stiff and didn't like to turn all that much (however, they did go really fast in a really straight line!).

My next pair I wanted to be a bit more maneuverable, core is all maple profiled to 2-10-2(ish) with a two inch wide strip of carbon fiber down the ski below the core. They have a bit more sidecut at 145-120-135 (about) and a are almost fully rockered: I was still going for the (almost) dedicated pow ski.

But. I tried reusing the mold by shimming it up and in pressing a flat spot developed in the rocker at both ends. Oh well, I'm still excited to see how they ski!

So, on to the pics:

Gluing up the core


Funky view of the skis


Close up of the graphic

Graphic is just a printed picture on regular printer paper that I cut out with an exacto knife.

Tip rocker


Tail rocker


The flat spots are pretty visible about two thirds the way up the rocker front and back. Oh well, maybe I'm on to something revolutionary! Ha ha.

Next pair I'm hoping to have rocker without shims. Already started building the mold, sorry no pictures though. The skis are going to be along the lines of the Armada JJs with maybe a little less running length in the middle.

Maybe it'll be sooner than a year when I finally get them done!


Guess I can change the title now that I have a few pairs built...

Oh yeah,
The cordura bags Montucky made for me have been holding up great pressing at about 45 psi!

Nice retro graphic!

Nice work!

Keep it up.

sam

They look great. How did you do your graphic?

Thanks! Hopefully at least one more pair of skis will be on the way this season.

COSurfer, I just printed the picture out on regular printer paper and then carefully cut out the monster making sure to keep all the pieces attached. It took a while but looks ok I think.

Ha! I LOVE the graphic, Ski Free was the best!

They look really thick, are they pretty stiff? Nice work!

It took me a few minutes to remember the abominable snow monster.

I like it!

Yeah, they're pretty stiff, I always get scared when planing the core when it starts getting thinner, next skis I'll try to make a little softer.

Another vote for the cool graphic.

Just finished a new pair today! They're at the shop getting ground and bindings (some Barons) put on.
I decided to try and make a ski like I'd find at the shop, graphic, sidewalls, etc. We'll see how it works...
They're about 190cm, 138-123-128(ish), but the widest points are moved in (kind of like the Armada JJ) so the turn radius is ~22 meters. Bunch of tip/tail rocker.

I bought some of the p tex sidewall material, scuffed it with some sandpaper, and flame treated it. Nothing real scientific, so I'm crossing my fingers that they won't delam too soon.

The topsheet graphic is from CODA, no idea on the durability yet but they look incredible and Chad was real good to work with.
I also decided to get some aluminum to use underneath the cat track and underneath the base during lay up. Dunno why I didn't do it earlier, the finish is great! I didn't have any mold release, but I had some airbrush frisket (mask) laying around and that worked just fine.

On with the pictures...


This is out of the press, sitting in my room.


All cut out and sidewall angle routed (I promise there are many more mistakes in the sidewall than this picture shows!).


Tip rocker


Tail rocker


Another view.

Hope they ski well!

By the way, my second pair, with the ski free monster, absolutely kill it. I was going through pow/crud/chop/everything but hardpack and moguls faster than I ever have. They seem to stomp everything (However, I may be a bit biased!).

great looking pair of skies
hope to lay my 2nd pair up this week

awesome!

Congrats on the new pair. Looking sweet!

May I ask how you designed that awesome graphic? I am trying to get more proficient with Photoshop and Illustrator right now for my next pair.

Based on your shape and tip and tail rise, I think that you are going to dig these too.

Keep us posted on the on how well the sidewalls stay bonded.

-gscherer and falls, thanks!

-Dr. Delam: This is going to sound ridiculous, but I typed in eye or eyeball or something in google images and found the largest picture I could of an eye. I copied into GIMP (a free image editing program) and made it really really big, trying to preserve the 300 dpi that CODA recommends. This particular picture had a pattern in the middle of the eye so I just made a really big black spot to cover it up.
The resolution isn't quite where I want it, but I have no idea how to get a picture that will get big enough to cover a ski while keeping good resolution. This one is ok, and looks pretty good from a few feet away. Up real close you can see it's a bit blurry.

Hope this helps, sorry for a solution that's probably not the key to photoshop that you were looking for!