If it makes you feel better, I spent the whole night making my cat track and it's 2 inches too narrow because after years of practice, I apparently still can't read numbers on a tape measure.
That dded sucks!!
I reckon that's worse than a failed ski/board!
There are so many opportunities to make mistakes, and the slightest mistake can cause failure. Frustrating to say the least.
I actually think I'm going to be okay. For the most part all of the epoxy seems to have cured. There are still some places in the squeeze out that are rubbery, but everything else seems good. I've lowered the temp down to about 110 degrees and am going to leave it in the press all night. I think I may have had a little bit too much hardener, but not drastically too much. Like a 1/4oz more than the intended 4oz. Can't imagine that would cause such an issue.
It's gotta have something to do with the temp of the epoxy.
One more thing I learned is that making skis is a lot tougher than making a board. Twice as much work, really. Now I know why split boards are 1k or more a pop. Holy cow, I can't believe the amount of work that goes in to one.
EricW wrote:If it makes you feel better, I spent the whole night making my cat track and it's 2 inches too narrow because after years of practice, I apparently still can't read numbers on a tape measure.
Well? How are they?!? Eric, I cut my cat track with an angle grinder...never again. Each piece is "unique". The metal supplier will cut these for me (I found out after). Bleh.
The only issues are a very small (1/4") section on one of the bases where the edge is sitting slightly higher than the base. Minor imperfection, shouldn't effect anything, especially since it's on the inside edge, and that the bases expanded some under such a long heating process. This expansion made some of the inside section real narrow. Like, I don't know how I'm going to cut them apart narrow. I had spaced them apart 1/8" when I glued the bases down. Now in some places they are 1/16" apart. It's gonna be tough. Other than that, they look great. Camber and rocker actually came out real good.
The only other thing is that I have at least a couple hours of cleaning cured and slightly uncured epoxy off of everything, before I can layup the second board.
Oh, and I had a dream last night. I know what prototype I am building one of these days. Maybe today, since it won't take any shaping really. Haven't been able to get the Goode STR8 out of my head. Think I'm gonna build a tapered STR8 with no tail and a big fat tip. 30 cm at the tip, 27 cm at the tail. Short. 150ish. Pow destroyer. Might even swallow tail it.
Pics when I find my camera. It's somewhere in the mess that is masquerading as my shop.
The minor base raises weren't so minor. They were a full length delam on both inner edges. Turns out that my core alignment dowels (which were superglued to the cassette) couldn't take the long term heat and gave way allowing the cores to shift leaving full length air pockets above the edges. Lame. After cutting the boards apart it was obvious that they both shifted equally. I pulled the edges out and am now going to cut the air pocket away on both halves. This should leave me with the correct spacing on my inserts and a still rideable split, just with no inside edge, and a little bit narrower than desired.
After researching some I am now convinced that my problem was, yet again, an imperfect epoxy to hardener ratio. 4 to 1 means 4 to 1. Not 3.9 to 1, or 3.8 to 1 or in my case 3.75 to 1. If I get a rideable board out of this I'll be relieved. A lot of money spent on carbon fiber, kevlar, top sheet graphics, wood, etc...
Brazen wrote:interior edge air pockets sounds like an issue with the press? I'm just sayin' . Cheer up!
no issue with the press. the air pockets were clearly from where the cores shifted out. Cores were designed to sit exactly on top of the edge, and they shifted 1/8" away from the edge leaving a void with nothing to fill it.
I think I am going to go to Head Monkey's way of aligning the core. Seems to be the most fool proof way of doing it.
Good news is I salvaged the board. It will be rideable. Unfortunately it's way too narrow for me (at least with normal stance angles). Other good news is the flex pattern is great, and it seems like I nailed the right mix of cf and glass. Overall about 1.25 lbs lighter than the same board with an all glass layup. Seems like a pretty significant weight savings. That's not taking in to account the 1cm width difference though, so probably more like 1 lb savings. I learned a lot on this build. I was so meticulous with everything, until the last steps. Never again.
when you're breaking new ground man you have to expect it, I'm surprised you got as far as you did!
PS are they wood sidewalls? You've probably already rounded/tapered them but keep in mind, because I know you like plastic sidewall in the past, that the wood will grind off way, way faster and easier, you still tapering sidewalls on the grinder? I'd love to try that just too scared I'll mess it up.
Keep it up man, good board builders probably screw up way more than the rest, because they keep going... takes a lot of strikeouts to knock em out of the park
From Stress to Success.
Pressed another one with the same layup different graphic and achieved near perfection.
Will post pics of both once it's finished. I also managed to for the most part completely save the first one. I was building it almost a cm wider than I wanted anyway, so it's not that much narrower than I wanted. I also put my size 12 liners in a size 11.5 shell and saved 1cm on my footprint so the width is fine. Only downside is I have no outside edge when in uphill mode. Oh well.
Thanks Doug!
I'm actually using a sanding block and doing them by hand. I use the angle grinder and a flap disc to get all the flash off the edge, and then I use the block to finish the sidewall.
Brazen, I did find a problem with the mold for my tip and tail blocks. There was a high spot in the center which assuredly contributed to the cores shifting outward. I fixed that.
This second one I used head monkey's core alignment technique, and am pretty sure that is what I am going to stick with. For those of you that don't know, you superglue inserts to your base for alignment with pre-drilled holes in your core. It works perfect.
we used to take two of the normal inserts and glue them to the base and do what you said... it worked ok enough, but i'm not sure how they'd treat the base if someone were to use those inserts. We've also drilled seperate holes and added two inserts and did what you said, with some success... but you really have to be good at placing that insert down and making sure it doesnt leave a mark... dowels work too, but we've been satisfied with just goin for it without. After double-triple checking, they get lined up right, just somethin ya learn over time I guess. With ski's and narrow sidewalls though it's probably a lot tougher to get that stuff lined up perfect.
id love to see how you use that grinder/flap setup, we just jigsaw flash then a couple passes on the grindrite on the sides and bottom gets them clean enough for the router. I'd also like to see how you block sand as well, sounds pretty awesome. Did you do that with ptex sidewalls too? must have been a huge task
If I had a dime every time I did that......
