Ski Builders Forum

with all the recent posting and all the work that looks like is getting done around the forum i feel like is is time for us to start up a journal thread.

we spent the beginning of the summer checking all our machines and gathering what we still needed to complete our woodshop. these tools included: bandsaw, plainer, tablesaw, and an awesome router table for sidewalls. we also invested in a CNC router so that we can start cutting molds, cassettes, cores, bases, signs, whatever we need! we drove out to LA to pick up the machine and i think we got a great deal on it. it is an older model shopbot (prt), 48x96in travel with somewhere around 6in ztravel. it came with a 5hp spindle and a 15hp vac hold down, so some high powered options. we have spent the better part of a month setting up the machine, wiring, learning quirks, but now we are moving forward and cutting more technical pieces.


nightmarebot by strangesnowboarding, on Flickr

i am uing rhino3d to create the digital snowboard model and exporting it to the shopbot control software through MADcam. i arrived at this decision for various reasons, but mostly because i could get an awesome deal on the programs. i encourage anyone out there to stay in school, or know someone in school so that they can get to the discounts! i also worked with rhino in school so i already had some knowledge about the programs operating system.

our dyesub press is functioning, however we are still trying to dial in temps and times to get the best results and the most consistent color. still thinking about that giant order from iso-sport but we have been dealing with higher prices at the moment.

at the end of last season we felt that we had arrived at a good design of snowboard for two sizes. this summer we have been doing miniproduction of these two "models" in order to stock up snowboards for the coming season. i found that working on snowboards all night and riding snowboards all day made for low levels of sleep and in the end, some pretty poorly made snowboards. instead this season we will just focus on riding the decks we have already made and improving on them through one to two week prototyping cycles. one offs in winter and production in summer.

you can see a few of this year's graphics that have been pressed already on our blog: http://heavyshred.blogspot.com/2011/08/ ... tshit.html

on the business side we are not yet selling boards (just tshirts, haha) this season but hope to be there in the next year. we will begin to pay product liability insurance this winter so that we can legally start selling the "demo" snowboards that we are pressing this summer. i will keep you guys posted on how that venture goes. with that comes a website (not yet functional) and a lot of other loose ends that a lot of us have been dealing with.

thats all i can think of for now, but its a good start to the journal process.
thanks!

tom
nightmare

some shameless web linkage
www.strangesnowboarding.com
http://heavyshred.blogspot.com
EDIT
http://vimeo.com/channels/nightmaredev

SWEET! but is it legal to sell t-shirts with tits on them at non pornographic stores? :P
jk
I wanna see the sidewall trimmer!!!

Great video and blog spot - thks. You guys have some GREAT artwork, beyond graphics!!!

hey i edited the vimeo to reflect all the videos we have compiled (mostly before building snowboards)

bad,
im not sure on legal stuff, so we are gonna keep doin what we are doin. all sales occur at our factory right now, and that will move to the internet sometime this winter. shops have shown interest but maybe it will become a back-of-the-house style deal.

router table is not actually that special, undermount royobi cheapo, skibuilders dovetail bit, woodcraft kickback rollers (the green ones). its the same setup unity and folsom use and pretty cheap. use a couple old boards to learn on and in a day or so they look beautiful! tip to tail!

richuk,
thanks for the kudos, it means a lot to us! and that is exactly what our goal is: artwork on snowboards, not just graphics (not saying graphics are wrong or not beautiful in their own respect, just moving away from computerized graphic work). it is important for us to emphasize the artist in this process, they do all the work, we just make it into a shiny product.
i will include some of the artists pages so that you can see the background for these graphics. i should have done that at the beginning.
http://www.tomdenney.com/blog/
http://valianteffort.carbonmade.com/
http://colemadethis.com/
http://davidsneddenart.blogspot.com/[/url]

Ya, you guys have great art! gotta love the mud season board! Good job and looking forward to some more designs from the nightmare crew.

well,
this month we managed to make around 20 snowboards, pretty exhausting but it is great to see a stack of snowboards in the rack in our cleanroom. its getting colder so i feel rushed to keep making progress, we have big plans for this season but they all hinge on having tons of snowboards.
our first "lines" will consist of 7-10 graphics, 2 board sizes and 3 camber/rocker options. pretty simple compared to any of the other boardbuilders, but there are tons of little things going into each one.

in other news we are having fun with the CNC, making 3d topo maps of the mountains around our factory and working on splitboard designs!

GOPR1281 by strangesnowboarding, on Flickr

Don't pushin it! I desperately want a CNC! And you foolin around with yours, makin 3D topos!!!...and showin it!
Behave!
Besides that, very gooooood! (I'm just jealous)

yea this post may have to be removed due to too much use and exploitation of robots, you better be feeding your robot properly

Tearing it up! Good luck!

so we took a short hiatus from snowboards while we make some videos, sub some graphics and get diecuts dialed in.
my good friend who grew up in aspen and went to design school with me offered to purchase most of the materials to mess around with some skis.
so as long as none of our money goes into it i can justify making skis to my biz partners. i guess they see it as the dark side, hahaha.

well we did all the cad design, cam work, and now have a pair of cores, new mold and some other do-whops that relate to a large (189) and extra wide pair of skis.
he wanted to model them off of a pair of "surface" skis.
i made him buy plywood for the core, cheap and easy for now, much the same as 333's setup.

i will post some pics once its worth uploading them. maybe a week or so till they are one (or two) pieces of plastic.

they have been blowing snow up here in summit for a week or two, we had our first natural snowstorm as well. we are all super excited and cant wait.......
i have had to go back to my old job to make ends meet, building rockwalls for unnamed universities. all i can think about is snowboards, it makes this other work pretty hard to stomach, at least i get paychecks for my hours.

we are building our website, iorning out the remaining graphics, and prepping for this season. we have begun to let snowboards go, no guarantee, no warranty, blemish boards right off the drying rack. the masses seem stoked so we have hope for the rest of this season i will throw up a bunch of pics once i have some free time. for now check out this video we made for a "snowsport entrepreneur of the year award" from a local government organization/lobby group.
http://vimeo.com/channels/nightmaredev#28693297

awesome video! i effin love your shop!!

Awesome video. I'm ironing my clothes in the ski press from now on, brilliant!

nice work

Awesome video! I'm hanging on by a thread too, money wise. I can see a would you like fries with that job in my future to make ends meet. I'm stoked that your boards are being well received.