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How do the big guys do a cap construction?

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 6:19 pm
by gketcham
I'm trying to figure out what the process is for making a cap ski. Does anyone know of anything of how its different than standard pressing. Just curious if I could get some info. Thanks

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 4:25 am
by skidesmond
There's probably more than 1 way to do it but, generally I think you have a top mold that fit's over the layup so that all the material gets wrapped over the sides. It has to be pretty precise.

Check out Kams latest build. He did a cap construction.

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 8:49 am
by twizzstyle
Yep. The big guys still use firehoses even with cap skis, but they have CNC milled top molds. Take a look at a complicated 3D top ski, they can have all kinds of ridges/shapes/whatever. The top mold has to match this EXACTLY. Not something the homebuilder can do on the cheap. There are other ways of doing it, like Steve said Kam did some really nice cap skis recently. I've seen guys make RTV silicone cap molds - but you have to make a plug first, to pull the mold from.

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:29 am
by gketcham
Yeah thanks guys for the input. I found a thread on doing it with a vaccuum bag yesterday but just needed to know how it was really done. I have already ruled it out because it does seem like it requires money and things... And using the vaccuum bag doesn't seem very reliable. Well, onward and upward toward making turkey, bacon and ranch sandwich skis!

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:35 am
by twizzstyle
Mmmm sandwich.

A couple of years ago I did a combo vacuum/firehose press cap ski. The first ski, the vacuum hose got pinched off by my top sheet metal (I wasn't using a cat track at the time) so I lost all vacuum, but I didn't know it until the ski came out of the press. So that failed. I made sure it didn't happen for the second ski, and it sorta turned out, but not as good as I was hoping, so I've stuck with sandwich ever since.

Cap ski

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 2:48 pm
by deepskis
Vacuum is the way to do it. I have build a couple and they work fine!

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Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 5:54 pm
by telehead
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Here are some cap skis I have been expermenting with. As Kam said, you need to make a negative top die, very precise and for me alot of trial and error. I can't seem to get more than 22 degree sidewall but that is cool with me. The ski that is mounted is 108 underfoot @ 175cm, it wieghs in at 3.091 lbs. (that is on Kam's scale) I want to get under 3 lbs here soon...cheers...kt

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 5:56 pm
by telehead
Not sure what happend there???? Kinda sideways!!! :D

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:59 pm
by sammer
telehead wrote:Not sure what happend there???? Kinda sideways!!! :D
You can edit it, just have to press enter between the image tags so each image is on its own "line"

sam

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:22 pm
by twizzstyle
Fixed it for ya

Re: Cap ski

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 9:36 pm
by Bloefeld
deepskis wrote:Vacuum is the way to do it. I have build a couple and they work fine!

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Brilliant looking skis and in my opinion exactly the right way to make skis. Did you lay them up wet or did you use vacuum infusion?

Cheers,

Bloefeld

Re: Cap ski

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 2:32 pm
by deepskis
Bloefeld wrote:Brilliant looking skis and in my opinion exactly the right way to make skis. Did you lay them up wet or did you use vacuum infusion?

Cheers,

Bloefeld
Thank's Blofeld!
I am always using a wet layup. Fast, easy and the result is great. With the vacuum system its actually easy to make a cap construction. They get a nice "factory finish" that I like.