Ski Builders Forum

I will start off as everyone does. Thanks so much! this forum is fantastic!

Its been a long process but finaly my first skis are built and tested. The first pair works like a first pair should I think. I was stoked the first day on them just because they worked! but on the second day I started to find critic points and by the 3 I wanted to go back home and start up the next pair.
I think I kind of overdid the design on them. I had a baby daughter in december so I have had lots of time to think but not much time to build and that made the evolution of the first idea run up into overdrive. The next pair will be buildt with more care and modesty..

the process then;
I buildt my press out of left over materials. it was very time consuming but the end result works well. I used 6 boards of construction plywood for all basic parts with metal support for strenght and holding it all together. I pressed at 60 psi and it is absolutely stiff and strait!

The top mold has legs and the bottom mold can be moved with a pallet jack for easy loading of the casette. (pictures below)



I load the casette on the bottom mold and move it into position with the jack, jack it up and put on the metal bars. When loaded the bottom mold hangs in the top mold.



I havent had the time to build an edge bender but came up with another idea that works really well as long as I dont do wrap around edges (has probebly been done before, but I havent seen it). I put a strip of rubber (I guess any material with the right thickness would do) with the same thickness as the edge on a piece of plywood and attached it to the ski template with the base taped on to it. pressed down the edge between the template and the plywood and glued it in place. The edge fit is almost perfect!





The skis then!

they are buildt with an all birch core (100%, no tip and tail or sidewall plastics) and with a top veneer in birch. I made the top veneer myself and that was a mistake. I couldnt make it as thin as I wanted because the wood started chipping when I reached 1,7 mm ( I wanted it to be 1mm) the same thing happend to the tip and tail of the cores = the whole ski i s 1,4 mm thicker then planned and stiff as hell!
I call them Modern Antics and they turned heads everywhere!
"I have never met a skibuilder before, this is so cool!" haha




Again, Thanks everyone! I will keep reading this forum and my girlfriend will keep on looking at me like I'm mad.

- Petter

Great process!!! Skis look great. Welcome to the asylum.

great idea on the press loading!
i hope you're bending the edges by hand at least close to their final shape. otherwise i'm afraid that the tension on the edges could be a cause for early delamination.

i don't know how you tried to thin your veneer, but i'm guessing you could try using a sander (ideally a stationary thickness sander) to make them thinner.

great looking first skis anyway!

PTTR in that last pic you look like you should be holding mayo.
saying "good for you!"

Your not from Sweden are you?
cool skis by the way.


sam

sammer wrote:PTTR in that last pic you look like you should be holding mayo.
saying "good for you!"

Your not from Sweden are you?
cool skis by the way.


sam

LOL, Yes I agree! Great looking skis. I'm sure you'll be making many more.

HAhaha

I am from Sweden.

I mayograted to denmark (the flattest country on earth with 5 months of rain instead of winter) many year ago. Skibuilding has work really well so far this winter as a nerv calming substitute to skiing.
friends early snow pictures and updates on facebook has been shifted out with reading about edge benders and core profiles!

And yes, I will build more skis. this is addicting!

About time to update

3 more pairs and I am learning more and more. The 4s pair is getting the final layer of lacker here on the kitchen table next to me. I have made new templates for everything since the first pair and done quiet a bit to the press.

I now have 4 pairs of skies, 3 coreprofilers (two planer cribs and one router) and an awful lot of templates! The Harry Potter magic of heat and camber is getting controllable even though I still don't understand it.
To be honest, the first pair sucks. it will never see snow again. the second works but the third! dangbangslam! Love them!
Assymetric sidecut, same radius, cut off tail and above all a very designed flex. it can get better for sure, but I am sooo happy with them.




I have built a sanding drum out of mdf with a thin layer of rubber and sandpaper an stuck it in the drill press. It works really good and I use it instead of a router after flashing. easy fast and I can get the angel I want. (My local market didn't have the router bit I wanted)



The 4s pair is for my sister. I ate her pancakes ones when she was out training and she has been calling herself Evil KB eversince when I get near her stuff.

They all birch cores?

love the veneers, they look great!

Thanks and yes. All birch cores. tipp to tail and side to side. On the last two pairs I have cut off the tipps after profiling and turned them 90 degrees for easier bending. ( the birch is very stiff )