Ski Builders Forum

Hey guys

after you already helped me out with some advice for my latest project in another thread and I finally started to build, I was wondering if there is any interest in a diary about the building process to see how I do it?

It is my second pair of skis and I might have a bit of a different approach because of my composites background...

Let me know!
Cheers, Reto

The more journals the better!
Lots of pictures!

Seconded! Let's see 'em

do it!

Sure we want to see your build log. Let me know if I can cut you some templates or something.

Cheers Christoph

Sry that it took that much time for my first post. I was kind of busy with other projects. But after an after noon in the forest i managed to start with the mold:








Although a pneumatic press is in the making, I will build those skis in a vacuum press. And I will laminate one after the other to save a little time in the making of the mold which I probably wont use any more after this pair since the press will be finished then...

For the design I'm still hesitating what to use as decksheet. At first I wanted to use a veneer, but as I have some (super heavy) clear topsheets laying around I could use that as well. Anyone ever tried to paint the decksheet on the backside? I just made a quick and dirty test where I painted with tinted resin:


Cheers, Reto

I've successfully painted the underside of topsheets and bases with waterbased acrylic paint. Just make sure you use satin or matte.

no bonding issues with acrylic paint? that would be a lot easier than painting with epoxy...

None so far...and my board has seen about 60 days on snow now.

Just played around in photoshop a while:



by the way - the ski does still look more or less the same as the one I showed previously, but I changed nearly everything as I began from scratch with my CAD file.

now it is 189 - 152/124/132 with a 24m sidecut. rocker on the first 48cm and then 7mm camber.

I finally managed to continue on the mold. Now all the ribs are done.

And I tested the bonding between top sheet/paint/epoxy. Bonding was poor. The test laminate didn't even survive the jigsaw. So I will perform a second test using a different paint. I will post some pics soon, but I write this message from my phone and I don't wanna mess around with pics right now...

Cheers

I went with pure acrylic with paint on and roll on and bonding was diminished in both instances with nylon.
Must be different acrylic in EU.
I followed everything that was said here.
I personally would not use that.
Thread on here from miller studio lists the nazdar catalist epoxy for a backflood.

Actually Miller suggests another brand of epoxy for back-flooding and even though some used Nazdar successfully (I did), he personally doesn't recommend it :

When doing this I recommend only using the Basler epoxies that were designed for the Isosport nylons. Although people have used the NazDar and Sericol epoxies for this, and some have made it work, we do not recommend it.

Surprisingly the bonding failure was between epoxy and paint and not between top sheet and paint. I will keep on trying...

balser, nazdar whatev. the acrylic fails at the glass not topsheet.