Ski Builders Forum

I've been loitering around the forums for a while and am slowly getting my gear sorted so thought I would join the ranks on here with a Journal.

I haven't decided 100% on a name for the boards yet but Kampai is the current leader, I love Japan pow and love beer so seems a pretty good name.

I finally finished modifying my press so it is how I want it.


I think it was Goz who once said "you don't know what you want in a press until you have built one" wow that was 100% accurate. I started with this press being loaded from the end. But that didn't work out the way I really wanted, so the mods started then. Then a big heavy table frame came available at work so the press got a nice working height added to it. If I ever build another one it will probably take me less than half the time and be twice as good

I've made a fully ball bearing raced profile table with vacuum hold down.
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I also made a slide through flame treatment set up. I did quite a few test pieces while I adjusted the burner heights and making different gas jets until I got the best results. It is very promising so far but obviously it is going to need a few boards getting used and abused to prove it I guess. It makes flame treatment a damn quick exercise though, takes me about 15 seconds to light the torches and pass a base through it, but the main thing I'm hoping for is repeatability, now the burners and gas jets are all set hopefully every time I light it I get the same result.
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I have also turned up on the lathe a set of rollers for bending edges.
I have made the grooves to suit two edges back to back so both the left and right edge is bent in one go. I also did grooves the opposite way (deep grooves on the two far rollers) so I can do the sidecut radius too.


It's a nice big solid vice and all the rollers have bearings top and bottom so there is near to zero deflection.[/img]

The handle was something I quickly just bolted down to try it out but I haven't gotten around to making anything fancy yet, the one on it works just fine for now anyway.

Oh and the press isn't huge, that mold is just a short mold for a sandboard. We don't get a lot of snow here but we got heaps of big sand dunes so I'm making a small snowboard (edges, base and everything) so I can hopefully test ride it on some dunes and see if it delams or falls apart in anyway.

I'm now in the process of building heat mats but my supplier of nichrome has stuffed up my order twice, so it has been holding me up.
I'm also travelling for work next week so might be a couple of weeks before an update with a board to show

Get on it ;-)

Oh and I want to say a MASSIVE thank you to all of you people on this site.
It can be very rare to find people so happy to openly explain things that they themselves have had to struggle through to find answers.
I could not overstate the assistance you have all been or the gratitude I have.

Without this site, or more importantly the people on it, I would still be struggling to work out what a board press should actually look like. You guys are awesome and the beautiful skis and boards being created from you all is a credit to the community you have all created here.

Love your setup!

Can't wait to see your first board.

Pics mate, pics...

b2therye wrote:.

Pics mate, pics...

Haha, yeah you are beating me by a few weeks at the moment. Looking forward to seeing your skis with a fresh grind.

That core looks sort and fat, what are the specs on it?
What timbers are you using?

The core in those pics is for a sand board. Plenty of dunes over here but no snow. It is only 1200mm long.
It is pine with jarrah stringers along where the inserts will go.

Ahh that explains it ;-)

After multiple mistakes on the sandboard I finally got it pressed up. Came out heaps better than I thought it was going to. Nice and flat, its now resting on its side for a few days before I trim and finish it off.
The only thing I noticed is I might be over pressing. The glass wet out really well but the top glass looks a little dry, no cloudy spots but you can definitely still see the glass strands if you hold it at the right angle.
I have a nice layer of resin squeezed out all the way around the board, not heaps but a halfIinch line around the whole board, so I don't think it's lack of resin. I press at 45 psi butI have 3 hoses so the ppressure is an even distribution. I might try 40psi next time.

If it takes a bit of work to hold it at just the right angle to make out the fibers, sounds like it's just about right. It's ok if it's not completely glassy clear. You just don't want to see very obvious dry fibers.

I think you're the first person on the forum to build a sand board! Awesome!

There is no such thing as over pressing. Or pressing too much resin out of the fabric. The resin just has to fill the gaps between the fibers. Any more resin in the laminate does not provide any structural improvement. And to fill the gaps in theory and optimal circumstances you need something around 7% in volume or so, and you are by far not there.

Pics gav

SleepingAwake wrote:There is no such thing as over pressing. Or pressing too much resin out of the fabric.

I think a lot of folks here would disagree with you

I'd like to see pics/vid of the sand board in action.