Ski Builders Forum

Hey All,

having "forced" others to post pivtures of their finished skis, I now have to put them up here myself

From left to right:
1) 190cm Allmountainshape with 98mm mid for brother in law; Paulownia/Ash-Core with Glass Triax and Flax-Uni on top. You can see the channels and holes that were used to distribute the resin during the infusion; 1800g without bindings

2) 190cm Freetourer for mmy brother; 110mm mid; Paulownia/Ash-Core; Carbon Triax with Flax Uni on top; Same resin infusion setup as above; 1700g without bindings;
Have been skiing the exact same ski with an all carbon layup and vipec for the last season.

3 out of 4 logos are reverse because my favourite body shop didn't pay attention when spraying them.

3) 196cm Powder-Boat already shown here. Due to low snow winters in europe I didn't use it that much.
Feel free to assk questions!

interesting, first time I see someone using infusion to laminate skis. How do you adjust the flowspeed of the two flow fronts above and under the core? Do you use a topsheet on the skis or is that directly the laminate? at that weight assume there is no top sheet?

cheers, Reto

I've looked around for quite some time and have not found anything either about resin infusion of skis.
To be honest it's a lot more extra work compared to a normal Hand lay-up.
I mainly do it because I like to challenge myself.
After a bit of testing I've found a method to distribute the resin rather evenly on top and bottom. On the top side I route channels into the core. One running along the Center axis and smaller ones every 30mm in transverse direction. In every transverse channel there are five small holes going through the core to feed the bottom side. If you look closely you can see both channels and holes in the clear part of the skis.
I have a resin inlet on both skis. Located at the very Center. The vacuum outlets are at nose and tail end of the mold.
Depending on the resin the infusion takes about an hour. I mix about four Batches of resin to make sure the resin cabn't overheat in the mixing pot.

I haven't used a top sheet with infusion yet. But as I'm not using any flow mesh or peelply it would work as well. I' only have to puncture the top sheet in the middle where my resin inlet is located. Definately on the list for next year.
On the first skis made with infusion I used one of your bcomb cores. That was not the best idea. It seemed like the vertical grain Balsa soaked up a lot of resin.

Nice job, especially the powderskis look great. I wanted to built a really fat pair myself but then I thought about the last snowfalls in the alps.
Are those cap-constructions? And what is the step at the very tip and tail? Is it just the P-Tex and the laminate?

Great work.
I like the idea of using resin infusion.

Do you think it is possible to tape the a topsheet directly to the mold and use no vacuum bag at all? In that the way the vacuum consumables would be minimized to gum tape and a bit of tubing.

All skis have sidewalls with cap in the tip and tail.
The powder skis on the right have a poured sidewall. The other two pairs have ABS sidewalls. Am I the only one hating to deflash skis with ABS sidewalls?
For the next skis I'll probably reduce the sidewall section to about 60cm and use a reduced height.

@jonsn:
The idea sounds great at first. But I see too many problems.
Usually vacuum film for resin infusion is multilayer material to make it absolutely airtight. No sure if that would be the case for topsheets. Also I think that the top sheets are to stiff to really conform to all corners so that there is absolutely no bridging around the skis. That would mean that the resin shoots along the edge to the vacuum port instead of going through the fibers.
I wouldn't risk that because you wouldn't be able to save the skis once the resin goes in. Maybe there are silicone membranes that can be used with vacuum infusion. I'll stick to the vacuum film with tacky tape solution. The only thing I'm going to try on the next pair is using a top sheet or veneer with infusion.

If you deflash with a jig saw theres some bosch blades made for carbon. They also cut the abs very nice and easy

I'm pretty sure I use the exact same blades. But still it gets very hot and the abs even melts.

Put the speed down

lower TPI blades and lower your speed. Use oscillation if your jig saw has it.

That's true satch. I am sure there will be gaps where the resins prefers to flow. The risk of wasting a pair of skis would be too high.

I remember the scary feeling when starting a resin infusion when I think back, when I was building two carbon fibre hydrofoils for a 28' catamran an several kilos of carbon fibre are waste if something goes wrong...

My go to jigsaw blade is the Bosch/Hawera 101 BF. It is made for wood, plastics and fibre composites, progresses fast and lasts for several pairs of skis. I use the lowest speed setting on my jigsaw.