Ski Builders Forum

Hi. Great forum, with a lot of enthusiasts and knowledge!
I`m planning to make unique snowboard for deep pow only. It will be extra wide 35cm, well tapered, reverse sidecut, full poplar vertically laminated tip to tail core (thickness 3.5-8-3.5 mm), flat rocker just out of bindings, no edges, full abs sidewall, veneer top sheet. Because it will be extra wide I`m thinking about quadrax fiberglass and carbon reinforcement under bindings for torsional rigidity. Maybe 650g/m2 quadrax (23oz). Had anybody have any thoughts of stiffness of my board, or is anybody used quadrax instead of triax? Thank you.

The lateral 90 deg fibers do not add any torsional rigidity, only the 45 deg fibers do. The 90 deg fibers will add lateral bending stiffness though, which you may want with a board that wide (but I have no idea, I only make skis, so lateral bending stiffness is never a concern)

Twizzstyle you are probably right. I didn`t think too much about basic physics behind:) Now I also think it will increase bending stifness about the longitudinal axis, which may not be bad for snowboard that has the widests points at 35cm.

I use this stuff for binding area reinforcement. Would not use it for full boards, its quite heavy (i think mine is 750 or so).

jure55 wrote:Twizzstyle you are probably right. I didn`t think too much about basic physics behind:) Now I also think it will increase bending stifness about the longitudinal axis, which may not be bad for snowboard that has the widests points at 35cm.

Bending stiffness goes with the direction of the fibers. Lateral fibers only add bending stiffness laterally, longitudinal fibers add bending stiffness in the longitudinal direction. As a rule of thumb, you can just ignore the stiffness you get from epoxy, it's pretty negligible compared to the fiber reinforcement.

Quadrax fiberglass is overkill in my opinion. Too heavy and no added gain for a snowboard. If you want a really stiff deck add a layer of unidirectional carbon (again more weight) or a couple 2" wide strips of it. Or use 22oz glass instead of 19/20oz. Harder to find though. I think snowboard materials has some. I made a couple splitboards with triax on the bottom and unidirectional carbon on top with no top glass and they came out plenty stiff and saved about a pound or so.

I think Quad does little or nothing for you. I would look at Triax Braid from A & P Technologies. Braiding does really cool stuff with short fiber crimping. Best bang for the buck strength to weight - wise.