BATES COLLEGE SKI BUILD Welcome to the University of Gnarnia
Moderators: Head Monkey, kelvin, bigKam, skidesmond, chrismp
- nelsonelson
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:52 pm
- Location: Lewiston, Maine
- Contact:
BATES COLLEGE SKI BUILD Welcome to the University of Gnarnia
Hello fellow ski builders!
We are a couple of fellows from Bates College in proud Lewiston, Maine that are building some sick boards for credit at the school! I don't know how, but we convinced them it was an academic pursuit, and this tutorial has been very helpful, along with the helpful posts from other people's builds.
Above is a picture of the first blank that we made. It is a poplar core, 130mm tip, 100 underfoot, and 120 tail, 175cm long. A real fatty for destroying the New England crud and rocking it out west, when we do get around to real skiing.
Here is an image of the template, created in photoshop, 'cause CAD is hard for art majors:
You can notice the neat little insignia at the tip, here is another version: (It is the profile of a woman, we think we are going to name the skis "Mother Skis", then have models like "Mother Huckers", "Mother Boards", "Mother Ships" you get the idea)
Eventually, this will be used as an inlay in veneer into a different type of veneer for the topsheet, STEEZY!
Here is an image of the mold that we built, without the 1/8" masonite over it:
We built it so that the tip and the tail and the camber are modular, so they can be swapped out without building a whole new mold.
As for the press, we had some difficulties getting fire hose, so we built the whole thing after Buuk's idea:
However, we decided to operate it with carjacks instead! Inbetween the top mold and bottom mold we are going to use 3" dense foam to hopefully equally distribute the weight across it. Also, we build the mold as a double-wide, so hopefully we can press an entire pair of skis at once
We just got the base material today, from Durasurf, who were rather helpful, and we received the edges, from snowboardsupplies.com, who were rather slow, and hopefully we can get a pair of skis done before next friday, when we are having a class trip to Jackson Hole for Febuary break!
Very, very nice. The tip design, the logo, and the logo's position on the ski are truly artful. When you say that you'd like to have a pair of skis ready by next Friday, I hope that you mean like 9 days from now (rather than 2). Even at that, I'm betting you are going to be a very busy couple of guys. Just a thought (that you may have already considered)... if you are using very much press pressure, 1/8 inch masonite can get a bit wavy when not supported over it's entire surface, especially if your epoxy generates much heat as it cures. 1/4 inch masonite would resist the wavy thing better but it's also much more difficult to get it to conform to the mold base curves. Two layers of 1/8 would still conform to the mold curves and would better resist getting wavy. Just a thought.
Can't wait to see a finished pair! Good luck.
G-man
Can't wait to see a finished pair! Good luck.
G-man
maybe the waviness will be the next ski construction fad, broken edges, magnatraction, wavy ptex... it will decrease suction between the p-tex and the snow and the... airflow will... propel you...
if you don't feel innovative enough to try the wavy p-tex idea then I would suggest swapping masonite out for sheet metal,
if you don't feel innovative enough to try the wavy p-tex idea then I would suggest swapping masonite out for sheet metal,
- nelsonelson
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:52 pm
- Location: Lewiston, Maine
- Contact:
1st Pair
Well, we made the 1st pair of skis
The foam we used was too thick, so the skis did not totally press down to the correct tip and tail curvature.
Also, we cut the profile to shape before pressing, so it is a little smalled than the core. Definitely not going to but the core to shape before hand next time.
However, they are extremely light, and we like the shape. Time to do it again!
The foam we used was too thick, so the skis did not totally press down to the correct tip and tail curvature.
Also, we cut the profile to shape before pressing, so it is a little smalled than the core. Definitely not going to but the core to shape before hand next time.
However, they are extremely light, and we like the shape. Time to do it again!
- nelsonelson
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:52 pm
- Location: Lewiston, Maine
- Contact:
Another pair
We made another pair, taking out the foam that we used after we didnt get the tip and tail curvature that we desired; resulting in a poor lamination! Bummer! I spent the afternoon getting a really tight fit between the bottom and top molds, and we purchased a sheet of foam rubber (like in mouse pads) to sandwich inbetween the ski and the top mold, and hopefully the next skis turn out better.
Also, a funny little thing happened, our core material was 13.5 cm wide to match our shovel width at 13.5 cm (fatties, yeah), however we forget to account for the additional width that the steel edges added onto the width of the skis, so now the 13.5 cm core material did not cover the 14 cm base+edge. The result was a ugly little hangover.
Also, a funny little thing happened, our core material was 13.5 cm wide to match our shovel width at 13.5 cm (fatties, yeah), however we forget to account for the additional width that the steel edges added onto the width of the skis, so now the 13.5 cm core material did not cover the 14 cm base+edge. The result was a ugly little hangover.
- nelsonelson
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:52 pm
- Location: Lewiston, Maine
- Contact:
Another pair!!!!
YEAH! Finally a half decent pair. Really excited to take these boards out to Tuckermann's tomorrow for some late season corn.
The layers are carbon fiber, then pine, then more carbon fiber, then veneer.
Rocking 170 length, 95mm underfoot, dopeness all around[/img]
- wildschnee
- Posts: 23
- Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:14 am
- Location: powderhausen
- Contact:
xxx
hey .... this is not a ski
look like a splitboard with wrong mounted bindings
joke -
cool styl ... not symetrisch ....nice work.
burton
look like a splitboard with wrong mounted bindings
joke -
cool styl ... not symetrisch ....nice work.
burton
ride on .
- nelsonelson
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:52 pm
- Location: Lewiston, Maine
- Contact:
to jack or not to jack
jacks worked well, we used some rubber in there to get a nice fit between the top mold and bottom. really though, we wished we had firehose. Anyway, took them to Tuckerman's Ravine yesterday, they were tons of fun, lots of pop, looking forward to skiing them more next year. Lotsa peopls had nice things to say out there on the trails.