Official Ski Pressing/Sha - Ski Gabber - Forums

Quoting Jiaco from Oct 24 2011 8:48:05:
inb4 gear talk

Quoting BWalmer from Oct 24 2011 10:37:23:
http://skibuilders.com/howto/ A lot of what you need to know can be found there. You'll also need a lot of time and a good chunk of spare cash to get started.

Quoting hot.pocket from Oct 24 2011 10:50:02:
clothing company =/= ski company

Quoting hot.pocket from Oct 24 2011 10:50:02:
clothing company =/= ski company

Quoting BWalmer from Oct 24 2011 10:52:09:
ummm.....you're sure you went to the right link right.... ( http://skibuilders.com/howto/ ) cause there's nothing about clothes there...

Quoting hot.pocket from Oct 24 2011 10:56:45:
I posted this in another thread and then came here and tried to reply and it put that one up for some reason, something about the spam buster or some bullshit.

Quoting NinetyFour$ from Oct 25 2011 12:32:13:
Thanks for the link guys. The difficult part seems to be pressing these babies. I'd have to build a press likely and that's killer. Making the mulled would be easy as I build plugs for aircraft parts.

Quoting hot.pocket from Oct 24 2011 10:55:52:
This was supposed to go in the "jiberish/saga sponsor snowboarders" thread...don't know what the fuck happened. But go to http://www.skibuilders.com (as mentioned a few posts up) and go through there. I'm currently doing a research project for the manager of the site and he's a really cool guy (really knows his stuff) and would love to help any of you who are looking to build your own. ^^ one pair of about 10+ pairs of my dad's homemade skis

Quoting hot.pocket from Oct 25 2011 12:47:21:
some people end up "pressing" them by simply putting a shit ton of sand bags on top of the skis, you dont need a full on "press" to make your own

Quoting NinetyFour$ from Oct 25 2011 9:12:28:
Lol i thought about just adding a bunch of weight. You wouldnt run the risk of having a pneumatic press explode the shit out of your face if you built it poorley. You wouldnt need to build the top section of the mold if you used weights for pressing then, would you? Also, whats up with the bindings on your dads skis, and most of the skis on that website. They look very oldschool.

Quoting hot.pocket from Oct 25 2011 9:29:36:
Telemark bindings, basically lets your heel separate from the ski ^^found this in the pic section, props to whoever it is^^

Quoting NinetyFour$ from Oct 25 2011 9:12:28:
Lol i thought about just adding a bunch of weight. You wouldnt run the risk of having a pneumatic press explode the shit out of your face if you built it poorley. You wouldnt need to build the top section of the mold if you used weights for pressing then, would you? Also, whats up with the bindings on your dads skis, and most of the skis on that website. They look very oldschool.

Quoting the.nile from Jan 12 2012 8:17:30:
if you use a pneumatic press you need to build the press. but if you use weight only you don't need it. when i made mine i did a hand lay up with a vacuum bag over the mold and put lead weights on top of it. ill post pictures of the skis later

Quoting NinetyFour$ from Jan 13 2012 6:21:04:
vacuum bagging

Quoting NinetyFour$ from Jan 13 2012 6:21:04:
, but there is really alot to consider when designing a pair of these puppies.

Quoting NinetyFour$ from Jan 13 2012 6:21:04:
Thanks, that would be great, but I might make a press, depending on what scrap stock my dad has. We may have the material, minus the fire hose. But weight or vacuum bagging are my alternatives if not. Still looking for some reliable material sellers WITHIN Canada. And I'm not at the point of building the physical skis yet, but has anyone ever experience delams. When on Ski Builders, I was alarmed by the amount of delams those guys have experienced... With the few people I've networked with on here, the one thing I haven't talked about is the ski design itself, just been discussing mold making technique, materials, and core shaping. I'm not really sure what I want. I'm not a huge park skier (would love to be but my hill's is ghetto) and am maybe just gonna start sessioning in town rails and whatnot. What I do love is just freeriding around the mountain, and tearing up the occasional "powder day" we get. For the most part, I just rip around on the icy slopes, and do butters and fly off rollers. No matter what the skis will forsure be a twin tip. Right now I'm riding salomon twenty twelves, and the width of them (91 mill underfoot) was a huge step up from my K2 all mountain skis (74 mill underfoot) the first thing I noticed is how much more speed these puppies carry, If I carve aggresivly on the K2's I'm left with no speed after 10 turns, and this is not how it is with the 2012's, they carry soooo much speed, no matter how hard I thrash on them, so the ski will definatley be wider. Now how wide is to wide for the corduroy and the ice? I'd really like to build this thing 100 mill underfoot, which seems ridiculous, so looking for an opinion there. I'd also like to build it with some rocker, will definatley have traditional camber underfoot, and then have it transfer into rocker, for this, I'll just keep the rocker profiles close to that of my 2012's. Now what about tip shape, its not huge if your just skiing ice, but for the occasional powder day, what keeps the drag low? Personally, I'd like to shape the tip so its somewhat bullet like, as opposed to just a half circle. Thoughts? Sorry that's so much shit to read, but there is really alot to consider when designing a pair of these puppies. Sorry for typos and whatnot, I tried to edit that to make as much sense as possible. Thanks for your time, contribute if you can!

Quoting Rowen$$ from Jan 13 2012 9:08:26:
Materials for skis are rare in North America, and for the quantity you need, most suppliers will probably ignore your requests. If you are worried about delams, go with a pneumatic press. Higher pressure (and vacuum bags are usually pretty low pressure) is generally better for adhesion and helps press as much epoxy out of the ski as possible, and this helps to decrease the final weight as well. Adding a ton of weight to the top of it will be slow, which is bad news if your epoxy pot life is almost up (on your first pair, you will run out of time and your epoxy will start to set, happens to everyone). Adding weight like that will also distribute the pressure out unevenly as you add the weight, which is bad for the ski as well. Your first few skis are not going to be perfect. Play it safe and bet on giving yourself at least 4 layups to make an acceptable pair worth mounting. For design, go wild. I ski a 120mm underfoot ski most days. Fact is, no matter what you end up building, you often as not will ski it one run and by the bottom you'll have 5 ideas of how to improve the ski. Build whatever seems fun, after you press a pair you'll probably want to another. Even if the ski has huge flaws, you'll still love riding on it - nothing beats the feeling of zooming past people on your pair of sticks you build yourself.

Quoting DrZoidberg from Jan 13 2012 8:39:43:
I'll talk design, granted I'm not a ski designer but I've looked into it, since I like building shit.. Skis are my my list of stuff to build for myself. Look a line elizabeths. A quite fat ski with a decent bit of sidecut. I've only ridden fat skis a few times, but I didn't find them hard to roll onto edge. So 100mm waist shouldn't be a problem. I'm also from NJ, so I'm decent at skiing on ice... I was on icelantic nomads at some point in colorado, in real, non man made snow. They felt like they turned much better then my chronics in fake snow/ice. Might have been the conditions/sharper edges but I didn't find fat skis much more difficult to roll onto edge. Tip shape... I've never really skied powder, but obviously a gradual transition to the tip curvature will create lift, instead of a tall, crazy bend tip that will push it. Not sure if this comes into play, but the half circle tip would have more surface area then a "bullet"/pointy tip so the half circle might have a better chance at making lift. Like I said, I've never really been in deep pow so I'm not sure how the tips go through the snow. It might be better for them to cut through and let the noses/bases do the lifting.

Quoting NinetyFour$ from Jan 13 2012 9:18:14:
Aha thanks alot, and I'm not too worried about working time. Me and my father build fiberglass wheel pants for airplanes, and on the parts I do, the poly resin I work with has a 10 minute gel time, so I'm not too worried about that. I think I will build a press, as I'm sure we have the scrap material, however the guys on ski builders used a ski press on most if not all of their skis that had delams. I think I will stay away from the weight method of pressing forsure. Do you think for starters, it would be safer when doing layups, to do one ski at a time (I'm not even close to that stage yet though) so I won't have to be as worried about letting the epoxy set? Also, if I did a single ski, and pulled it out of the press in 24 hours, and I had say a core shift, or an edge popping off, I wouldn't be wasting as much material because I'm only throwing out one ski? For core materials, what do you guys prefer? I'd like something on the softer side of a medium stiffness?

Quoting Rowen$$ from Jan 13 2012 11:08:02:
Single ski will be way easier. Its not as consistent as doing a pair at a time, but way easier. Just to give you an idea, fastest Scotts been able to throw a pair into the press is around 20 minutes for layup. Good luck with 10 minutes.

Quoting NinetyFour$ from Jan 13 2012 9:18:14:
Aha thanks alot, and I'm not too worried about working time. Me and my father build fiberglass wheel pants for airplanes, and on the parts I do, the poly resin I work with has a 10 minute gel time, so I'm not too worried about that. I think I will build a press, as I'm sure we have the scrap material, however the guys on ski builders used a ski press on most if not all of their skis that had delams. I think I will stay away from the weight method of pressing forsure. Do you think for starters, it would be safer when doing layups, to do one ski at a time (I'm not even close to that stage yet though) so I won't have to be as worried about letting the epoxy set? Also, if I did a single ski, and pulled it out of the press in 24 hours, and I had say a core shift, or an edge popping off, I wouldn't be wasting as much material because I'm only throwing out one ski? For core materials, what do you guys prefer? I'd like something on the softer side of a medium stiffness?

Quoting NinetyFour$ from Jan 16 2012 10:12:47:
Anyways, once these things are finalized, I can go buy my MDF (anyone have any idea how much this is priced at nowadays, and how big of a sheet do you get for that?) to build my mold. And also we need an upper and lower half for our mold, can I just save the top portions I've routed away when making my lower mold, put them together with threaded rod, and use that as my upper mold portion?

Quoting NinetyFour$ from Jan 14 2012 12:01:29:
http://www.store.skilab.com/ Has anyone had experience dealing with these guys. They have a very nicley laid out site, and just about everything. It says they are located in Reno, (so shipping wouldn't be insane compared to Europe) and their prices per meter seem awfully cheap.

Quoting DrZoidberg from Feb 17 2012 10:57:28:
So does just a vac bag work? Somebody said they did it with the bag and lead weights? I've got a 70" long bag, and I'm short so the skis would be no longer than 170cm. Assuming your resin doesn't need heat or anything.

Quoting DrZoidberg from Feb 17 2012 10:57:28:
So does just a vac bag work? Somebody said they did it with the bag and lead weights? I've got a 70" long bag, and I'm short so the skis would be no longer than 170cm. Assuming your resin doesn't need heat or anything.