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PartyBullshiit
March, 2024

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Help me tweak this sidecountry design.

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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
About the ski: 24.5 m turn radius, tip and tail taper, no rocker just a big tip and zero camber. Will be used primarily for skiing gnarly inbounds at places like JH and Bridger and the occasional short tour (3000 vertical max) The core will be poplar and bamboo and possibly a maple stringer. Ski will most likely be mounted with Dukes.

About me: 190 lbs, aggressive skier, I like to go fast and jump off of stuff. I ski the northern Rockies so usually cold snow. I already have park skis and some sick playful pow skis. These will be used on everything from icy skied out chutes to wide open pow fields.

I have been thinking about this for a while and this is the third time I have completely redrawn it. Before I order materials and start cutting molds and whatnot I just wanted some final input from fellow NSers.

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May 24 2009 5:42PM
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Aaaron.
Posts: 11817 - Karma: 903
all i can say is
WANT.
May 24 2009 5:54PM
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Dr_Feelgood
Posts: 1176 - Karma: 15
haha autodesk... reminds me of my civil engineering class in hs lol. but yeah man it sounds like a sick design/idea. good luck executing that and i would definitely like to see the final product. shit, i wish i could build my own skis...
May 24 2009 7:44PM
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Balto
Posts: 25985 - Karma: 4,398
if you've got the money, time, gear, and are good with tools, its not really that hard
May 24 2009 8:43PM
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0123456789
Posts: 9226 - Karma: 148
lots o money. a press isnt gonna be cheap/easy to obtain.


but good luck man, sick that youre actually gonna make your own skis, which i had that much incentive.
May 24 2009 9:33PM
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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
False.
My friend built the press out of a scrap pile at the Montana Air National Guard. We got about $500 of steal for free and he was able to weld it at work. Between the two of us we already own all the woodworking tools we need minus a few router bits. All thats left is ordering materials and building some cores.
May 24 2009 9:50PM
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0123456789
Posts: 9226 - Karma: 148
no, im right, you jsut got $500 in free metal, and had the other tools needed, or access to them. most people get no free things, and dont have access to welders and whatnot.

but again good luck.
May 24 2009 10:05PM
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zerospinskier
Posts: 4867 - Karma: 350
That's pretty much true for anything in life
May 24 2009 10:12PM
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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
word.
May 24 2009 10:22PM
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no_steeze
Posts: 23992 - Karma: 4,267
my only concern with bamboo would be stiffness, personally i would want this ski to be quite stiff and it wouldn't need to be super poppy, maybe consider a metal matrix or something, idk if you can find a way to stiffen it without adding a ton of weight it would be money. as an all around charger/slackcountry ski i think you would want it to be pretty damn stiff especially with your weight
looks sick though, keep us updated on the progress ;)
May 24 2009 10:33PM
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fouldsys
Posts: 7404 - Karma: 39
from what i understand bamboo is pretty expensive and tough to work with. i too would want something stiff in a ski like this. id probably do lots of poplar to reduce weight. some bamboo or aspen or something to stiffen it up a little and like 3 layers of glass. those dimensions seem pretty dope though. let us know how they turn out.
May 24 2009 10:51PM
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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
I love the damp yet poppy feel of a bamboo ski. I think a maple stringer down the middle and some poplar will keep it stiff and on the lighter side of things. I plan on using some carbon fiber stringers as well to stiffen it up.
May 24 2009 10:51PM
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no_steeze
Posts: 23992 - Karma: 4,267
yeah carbon stringers would be a good call
May 24 2009 11:03PM
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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
I cant say about how it is to work with since I have never worked with it but I do know there is a lumberyard in town that sells bamboo for about $3 a board foot which isnt too bad. I know a kid who bought some bamboo from them and made a pretty rad longboard.
May 24 2009 11:17PM
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-james-
Posts: 192 - Karma: 19
sick design man.. make sure you put pics up once done... if you are useing dukes for touring maybe cut a flat bit on back of ski so skins can be attatched???
May 25 2009 3:48AM
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no_steeze
Posts: 23992 - Karma: 4,267
actually a really good call, cut a notch for the tail piece and maybe 2 little side notches on the tips for the tip loop depending on which skins you're using
May 25 2009 9:53AM
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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
Word. I did that on the first design I drew. Just overlooked it on this one.
May 25 2009 1:20PM
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bibs_skibum
Posts: 4462 - Karma: 449
looks pretty rad.  I dont think id change anything about the ski.  Sign me up for a pair
May 25 2009 9:22PM
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ilikeplants
Posts: 1868 - Karma: 17
seems like a sick ski. good luck with it man.
May 25 2009 9:28PM
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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
Big thread bump... Miralas and I have been working on this project all summer when time and money permits. Right now I have all the materials in the garage and two ski cores and one snowboard core laminated and ready to go. I tested out my planer crib tonight and it worked pretty good, it will need tweaked some but I will be able to make it work when time comes. After that all thats left is getting some templates cncd and finishing a top mold. Super stoked.

Here is my current working drawing of what I'd like to make.

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Planer crib, I have aluminum shims and three different thickness washers I am using to as shims.
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Planer crib going through the planer with a cedar blank test core. You can see our press in the background.
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Test core after planing, picture taken from right in front of the binding plateau looking towards the tail. Looks better in person.
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Oct 9 2009 1:43AM
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bibs_skibum
Posts: 4462 - Karma: 449
Kip that looks so dope!  Damn that looks good for two dudes in a garage
Oct 9 2009 1:46AM
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GNARBARSTAR
Posts: 639 - Karma: 16
Make them exactly like the motherships. sick ski for exactly what your looking for. i wouldn't ski on anything else for big mountain anymore.
Oct 9 2009 2:12AM
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Literature
Posts: 13673 - Karma: 3,086
People making skis in garages? What sort of preposterous nonsense is this?

Sick, Kip. That's looking way awesome. I hope I get to ski them sometime this winter.
Oct 9 2009 2:55AM
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