:: View topic - Horizontal laminate cores

This was emailed to us and I thought I would put it up here to get more opinions from the community.

All the skateboards I have seen are horizontal laminate and the only snowboard I know are hammer snowboards (http://www.hammersnowboards.com/technical/index.php).The flex requirements and also size of a skateboard are much different from a ski/snowboard and that is probably why there are so few horizontal laminates in skis. I think you found out the main reason that it is not used much; the amount of adhesive required to make the core makes it heavy.

We use full length wood cores, but making it only the running length and using plastic for the rest is also done. Some people say they ride a little differently, but i haven't tried it out myself.

The topsheet is usually a layer of plastic and should be the same thickness throughout.

-Kelvin

http://www.skibuilders.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=361&highlight=#361

i was wondering what size screws are needed for binding inserts.

most common are metric sizes, M6 or M5.

Is all UHMW either extruded or sintered in its construction? Or is that an extra step that is taken in order to allow the plastic to bond well with wax? I ask because I can pick up some UHMWPE pretty easily in my town but have no idea if it is extruded or sintered.

Also, how thick does one typically buy their base and topsheet plastic to be? I read somewhere that neversummer snowboards use ~1/8" plastic for their base however i noticed that snowboardmaterials.com has substantially thinner base materials. As for topsheets thickness I have no idea.

And by the way - great site guys - you are really doing a great service here for ski enthusiasts!

1/8" base is super thick! The midsection of most snowboards are 1/8. The edges would have to be massive to hold the base.

The base material is usually 1-1.2mm thick. This is fairly standard and the edges are made to fit this. If you used other material, you would have to get special edges. Also UHMW is very heavy and a snowboard made of 1/8" would probably weigh 30lbs.

Most common uhmw is extruded and the sintered is specialized for the ski/snowboard industry. Extruded will work, but sintering creates tiny pores in the plastic, which allows the wax to soak in and make a fast base.

-kelvin