I have materials to fabricate an 8or 10 wide press. I will be limited to pressing one ski at a time either way so I think the 8 wide will work fine. Would there be any advantages or disadvantages to using a 10 wide press instead of an 8 press?
i would just go with the 10" if you can. better to have more width than not.
My press is 8" wide, and there are lots of times I wish it were a little wider. For instance, when I slide my firehose in, it occasionally catches on the sides, and if I overload the ski with epoxy, I have to break it off before the ski will come out of the press. If I were to do it again, I would make it 10" wide. Pressing one ski at a time really isn't too much of a problem, because it allows you to use a fast setting epoxy (mine has 15 minutes of working time) and that will in turn greatly decrease the amount of time your ski is in the press. With my epoxy, it is hard after 4 hours at room temerature, but with my heat blanket, I can pretty much pull the ski out after 1.5 to 2 hours.
I was wondering if using the force created by the air bladder on both sides (top and bottom) could allow the pressing of 2 skis at a time? The air bladder, sandwiched between the skis, would push one ski upward into the top mould, and the other ski downward into the bottom mould.
This would keep the ski press width to a minimum but may require an increase in shut height. The ski press as designed would be sufficient to handle the forces in this arrangement, as there would be really no changes to the force profile whether pressing 1 or 2 skis.
Comments/thoughts on this idea? Thanks.
I would just wonder how you would go about laying up the skis? One other issue might be that the hose might inflate large enough to give full pressure to both skis. In most presses there is a significant amount of filler above the bladder that keeps the bladder flat and puts an even pressure on the ski.
I think you might have a hard time making sure the skis are the same. You'd have to make an acurate top mold and take into consideration the varying thickness of the ski. Right?
