:: View topic - SPLITN2 - finally I built some ski's!!!!!!!

Hi Guys, well finally after a lot of fluffing around I have built a pair of ski's. I am seriously STOKED. They came out perfect, tough as nails, perfectly laminated, perfect looking and perfect bases and edges!!!!!!! STOKED!!!!!!!

Only 2 years in the planning, a lot of sleep deprivation and plenty of beer (works for me too OAC!!) to get to the stage I am at now finally building ski's. These ski's are called the "Superlite 139" and their first mission will be huge. With a pair of these bindings on top, www.exobindings.com, my mate Erik Bradshaw is doing a New Zealand South Island Main Divide Solo Traverse, 850km from St Arnaud to Milford roughly. So he is on his own custom built binding system (his design patented) and my own custom built ski - talk about keen!! This trip has never been completed before that we are aware of on ski's, the only other similar NZ winter traverse was on FOOT by Graeme Dingle apparantly. So if Erik completes this its a good notch in his belt.

I am very very please to have Erik putting his faith in my ski's - the first damn pair I ever ever build, and due to him busting a ski on an earlier leg 3 weeks ago on the trip we were under the pump to knock out a high quality ski to his design requirements a bit earlier than I had planned to, no pressure man!!!!. So yesterday we pulled them out of the press, still warm unfortunately but we got away with it, in a hurry after a night pressing at 50psi and 80 deg cel, got them edged and bases tidied up (they came out perfect from the press so not much to do on the base apart from a light stone prep!!!) then bindings mounted and today he is off and racing.

This leg from Otira he is heading through to Mount Cook, with a possible excursion to the side out to the west coast depending on weather.

Keep an eye on my Facebook http://www.facebook.com/Splitn2 ok guys, lots of pics on there of the ski build. Now I start building 2 splitboards for my upcoming Splitfest event www.splitn2.com (temporary redirect to blog due to web site issues sorry) where I will be demo'ing my own SPLITN2 splitboards and SPARK R&D splitboard specific bindings etc.

Thanks all of you guys for sharing your ideas on this page, I could not have done it without this help.

cheers

Rich

My facebook wall URL has most of my build pics if you want a quick link to the album

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.186826634705371.52850.169413809779987&l=04adbd40b9&type=1

Great work Rich! Now the fun part starts, when planning the next pair and next and next and the...

It will be interesting to follow the experience of the ski taken right from the press and mounted and out on the mountain!

BTW, take it easy on the beer! I've gained over 10% in weight and having a hard time losing it now..

I need to get in shape for the season coming up!

Nice work. i would love to try and break those crazy kiwian binders. weird.

hey OAC, no time to be lost, I have 2 weeks now to build 2 splitboards. The design, profiles and templates are already been done and this should be easier then the ski's I recon. Yeah the beer took its toll on me too, I've got 10KG extra too!!!!! hopefully some good skinning climbs will help shave some off.

MM, pretty cool bindings eh mate, this guy is a complete genius as we as being a total hardman. The bindings project is a passion for him, its all part of "superlite" gear to enable him to travel extreme distances over mountainous terrain day after day with a weks food roughly.

Thanks again guys for your great information sharing, I now feel like I almost have my badge of honour!

cheers

Rich

Great work Rich! Looking forward to hearing how they ski. No matter how they perform you're hooked now. I'll be watching on facebook too.

Nice going Richie!

The trip report is going to be something special

So awesome! Whoooooooooo!

Hi guys,

I am keeping a bit of a log on Facebook these days, kinda helpful for getting the word out beyond this forum. We're mid summer now and its time to take stock for next season. I am slowly accumulating bits for my home build cnc, got a real good vacuum hold down system going for the mean time under my profiling router bridge so can't wait to test it soon on some cedar/ash and full bamboo cores.

My Facebook is found @ www.splitn2.com redirects to my fb page so you'll see some good stuff there are a few pics from my splitboard testing trip into the Garden of Eden (also its going in mag http://www.nzsnowboarder.co.nz/2011/08/wilderness-rider . I have a few pairs of ski's to build for my mate Eriks project www.exobindings.com which he did his big ski trip on my first set of ski's late 2011, there is a good log of that ski build on there too. So its all good here.

Thanks again to you guys for what I have learned from you in the last 2 years, and good luck for 2012. I hope to personally get my BTSR down a bit if I can, so that splitboarding up steeper hills becomes more pleasant!!!!!

If you don't understand BTSR ask OAC ok. Enough acronyms.

Cheers, Rich

Ha ha

That's top secret information nowadays!

I forgot about BTSR on my Poly-U skis!! I hope that didn't effect the outcome..... or maybe it did....

:-D

those look SLICK! Congrats!

What is optimum BTSR anyways? like are talking 2:1 or 6:1?

Personally I'm on a LTSR where L=liquor. Migraine's and wheat allergies mean's limited BTSR for me.

Ha, and I don't drink at all... think RBTSR still counts? (root beer)

DPTSR. Mmmm, sugar water.

A BTSR greater than say 3:1 or 4:1 can degrade performance (of the builder).

Hey Richie you're famous on the internet!

http://colinboyd.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/splitboarding-in-new-zealands-remote-southern-alps/

Congrats Rich!

Got some good stuff happening here, my Facebook page SPLITN2 has a new pair of sub 1KG 160cm Super Tourers. These pics were before final finishing , they will get a light gloss to tart them up a bit. Pretty stoked they came out so light, they will be tough but obviously there are limits. These still have a 1.4mm base and meaty edge, plus the tough ash sidewalls, cured at 80 deg cel, kevlar/carbon topsheet and biaxial carbon plus uni bottom under core. Main core is cedar with foaming epoxy stringers. All experimental, damn good fun! Sorry guys you'll need to go to my Facebook as I have nowhere to post pictures. the pics include some basic photos of my vacuum holddown profiling bench which is pretty dialed right now.

CNC project is back on the front burner as I really need it to speed up development and production.

Good luck with your ski builds guys and thanks again for your advice and support.

Cheers

Rich

would like to here more about the foaming epoxy please. thanks

If you right-click on the images in facebook, you can get a direct link and then post them here with the IMG tags.

See?

Hi Montucky, I used foaming epoxy 20 years ago (its def epoxy and not polyurethane) to reinforce the polystyrene under footstraps on windsurfers we built. Its got a third additive that is called a "blowing agent" that makes it foam up to 8x its volume. Its got good compressive strength so as a space filler its good. Not sure but it should last as well as divinicell does, and its self bonding foam of course as it loves to stick to timber!!!

Thanks for the tip on the facebook Twizz! Here is the ski's for anyone curious, just after first trimming off the flash but before the final sidewall tidyup.

cheers

Rich

would like to here more about your vacuum holddown profiling bench.

thanks

Nice Rich!

well its pretty simple but it works well, I have my grandma's old Kirby vacuum cleaner, all 650w of it which I was dubious whether it would hold, then it sucks through a distribution pipe through the middle and each end of the table. On top of the table is another 2 layers of mdf that are channelled out to do further air distribution, then through holes in the top to rows and rows of very shallow channels. The work piece is sat on top and all masked around the edges to seal leaks. Then power up the vacuum and it pulls down , check for leaks and seal if necessary then start routing/profiling!!!! So far it has been good, you need to ensure the seal keeps good or the thin tips and tails can get flappy and its good night core then! My profiling trolley runs over cnc cut profile templates to then thickness the core, I find I have to keep cleaning the bearing rollers as they gum up a wee bit with sawdust and tape scraps combining to cause bumps on the rollers, so I do a few rough cuts, hoovering between each cut and cleaning rollers, then one or two smooth fine cuts to finish then a light sand with 80 grit to clean off any tool marks. Now this has gone from teh highest stress job to much lower stress, which I hope means less beer! BTSR is still too high, kilos are going on not off.....

Thank you.

You can try to use flanged or V-groove bearings or any other kind with smaller surface contact maybe it helps with amount of dust buildup.

How about leaf blower/vac for suction it produce lot bigger airflow

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=203222685&storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&MERCH=REC-_-product-4-_-202218544-_-203222685-_-N#.UBRlj6NIk8c

Hey Richie,

Just looking at your vac bed there- That's it with the profiled cores on it in the facebook album of your touring skis, yeah?

Have you thought about routing those channels a little deeper, having a couple of central vac ports that would always be covered by the workpiece, then using some vacuum seal rubber to zone the vacuum to the area inside any specific thing you'd care to clamp?

We've just redesigned our CNC vacuum beds at work, and the improvement in workpiece hold down with deeper channels was dramatic. The other big improvement was moving from a complicated distribution arrangement to the shortest one possible - minimising that pressure drop between the workpiece and the vacuum pump.

Let me know if you need some sealing rubber, or pics to show you what I'm trying (probably poorly) to describe.

Im confused. these are 900grams for the pair or each ski?

Hi Montucky, yeah 990g per ski, crikey if I could build a pair @ 990g I think I'd get a few sales until they all broke!!! So far these 990g skis have passed the test , next ones will be 100g lighter but should be a lot stronger yet. these are for a super touring system, not everyday blasting pow and hucking cliffs. cheers, Rich

Hey Rich,

Awesome to see the kevlar/carbon combo, would be interesting to try for a lighter combo of PVC foam and carbon... not sure about durability though.

Cool idea with the expanding foam! How much do you reckon it saves overall?

Will