:: View topic - I want to make lighter weight skis!

For my first few batches of skis, i used exclusively eastern hardrock maple (laminated to get vertical grain). I was aiming to use the hardest, most dense, more durabel, most binding retentive wood i could get my hands on. I believe that hardrock maple achieves this but i am all ears for debate on that.

My most recent batch of skis, i used vertical grain bamboo. i think that i achieved pretty good mechanical properties with the bamboo as well... but i dislike working with bamboo. i hate sanding and routering it. it makes my irritates my skin similar to cutting cured fiberglass. i try to wear tyvek stuff, but it usually still gets to me because i am cheap and try to reuse the tyvek.. anyways off topic

I was reading that hexcel used to make honeycomb skis. what would they do for binding retention? would they use the nomex honeycomb, or the alumimum honeycomb?

it sounds like to me that a cap construction would be easier than a sandwhich construction if you were going to make your entire core honeycomb.

I was thinking of trying to do a mix of honeycomb and wood. like make a cutout of the wood at the tip and tail. and then i can still use wood for my sidewalls and for binding retention.

or should i just try to use balsa wood to lighten up the skis?

i havent messed with carbon fiber yet.... but i could see advantages to that as well

what is the size of ski and weight goal? At a certain point performance is greatly reduced depending on conditions if you make the ski too light. IMO.

to help with skin irritation from dealing with fiberglass best product baby powder.

Have no idea why it worked it just does

Did you see my 160cm 990gram super tourers? http://www.skibuilders.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3216&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

Wood core with only a small amount of epoxy foam , and good tough laminates. I recon it will be fine for touring long distances but its def not a big mountain ski by any stretch eh. Horses for courses! Have considered nomex etc but I have seen them fail in other applications where there is lots of impact and shock eg, windsurfers. That said I've not used it myself and maybe its worth a crack, you need to try these things and push the envelope to advance eh. These ski's will be tested tomorrow. The guy riding them is no soft cock either, this is a typical mission for him http://www.exobindings.com/category/sast/ which he did a good chunk of on my 1st pair of ski's I built him - really funny wee things @ 140cm and looked very old school. http://www.exobindings.com/making-skis/ This is just after trimming the flash with the bandsaw prior to sidewall tidyup.

I made a pair of 155cm with 95mm underfoot, and put some dynafits on them... those were super lite! i am 5'6" so those skis were on the short side for me but were sick to tour in! and made great turns to boot. little rocker tip and i could actually ride them in all but the deepest days.

at madmonkey: i look at the dynafit skis and just wonder how the f they made such a light weight ski. and i am guessing that are incorporating air into their skis and best way to do that is probably with honey comb. so i want to make all of my designs lighter weight, from my bigger 180cm, 115mm underfoot, to my 165cm, 85mm underfoot... everyone that i sell to wants light weight skis even if they are pow skis.

should i be going with the nomex honeycomb or is there better stuff? where is the best place to buy this, and then using my typical 20 oz fiberglass still gonna be fine?

i think i will cut a long V in the tip and tail. so i can still have wood side walls, and there will be more surface area for the joint between the honey comb and wood.... that leads me to my biggest question... how should i join the honeycomb to wood? maybe just get it tacked there and it will be held in by the fiberglass during layup?

"aint no soft cock either" haha

I made some 188cm 140-120-130 with 22 oz triax top and bottom and poplar core, i added another larger piece of triax in a long diamond and has a wood 1/42" veneer topsheet and each ski is 1990 g. Pretty light considering whats in them and how stiff they are. Great pow skis.

Under 3.5 lbs per ski if you are larger than average is a rattletrap. Not fun to ski in any changing or deep snow conditions IMO.

If you are a spandex rando racer than you dont really care about down performance.