Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:52 pm
Hi. New here. Has any one tried Teflon for thier base? They would be hard to repair. And maybe to soft. But fast as long as they last. I am thinking of tring it. Any help would be great!!
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:: View topic - Teflon base?
Posts: 12 · 12 posts
Thu Sep 20, 2012 11:33 am
I know teflon has been mentioned in the forum but I don't think anyone has tried it. Are you able to get it in thin sheets?
Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:46 pm
It's expensive. But I can get 12" wide by.06 thick Teflon Eched to bond with epoxie on one side for about $38.oo / ft!!
12 ft. min
I tested a peice on some vds and bonds great.
Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:49 pm
Spray it with some cooking spray and wipe it down, just like on Christmas Vacation....
Fri Sep 21, 2012 3:58 am
That's pricey. So are you going to try it?
Vinman - LOL
Sat Sep 22, 2012 5:04 am
I read an article about base material and coefficient of friction. Whats happening when you ski is the friction generated by the wax is heating and melting a thin layer of snow...so you are actually gliding on water. There is a point at which the friction would be too low, the snow would not melt, and you could be worse off. In the paper I think they actually test teflon. It was written by Gian Tessari for Slegar Ski. A google search should find it if you are interested.
Sat Sep 22, 2012 4:12 pm
Wed Sep 26, 2012 6:59 pm
Interesting read. Thanks.
Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:05 am
Cost prohibitions aside, PTFE exhibits poor mechanical properties, notably at low temperatures.
Wed Oct 03, 2012 5:20 am
It is brittle and will break when the ski is flexed. Simply won't work
Tue Oct 16, 2012 9:06 am
Teflon is no good for abrasion resistance
So, seeing as how my research group works very closely with research on ptfe, friction, and ski friction... I am going to give my opinion. I haven't contributed to the forums for a year or two, but was very interested in the topic.
PTFE is an excellent friction material against snow. PTFE particles in wax provides a noticeably faster wax on XC skis until it wears off. PTFE is even better in water (my specific research area).
However, there are two reasons why I believe PTFE is not used in skis:
1- PTFE is very susceptible to wear in wetted conditions and PTFE with reinforcing fibers loses a lot of its good friction characteristics (from my own research).
2- But the real issue is that nobody has figured out a good method of getting PTFE to stick to the rest of the structure in a ski.
An example of the challenge of getting PTFE to 'stick' to anything is that when they build sliding bearings out of PTFE, they heat up the PTFE and press it into a thick wire mesh to mechanically hold it.
If you figure out a way to stick PTFE to a ski base that is reliable... you could patent it!