It's so very quiet on here, but thought I'd share a success story. Experimented with vacuum bagging for a while. Which I found to be quite ineffective, and promptly switched to a rigid compression mold. Skis are entirely carbon composite, with a paulownia core, and damping is achieved with VDS inserts. After a little testing I've been pleasantly surprised by their skiability despite the low weight
Anyone else out in Western Washington successfully building skis?
Nice one! Love the "steil ist geil" graphics...made me laugh!
These are super cool skis! Very curious about what layup you used (triax CF? what weight?) and where you managed to find paulownia for your cores.
I know that you can order paulownia directly from paulownia world (though it is a bit pricey). It was amazingly available locally for me from a boat building supplier.
As far as layup: in my experience triaxial carbon fabrics aren't the best way to go. They result in skis that are much too stiff torsionally, and too soft/breakable longitudinally. So I use a biaxial layer and a uniaxial layer, that allows me to modify the weights of the fabrics separately for different width skis. I use ~ 9oz/yd2 uniaxial fabric and 5oz/yd2 biaxial fabric, for most ski widths and lengths, which has resulted in a nice slightly stiff flex.
I am doing something similar with a snowboard right now. I am planning on using bamboo stringers and Sitka spruce as the core and biaxial 6oz carbon fiber instead of glass, and I'm thinking about adding carbon fiber A-frames on the nose and tail, also with VDS rubber on sides and a p-tex sidewall and full steel edge. I would appreciate any suggestions for getting a good stiff medium flex as this is my first time making a snowboard.
Yes, the "Steil ist geil" Ski really looks nice, especially when understanding german
