Ski #3 Build, Sidewall Jig and Flex

The laser is a bit scary haha! Ive been using the glasses that come with them, they seem ok. I look forward to incorporating the laser in a build in the near future!

Regarding the sidewall router jig with the bit combination I found, I am pleasantly surprised! check out the result

and here’s some progress pics from my latest ski build, it’s a 170 cm all mountain for someone who is on the lighter side (155 lb) – 2/8/2 mm poplar core with two 19mm maple stringers, 130/95/121, 1″ carbon tape between the base and bottom fiberglass, 20 oz/yd fiber. It’s got 7mm of camber and a tip rocker section.

I used some offcut base material with wooden dowel pins for core alignment – worked great!

Mid-layup. The sidewalls are smooth-on 300 but I’ve died them black with PU pigment

Topsheet has two cherry bands on the outside with a rosewood strip in the middle. Used some veneer tape underneath to joint it:

Into the oven:

and out:

So regarding previous comments about not using bleeder – I’ve more or less been able to contain the epoxy squeezeout in the tip and tail areas – it pretty much just makes its way over the cassette and gets trapped between a heavy plastic film and the metal. seems to be working out well – haven’t damaged the mold in the last couple presses (*knocks on wood):

Cleaned up:

So the one thing that caught me by surprise was – the skis are a bit softer than I thought they would be – I had calculated that this ski should come out in the normal stiffness range as outlined in my ski mechanics textbook “Skiing Mechanics” by John Howe:

however they came in at 22 N/cm deflection. my testing apparatus:

Today I added some paint lines:

Finally they will get some spar, poly and wax to finish off the toposheet.

also finally got a tune and bindings on the original rosewood skis!

my favorite pair so far is the first one – I don’t really have anything bad to say about them other than maybe the binding placement needs some adjustment – I tried the second pair and it carves well but feels a bit noodly when going straight & fast – maybe because its too soft? I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t like the third pair because of how soft they are, but maybe my friend will, time will tell.