Skis: Build #002 – Ben’s 160cm All-Mountain with Tip-Wrapped Edges
While waiting on my first green & gray pair to come back from the shop for final base grinding and bindings, I jumped into my next build for a friend — Ben’s custom all-mountain skis.
This time we went with the following features:
- Cherry veneer topsheet
- Red base
- Full tip-wrapped steel edges
- Carbon stringers in an X-pattern
Here’s how it went — plus how we built our own DIY edge bender:
These are the edges and bases on the cassette. since we did a full edge wrap, we used the offcut base material to align the cores and bases during layup with some pencil lines:
we placed uniaxial carbon stringers between the edges with veil underneath:
fiberglass and cores going on:
he wanted to do these x shapes above the core with the carbon. I don’t know if they’re going to do anything, but I guess its cool, I don’t think it will have any adverse effects structurally and I didn’t protest lol:
here’s the wet layup ready for pressing:
We pressed it using the same method and temperature profile as last time:
After the cure, we left the ski “plank” intact. Ben wants to be there when we bandsaw the shape and sand the edges, so that step’s on hold for now.
So far, everything looks clean:
- Bases are flat.
- No dry spots in the fiberglass.
- Veneer laid down smooth.
Fingers crossed for the final trim!
afterwards we made a functional edge benders:
It’s a similar design to others that made vise benders. some rollers with bearings would be a nice addition, but it still bends straight enough. I think I’m going to stick with the nipper method because the edges flop around and get unwieldy trying to shape them in this thing.
While the skis waited for ben, I also test cut a snowboard core on the CNC. Added sidewall trenches and experimented with polyurethane dye. So far, the dye came out too bright — red looks pink and green looks like seafoam. Will need to experiment more with that.
That’s the update for tonight! Unfortunately, my green and gray pair of skis are still at the shop getting bindings mounted and bases ground flat so I cant show them off yet. will share when they’re ready!
