The Core

It has been about 4 months since I have done any work on my skis because our second daughter was born in April. She is a wonderful blessing to our family and worth suspending ski building operations for.  I am excited for the day when my children out-ski me for the first time.

"Exactly one day in your life your kid will ski as good as you do. The next day, he'll ski better than you."
-Warren Miller

The Aftermath 2 core is nearly identical to the Aftermath gen 1 core except that cedar was substituted for several aspen members to lighten the core.  Also, the oak rails will not be included with this model since they provide too much stiffness.  This will be my lightest core ever.  The core is comprised of 13 members as shown below:

This is my first year using cedar and I had to find a piece with no knots, but this turned out to be pretty easy; all the wood was purchased at Lowe's.  Cutting the core members is fairly straightforward with a table saw - just watch your fingers with the 5mm wide pieces.

 

 

Once done, I used my core member template to cut the two curved aspen members for each ski.  Then I used a 50 grit belt on my belt sander to finish the cuts.  Clamping the boards together allows the sander to ride perpendicular to the top of the member.  It also ensures all the members are identical.

 

Aspen Curved

 Aspen Straight 

 

 Oak

 

 Cedar

 

 Poplar

 

 

 

 

Once the sanding was complete, all the wood was wiped clean with a damp cloth.  Wood glue, clamps, and a paint roller were used to join the core members.

 

The core is in its final stages now and can be planed down from 19mm to 12mm thick.

Next the core template is used to round the tip and tail of the core blank.

 

The ski is then clamped into the profiling jig and a router is used to machine the core blank to thickness.  The tip and tail are machined from 12mm to 2mm.

Another sanding, this time with 80 grit sandpaper, is needed to smooth out the surface created by the router.  The core is now ready for layup.