All Mountain Radacoski (AMR-14)

It's been a busy year, but I am currently making a pair of skis for a friend, Matt Radacosky.  I am also in the process of building a new ski press from steel, but will post about that later. This year I am making a pair of eastern all mountain/freeride skis similar to the Aftermath of last year, but wider.  The aftermath is 127-88-109, 53% of the ski is in front of center, and has a turn radius of 17.7m.  The AMR-14 is 128-100-118, 51% of the ski is in front of center, and has a turn radius of 19.9m.  You can see the difference between the skis below.

I am also going with a sidewall design this year rather than the cap design.  I expect the ski to be a little heavier, but should be more responsive in turns. One change I am making this year is using a basalt fiber instead of fiberglass - basalt is made from igneous rock. Here is some info about basalt:

Basalt fiber is a material made from extremely fine fibers of basalt, which is composed of the minerals plagioclase, pyroxene, and olivine. It is similar to carbon fiber and fiberglass, having better physicomechanical properties than fiberglass, but being significantly cheaper than carbon fiber. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt_fiber)

...the basalt/epoxy sample's strength tested 13.7 percent higher than that of the E-glass sample and exhibited 17.5 percent greater stiffness, although the basalt sample was 3.6 percent heavier than the E-glass sample. Additionally, basalt fibers are naturally resistant to ultraviolet (UV) and high-energy electromagnetic radiation, maintain their properties in cold temperatures, and provides better acid resistance. (http://www.compositesworld.com/articles/basalt-fibers-alternative-to-glass)

 Relative tensile strengths (breaking strength) are listed below:

Steel                  73000 psi  (0.50 GPa)
E-glass            500000 psi  (3.45 GPa)
Basalt              600000 psi  (4.15 GPa)
Carbon Fiber   725000 psi  (5.00 GPa)

After some extensive searching, I found some quad-axial basalt fabric from a company in Germany -iXperial (http://www.ixperial.net/). I highly recommend them; this shipment was fast and the customer service was excellent. Most fiberglass in skis is tri-axial, meaning that it is layered along three axes.  The basalt fiber I ordered is layerd on four.  The basalt will be visible through the topsheet and graphics layer.

 

This year I purchased a new 2.5HP router and a 6 Amp jig saw.  If I could afford a large bandsaw I'd have one.  The extra power in these tools over my past tools makes a big difference in cutting time and surface finish.  The core of the ski is nearly identical to the Aftermath, but substitutes pine for the cedar.  It still uses 3 oak stringers, 5mm wide, along with Aspen and Poplar. Photos of the core in process are below.

 

 

The base material is simlilar to last year and is a 4001 grade sintered P-Tex. This year I was able to get the base template and core member template printed on the same sheet, which saved some time and money.  The base in process is below.

 

 

I did run into a problem this year; after I cut out the base and superglued on the edges, I realized that one base had warped out of shape.  I have speculated that it had something to do with internal stresses in the base material.  When the material was cut, the stresses were relieved and it warped.  It's common in steel and I have seen it in plastic tubing before.  I had to re-order the base material and try again.  This time I cut out the base roughly at first, leaving about 1 inch to the template.  I then took a second pass using the template and it turned out fine.

I am returning to the sidewall design again this year.  The following pictures illustrate attaching the sidewalls to the core, planing the core, and profiling the core.

My friends Matt and Shane;  Shane is determined to make skis with me for a living; I forced them both to wear hearing protection.

 

 

Once the skis were profiled, I used my belt sander and 50 grit sand paper to smooth out the surface after routing. One thing I was worried about, after my last experience with sidewalls, was getting the sidewall to stick to the epoxy.  Ideally, the plastic surface would be very rough with a surface finish that looks like that of the base material.  The 50 grit belt seemed to do the job quite well as shown below.  The surface looks like it does when it is abraded at the factory. This will give the epoxy "hairs" to grab onto as it forms a mechanical bond.  A lesser grit would produce a cleaner looking surface, but would not bond as well.

 



 

The next step is to finish the graphics layer, prep the top sheet and basalt layers, and press the skis.

 

Here is a preview of the new ski press.

http://youtu.be/E45xais1i6o

 



Season Recap

In march I took a trip out west to ski with my brother and a few friends.  My friend Adam and I flew from Pittsburgh to Seattle where my brother picked us up.  From there we drove up to Revelstoke, BC.  The drive was pretty incredible as we drove through the Canadian Rockies.  We were excited to ski Revelstoke because it has the highest vertical drop in north America at 5,620 ft. When we arived it was raining at the base, but we knew this meant fresh powder in the alpine.  We skied two days at Revelstoke.

 

 

 

 

The first day we hiked a few hundred feet to get to the summit for some fresh tracks.  Unfortunately it was too foggy to drop into the steepest runs (without getting into trouble).  We did have an incredible run down the front side of the mountain in fresh powder.  The layout of Revelstoke required a lot of bootpacking and traversing.

 

 

Overall Revelstoke was pretty awesome and we enjoyed two days of fresh powder and expensive canadian food.  The final 5,620 ft vertical runs at the end of the day definately got your legs burning.  After the second day of skiing we left around 3 PM and drove 8 hours to Whitefish, MT to meet my brothers friends. Whitefish is known for great terrain, powder, and serious fog; however, we did not have any fog during our stay.  I enjoyed Whitefish more than revelstoke primarily because it was easier to access the terrain and the terrain was more variable. Even though it only snowed significanly on our first day there, we were still finding patches of fresh powder on day three.

 

 

 

I skied on the Aftermaths every day of this trip and they performed well in all conditions. They handled both the powder and the rain packed groomers at Revelstoke as well as the constantly varying terrain at whitefish.  We even did a bit of tourning (alpine) while we were at Whitefish.  We had planned to ski another day at Whitefish and then return to Seattle where we were going backcountry skiing on Mt. Rainier.  Unfortunately my Nana passed away and we had to cut the trip short to be with family.  This turn of events was still a blessing as we got to spend time with family that we would not have otherwise seen for a long time.  A video of our ski trip can be found at the link below.

 

http://youtu.be/YMORdyA9Ek4?list=PL7E627CB75A0ECB63

 

I have been busy this summer building a new deck on my house and have not worked on a new pair of skis.  However, I still have plans to build a pair before winter if I can. I also have plans to build a new sander to help with processing the skis. I am again getting excited for ski season because a family trip has been planned for Beaver Creek, CO.  I skied Beaver Creek when I was 14; which was 14 years ago.

 

Final Details and Testing

This year I decided to use the Marker Baron again which I removed from the original Aftermaths.  I plan to use these skis for a small amount of touring if the weather ever corporates.  At this point the original Aftermaths have been retired due to the stiffness being too high.  I may mount different bindings on them someday.  My friend Matt again offered to help me mount the bindings and tune the skis again this year.  The bases were fairly flat, but were slightly convex due to epoxy seeping under the edge of the tips and tails during pressing.

The finalized skis are shown below.

 

This years skis are light at 7lb 0oz for the pair (1591 grams per ski, 3181 grams total); this makes them the lightest skis I have made.  For comparison, the 177 cm long Volkl Kendo, which has a very similar width but is 9cm shorter, weighs in at 1849 grams per ski, or 3698 grams total (8lb 2.2 oz). The skis have a good flex and good torsional resistance.  Their performance on the hill was exceptional. I took them to a local resort, Blue Knob, which is known for having the best terrain in the mid-Atlantic.  I put the skis to the test: speed, agility around moguls, and impact off of a few jumps and drop-offs, and even some fresh powder.  I am looking forward to taking them out west in March.