On the Road Again

I decided to hit the road this week. They are asking for folks to take time off from work and I had enough PTO, paid time off, so I decided to take the week. It is a much needed break and it allowed me not to feel rushed while on my adventure. So last Sunday i packed my truck for a trip to California. I left base in Duchesne, UT at 530pm and head south on rt 191 to CA.

I have never had luck on rt 191. I have driven it twice and both times missed a turn and went out of my way.This trip it went dark quick and I missed a turn onto US-6. Like any good boy scout I have an atlas in my truck and found that I had wondered too far south and was head in the right direction in Tribal Land. So I found my route, south to Interstate 40, then onto Olancha, CA.

17 hours later I had made it to Mike Lish's place. Mike builds custom skis off the grid and in a trailer that he has outfitted with all the necessary tools and processes that one would need to build skis. http://333skis.com/ Mike and his family are really making the most of living off the grid in the desert. They are also more than great and amazing hosts. They set me up in a guest house built from random material they have collected. All of their buildings and workshops are made from recycled, left over material. He has turned a shipping container, like on the back of 18 wheelers, into an apartment for his soon to be crew. The whole experience was a great awaking of how one can buck the consumerism of our society and live with little.

So i rolled into Mike's place at about 930 am pacific time and got settled. After a little decompression from the drive it was off to work. Mike started by =telling me about his business plan and how he hope to build an education component into his building. Perfect for all those kids who think that math class won't apply and who love the workshop classes. Then we began to finish setting up his shop. He set me out to creating a jig, template and device to make short work of measuring a repeated task, to cut the base or p-tex of the ski. We never ended up using it, there was stock for my skis.

After a short time and discussion and fine tuning of my order we made some changes and then off to building from scratch. First step was to create the side cut and shape of the core of my skis. This is done a "rail pack", a metal jig that has two rails that flex, according to spacers, which creates the side cut of my skis. Then to the tools. I was handed a monster routor which was guided by the flexed rails and when finished my wood core had the side cut and platform for a sweet ski.

Mike worked on an adaptation to his ban saw which kept pressure on the wood core to that it would stay on the jig and cut the perfect taper for the tip and tail. Mike has made a platform which the core sits on and gets fed through this ban saw. As the wood is fed through the saw it starts low and the blade moves though and up till it reaches an exit point. Then like magic the ski has its tapered tail and tip and flex pattern. There is much math involved in getting the numbers that are needed to reach this magic and Mike has figure it all out.

Then next step was to cut the p-tex or base of the ski. It is done in the same fashion. Next to the fiber glass which gives the ski its strength. I cut four main pieces for the top and bottom of the ski. Then we added a piece for the binding renforcement and also two strips of kelvar along the middle of the ski to add more strength and force to the edge of the ski. The last step for the ski was the tip and tail parts. These are created out of ABS plastic and i had such trouble with them. I figured out that I can't cut straight lines if I had a gun held to my head. Mike came in and starighten every thing out. So now we had all the piece to build the ski. Nothing too huge, who would have thought a ski is so basic.

At this point Mike had not made a pair of skis this short, 167 cm. So there was no cassette made that I would be able to build the skis on. I was given some great instruction and set off to take 7 in wide aluminiam and make a cassette to fit my skis. This process was fun. Marking all the measurements and then bending the mettle to create and hold the tip and tail of the skis. I marked the center of the ski and the effective edge of the ski then marked the whole thing for Mike to use later. After it was all marked I was sent to the roller bender to bend the sheet metal into the desired shape. This was awesome. The bender is manual and simple. Just place the metal in after figuring out how you want the three rollers to be interacting to bend the metal. There are two that move the metal into the device, and the third one can move up and down behind the others which creates an angle to which the metal will bend.

Before we could build we prepped all the pieces so that they would adhere to each other. First was sanding the cassettes and put a non-stick stuff on it so the skis will release from it...guess all prep is not for adhering. Next was sanding the tip and tail plastic and then the p-tex. This is all to make a surface that is not smooth so the resin will adhere to the rough surface. I tried to grind the tip and tail plastic and ended up hitting my fingers. Not too bad, no bone, so there is blood, sweat and tears in my skis. They have my DNA in them. We also flame treated the tip and tail and p-tex to get rid of and oil type stuff. Also the tip pieces needed to be molded in the the uplift of the tip of the ski. The cores are sanded and ready to go.

Before we can put the all the pieces together we needed to add the edges to the bases. This was something I let Mike do, the cutting and bending at least. The edges are the part of the ski that bits into the hard snow and ice. Mike had a bunch of edge stock and he measured, cut and bent the tip into place. The with simple super glue we glued the edge into place on the p-tex. Again Mike had created clamps the would hold the edge to the p-tex and cassette while the glue quickly dried.

Now that all is ready, we are able to start putting all the material together to make a ski. This part was really fun. Before I left base Mike called me and asked me about how much of the process I wanted to be part of. It would have been easier and less time consuming to be just part of the following. And I got such an education and enlightenment with the whole process, and stay with Mike and his family, it will be an adventure hard to forget.

On to the build. So while I was bending the cassette Mike was fashioning a floating build table so I could keep all my building materials on for ease. After all the materials went on to the table in reverse order, bottom to top of ski, I put gloves on and started to mix the resin. Once the resin was mixed and ready I started to start the build.

It starts with spreading the resin on the bases p-tex making sure to get it into the edge flange so the edges will stick to the ski. Next the bottom fiber glass. This is a piece of single bias knitted fiber glass. It has two layers that run at 90 degrees, vertical and horizontal, to each other, then knitted together. Once this was saturated enough I out resin on the bottom of the core so the wood would , no pun intended, not suck the resin out of the bottom piece of fiber glass. Next I placed the core onto the stack and also the tip and tail pieces. Adding more resin to this top layer we added the kelvar side renforecment, a small piece of fiber glass for binidng renforcement; these are leaf springed with each other. Then the top piece of fiber glass, a double bias, 45 degree knitted which has more torsional strength then the single bias. then the last piece of the ski the top sheet graphics.

So there is an interesting story with this part. I spent at least about 2 hour collectivally deciding what graphic to use. A little background with the graphics. Mike and his family have found graphics and really nice decorative paper that they stock to which looks great under the resin. I found this really great paper that they all thought was great too. Then after awhile I realized there was only enough for one ski. I asked Mike if he had more and then a light bulb went off. Mike told me that he really like that paper and had used one skis worth on a pair that he first made. So there I was with paper for one ski. It was funny that Mike had used it for one ski. So I made a great top sheet with a two tone pattern on the ski. Mike's wife, Jael, did a great job of taking a photo of this sketch I had and turing it into a graphic, which ended up on my skis.

Once all was resined and set up we added a bleeder, which collect the extra resin, and sleeved the whole thing into a vacuum bag. After clamping the ends we attached it to the camber rack, decided on the camber I wanted and sent it onto the roof on the trailer to cure. 2 hours later they were done. It was like opening christmas presence when you were a kid. I opened the bag and there they were my skis in the rough. I let Mike do the finish work, he is far superior with free handing tools then I could ever be.

Mike looked to be having a bunch of fun triming off the tips tails and edges of my ski. He can really eye things up and make them look good. After they are all finished we added a few coats of clear coat and then we filled in any gaps in the resin with more pasty resin and sanded and done. I have a hand built pair of skis by me.

I remember when I saved enough money to buy my first bike by myself. I too such care of that bike till the day the I used the parts for my new bike. I'm not sure if I can wait till there is enough snow to not trash this skis. But when the snow falls you best believe these skis and I will shred the whole mountain with vengence.

Below are all the pics that we took of the process and there is more on Mikes website. heres the link::: http://333skis.com/customers-who-build-their-skis.php

If you want to have a custom pair of skis go to Mike's site::: www.333skis.com ::: and order a pair. Mike is ramping up to be in full production soon so be patient and may be go help and have a hand in your skis.