Was in there the other day, and asked if they stocked specialty lumber. The first employee said no, but asked around to a few others, and we even looked..... Lol they don't have any, for what reason I don't know why. Anyways the smaller specialty lumber and woodworking stores do carry it, but a good family friend has a sawmill and some access to some good, clear grain, local poplar, so I'm all in for that, just makes the skis so much more badass.
So tonight I just started on building a jig to hold down my tip and tail templates onto my MDF. I'm going to make a mold like NS member hot.pocket's. It's pretty gnar since the camber profiles are all adjustable as opposed to the traditional full rib camber molds you would see on skibuilders. That took up most of my night, but here is a picture of the jig and the tail template:
So if you're wondering how the variable camber mold works basically that tip curve looking piece, there will be a bunch of those lined up and held together with threaded rod. Then you have a sheet of MDF the width of the press spanning between two of those tip and tail molds, and then you just shim underneath the MDF to get your desired camber. You can also make longer skis by swapping out the MDF sheet for a longer one.
One last thing before I wrap this post up; I want to make an I beam press because of its un-restricted side loading access. Right now it looks like I have access to some 24 Inch I beam, but to buy four sections of it may get crazy for price. That would also be a fucking huge press, I just don't have room for something that big and heavy. However I was thinking if I bought 2 lengths, and used a plasma cutter and cut them down the middle lengthwise, essentially making them t-beams then I would have a decent size press. Thoughts on this?
Thanks to everyone for the help and contributions so far, keep it up!
