Trouble with my explosive repair. How to get the twin tip back into the tail???

[njfreeskier]

So my explosives delammed and I tried to epoxy the delam. I was successful in that part of it. It came out pretty good at first glance. Unfortunately, now, the tail has flattened out from the pressure of the vice. How do I get the tail to kick back up again? Basically I want to put the twin tip back in the ski. Is that possible?

The bottom one is the original, the top one is the that got flattened




Here's an aerial view, left one is the original, the right one is the flattened one



Any help you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[HankScorpio]

I'd say heat up the tail and re bend it but you'd probably undo the epoxy job you just did. If I were you I'd just flatten out the other ski tail.

[njfreeskier]

^^^both of those thoughts crossed my mind.

I do ski switch a fair amount and would prefer the twin for that, but if worst comes to worst, I guess I could flatten out the other tail.

[that dude who did that thing]

Cut several pieces of wood, 1/2x1/2x6 inches. These become clamping cauls, put one set on the flat of the ski just before the bend starts, one piece below the ski, one piece above, screw them together through the ends (do NOT run screws through the ski). Run several more pairs from that point to the end of the tail. You now have 3 or 4 mini clamps that will hold the laminations together. Heat the ski and put the bend back in, this will be fiddly because you have to work around the clamping cauls, and you might have to take several attempts, moving the cauls in between each attempt to get a smooth curve.

Also, you might want to line the cauls with wax paper to reduce the extent to which they end up sticking the skis. But they're probably going to stick and you're going to have a small job cleaning up with you're done.

Disclaimer: I've never attempted this, don't know if it would work, but this is one way a wood worker might approach this problem.

[old goat]

I don't know about the epoxy you used and whether heat would melt it but I suspect that if it did it would not reharden when it cools, leaving a mess to try and clean off before you reglue. For future reference the right way to clamp a curved lamination is to make two cauls three or four inches thick and as long as the section you're gluing. One caul should mimic the top of the ski and one the bottom (use the other ski as a model). Apply glue, wax paper top and bottom, lay cauls on top and under the ski and clamp them together. To do this you need at least four and preferably more clamps that will open wide enough and a bandsaw to cut the cauls out of some 4x6.

[Nordic75]

Epoxy softens up a little bit under heat. I decambered a pair of skis at around 180 deg in a sauna.

As far as I know, it will "recure" as long as you don't go overboard with the heat. (depending on the type, somewhere around 300 you alter the molecular structure) You just need just enough heat for the epoxy to soften up and reshape with some wood and let cool overnight or so.

You might need a couple of cycles of this to refine the shape though.

[old goat]

Your skis were in a sauna?

[SouthCentralShralper]

Heat it up nice and hot and clamp it to the other ski...