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Ski flex tester


Guest GalaxyToad

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My tester is kinda crude. I line up my skis on the bench and give em a flex and it goes like this...

D3 - tip med, tail softy

Monza= tip med, tail kinda softy

Goode = tip med stiff, tail med stiff

F1 = tip STIFF, tail STIFF , No flexy on the F1 but amazingly still turns great.

You could always make a tester with a make shift form, bottle jack and a pressure gauge.

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The minute I saw that title, I knew it had to be GT! Pretty soon you'll have that PhD in ski set-up and design....

Thumbup.gif

I know this is a long shot, but does anyone out there have, or have access to a flex tester for slalom skis?
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I know this is a long shot, but does anyone out there have, or have access to a flex tester for slalom skis?

Yeah... Just lay yer ski out there and roll that Galaxy up on it, it should flex just a bit. :lol:

J/K Whats a flex tester for slalom skis look like?

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Not sure, but John Horton at carbonfins.com probably does. Schnitz also has one. If you have access to a welder, a dial indicator and some weights, you could make one pretty easily (at least a very crude "Harbor Freight" style one). A couple of bars, hang the weight and measure the deflection will give you the vertical stiffness of the ski, but I think the torsional element (also can be measured with the same stuff) and the rebound effect of the ski are at least as important in the actual performance of the ski. I have a couple of ski's that are pretty much the same in vertical stiffness, but ski quite a bit different and I think it is due to the rebound characteristics of the ski's. That is much more difficult to measure as it requires a dynamic measurment, not a static one.

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All right I get it. This probably isn't something I really need to get into. It's just part of my ongoing education in why skis do what they do.

Anyway, a flex tester is a frame with a place to mount a ski (up-side down) and apply direct pressure to a specific point measured off the tail (17", 25", 33", 41"). What you're measuring is how many pounds of force it takes to deflect a ski 0.100" of an inch as measured with a dial caliper on top of the unit. Pounds of force are read on a display at the bottom. You can measure one ski against another or against a standard to determine if it's breaking down.

Toad -- from the looks of it, that thing belongs in your bedroom, not in your garage.

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This thread reminds me of a special projects class I took in engineering school back in the day. My prof was big into golf and he thought (I think correctly so) that the club makers were full of $H!T when they said that they were selling frequency-matched sets of golf clubs, which meant the flex of the shaft on the club rebounded at the same rate for all of the clubs in the set. Sounds great in theory and is a good idea, but is most likely never achieved in the real world. I'm sure this prof is retired by now, but he had us trying to make a portable frequency reader that he could carry into a pro shop and slip over the shaft/grips of the club. We used a phonograph needle to measure the frequency of the club after it was swung. I think Woodski is needing the same thing for a waterski.

BTW, I've never seen a commercial for one of these readers or gotten a royalty check, so I'm guessing that this idea fizzled into nowhere.

Best of luck in your quest, GT. BTW, I'm still waiting for you to test the flex of your ski in the hydro tester we have down here in KY. Biggrin.gif

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Anyway, I think my batch of unobtainium is finally going to come in this summer (been on order for a long time) so I'm only going to get one crack at this "build my own ski" thing and I want to get it right.

Clap.gif wow thats serious. good on you galaxy, tell us more! what are you planning to do?

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BillB - We're planning on being there on or about the 16-17-18th of August. That work for you?

My wife and I play sand volleyball on Thursday nights, so I won't be at the lake until 8/17. I have 8/17 off work, so we're good to go. We should have GREAT water. All public schools will be back in session along with most private schools. My daughter's school doesn't start until 8/22. We'll have what will essentially be a private lake on 8/17. INT tournament on 8/18. Then, Elizbaeth and I leave for Coble's on 8/19.

Who do you have coming with you?

Let me know if you want me to talk to the KY director for INT about how to get you signed up.

Can't wait,

Bill

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