I came across some material I think will make for one of a kind ski for sure. While searching for wood veneer I found www.veneersupplies.com. They carry some very good wood veneers. They also carry copper veneer. Which by itself may not seem that unique but they treat the copper to produce some exotic looking materials.
Once I saw it I knew I had to buy some samples to test the bonding characteristics. For years manufactures have been using aluminum, titanal, and titanium. All can be difficult to bond into a ski or snowboard. However there are techniques that can aid in the bonding of alloys to wood, fiber glass and other materials in a ski.
The 2 samples below are copper. One is called copper azule and the other is copper flamed. The bond seems to have taken very well. As for how a ski will perform with a copper top sheet, my assumption is that it will add some weight and will be damp. Usually when an alloy is added to a ski it to provide rigidity
and dampness, ie reduce vibrations.
The thickness of the veneers are .005" equivalent of .127mm. It's thin. To give you an idea how thin, it's about 7 times thicker than tin foil and twice as thick as a soda can. The alloys used in a ski are typically .5mm or .3mm.
I'm going to let the sample layups cure for a few days before I start flexing the pieces. Handling the layup before a full cure could cause the layup to separate.
If all goes well I'll begin the process of making a copper ski. Sure to turn heads on the slopes. I'll provide a full report on how well the ski performs or doesn't perform.
Copper out of the press:
Copper after it's been trimmed:
If the bond holds it should make for a very unique ski.
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Update..... The bond of the copper failed miserably. The VDS (yellow strips) was suppose to help the bond to the copper. As you can see I was able to peel the copper away from the rest of the material cleanly. Back to the drawing board.
12/19/2012-UPDATE
Just when I thought I was done with this experiment I had another idea. I glued a heavy weight paper to the back of the copper using poly urethane glue. The paper is the same type used in the underpayment of a wood. The paper bonded great to the copper. So the next step is to bond the copper/paper layup to fiber glass and wood, just like a ski, and see if it all holds together. If this works I may get a copper ski before the ski season is over.
Stay tuned!
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1/10/2013- UPDATE
I ran 2 more tests. The paper bonded well to the veneer using poly-urethane glue so I created 2 more test layups. The first test piece already had the paper backing glued on. I sanded the paper backing with 80grit sand paper to help with adhesion and epoxied it to a layup same as above. I'll call this piece LAYUP 1
The second test piece was an all wet layup. The difference in this layup was I poly-urethaned the paper onto the copper and immediately epoxied the paper/copper to the layup. I'll call this piece LAYUP 2
I pressed the samples at 40psi for 3-4 hours. Then let the samples cure at room temp for a couple days.
Both pieces looked like they bonded very well. I started to aggressively bending and flexing both pieces. They held extremely well. LAYUP 1 did start to delam in a few spots after some aggressive bending. LAYUP 2 showed no signs of delam at all.
LAYUP 1-
You can see a few places where the copper start to delam. I was able to get a screw driver and lift the copper up fairly easily.
With a little coaxing I was able to peel the copper off cleanly.
This sample looked very solid, no signs of delam even after flexing and bending.
Extreme bending, still no delam.
I was able to pry the screw driver under a corner of the copper and was able to start peeling it back. (NNOoooo!!)
Then I was able to peel it away with not much effort.
Oh well on to the next!
