Test day

When I hook up the air to these things, they're supposed to inflate the fire hose, which creates the pressure against the mold, which shapes the snowboard. I'm assuming everything's going to go really great. That said, if you hear an explosion later on, in about an hour from right now, say, and you feel the windows shaking and plaster is cracking and falling from your ceiling, it probably means there's an exploded fire hose somewhere in Rupert. Call OSHA.

Getting more Jiggly

The press is coming along smoothly. Got a lot of work done on it over the last week. The frame is made from 2X6 framing lumber lagged into 11 7/8" MicroLaminate joists. Very strong. I also picked up the fire hose and fittings to make the clamping process work, so I'll be busy with putting the mechanics of that together this week. If I had gone with the simpler vacuum mold process, I would be building boards right now, but I'm sure that this is the right way to go. The boards will be way stronger, the process simpler and MUCH less wasteful. Admittedly, the press is super ugly but I think it's going to work well. A few more modifications and I'll be testing her out. Hoping to build a few rides for X-Mas.

Jiggity

Check out this brand new board jig we just finished roughing out. Trevor over at Dorset Custom Furniture in Dorset, VT sat down at the computing machine with me, and we hashed out the design I wanted. This is an exact replica of the sweetest board I made last winter, the one I ran to on basically every occasion. A camber-less base, deep side cut and convex swallow tail...holy crap, I can't wait for it to finally snow here.

The frame to hold this jig is under construction...should be putting in several hours on it tomorrow. I can't work on it at night because power tools wake the baby. Especially impact drivers. Sleeping babies hate those. Nighttime is for finish work.

Things are ramping up down here, and it's about 45 degrees under a cloudless sky. It feels like September in Vermont, and even the hunters are hating on it (deer stay dormant in warm weather, and hunters can't find them. So they say.) I'm still pretty charged to get this machine built, even if I can't enjoy the fruits of it for another month or so.