More Ski Manufacturing Steps

 

The CNC machine milling cores to proper thickness. We hold the cores to our CNC table without screws by using two vacuum motors (blue cubes) and a house made vacuum box.

 

After using epoxy to attach sidewalls and using the CNC to mill cores to their proper thickness, they are ready to be pressed into skis.

 

Next, we print and then sublimate the art onto the skis' topsheet. Not only does the topsheet act as a canvas for the art, it protects the skis from impacts and elements.

After printing, we sublimate art into the topsheet with heat and pressure so the ink is actually absorbed into the material leaving a bright, colorful and durable finish.

 

After all the materials are shaped and prepped, it is time to 'lay up' or assemble the materials in the ski press.

Ski materials ready for the press.

 

 Epoxy is spread on both sides of the prepared materials and layered in the press from base to topsheet. Press is heated to 180ºF with 22 tons of pressure for 1 hour. Wow!

 

 After the skis are pressed there is still a lot of work to be done. Jack is removing the excess material by cutting the skis out with a bandsaw using the edge as a guide.

 After the skis are cut out, they still need to be shaped. The sidewalls are angled with a shaper table and the tip shapes are sculpted using a vertical sander.

 

Finally, the skis are ready to be tuned. We flatten the bases, then we use the stone grinder to put a light structure on the base of the ski so it glides fast and smooth.

 

The last step to finishing the skis is sharpening and polishing the edges. We use a ceramic disk edger on all of our skis. Then the skis will be ready for bindings and finally, the snow!

 

2018 Slant Blaze 182cm - A view of the bamboo topsheets, bases and rocker/camber profile. 

 Ambush 185cm with a custom bamboo topsheet.

 The women's Nopro showing off a couple different custom topsheet choices. 

 

 Slant Skis Demo at Copper Mountain.

Slant Founder, Josh strength testing skis at Alpine Meadows, California. Our factory is between here and Lake Tahoe.

 Powder Day Ski Testing at Alpine Meadows

Team rider - Robert Bittner getting rad at Keystone. Photo: @b0ckmeister

Slant Skis are manufactured by passionate skiers in Lake Tahoe, California. Who makes your skis?