Glenn Posted January 15, 2006 Report Share Posted January 15, 2006 Looking through some old posts and found this... What makes a fast ski? Hermann Maier is the greatest modern day speed skier and he's on Atomics, with a specific combination of ingredients. Firstly, his bases are sintered, as opposed to extruded. We get extruded bases. Whats the deal with that? My snowboard has a sintered base. I find it hard to believe a 'freestyle' board has better race technology than race stock skis. Am I missing something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtomicSkier Posted January 15, 2006 Report Share Posted January 15, 2006 (edited) Looking through some old posts and found this... Whats the deal with that? My snowboard has a sintered base. I find it hard to believe a 'freestyle' board has better race technology than race stock skis. Am I missing something? Extruded bases are made by melting pellets and forcing the material through a nozzle of the required size to form sheets of the desired thickness. The resulting base material is very easy to repair, but equally easy to damage. Very few boards are made with extruded bases. Maybe some of the cheap KMart type boards, etc. Sintered bases are made by slowly heating powdered polyethylene under great pressure. The result is a block (sort of like a big wheel of cheese) that is then skived (cut) to form the base material. This method costs about three times as much as producing extruded bases. Sintered bases are much higher in molecular weight; with increasing molecular weight, abrasion resistance and wax absorption is increased. While its great to have a base that won't get gouged as much, it is a lot harder to fix. Ski999, you sure our GS:11's arent sintered? They're a different base then my GS:9s.... Edited January 15, 2006 by AtomicSkier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted January 15, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2006 (edited) Very few boards are made with extruded bases. Maybe some of the cheap KMart type boards, etc. Err... I'm pretty sure its about 50/50, or at least thats what it seemed like when I was last looking for boards. One of my boards has a extruded base, and one, possibly both of my brothers have extruded bases. I'm still confused as to why a freestyle board has a better base than a race stock ski. If so many boards have them it would seem like at least the racing skis would have them... Edited January 15, 2006 by dthmtluncrn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtomicSkier Posted January 15, 2006 Report Share Posted January 15, 2006 Err... I'm pretty sure its about 50/50, or at least thats what it seemed like when I was last looking for boards. I'm still confused as to why a freestyle board has a better base than a race stock ski. If so many boards have them it would seem like at least the racing skis would have them... I know the worldcup stock Atomics have sintered bases, but I don't know if even our race stock GS:11s do, but they have what atomics call "world cup base".... I think manufactorers realized snowboarders need all the help they can get Just kidding, but hopefully ski can shed some light on this again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrian Posted January 15, 2006 Report Share Posted January 15, 2006 dont worry. that statement is wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted January 15, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2006 dont worry. that statement is wrong. Care to elaborate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ski Posted January 15, 2006 Report Share Posted January 15, 2006 It's all about the quality of the wheel of cheese. The best WC racers get the best part of the best "wheel". True race stock should be sintered, so I'm assuming these 11's are, but it's much more important in speed events. You know, I actually asked two guys from so-called super high end race shops in Park City last summer whether race stock (as opposed to WC stock) have sintered bases and I got two different answers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 (edited) Extruded bases are made by melting pellets and forcing the material through a nozzle of the required size to form sheets of the desired thickness. The resulting base material is very easy to repair, but equally easy to damage. Very few boards are made with extruded bases. Maybe some of the cheap KMart type boards, etc. Sintered bases are made by slowly heating powdered polyethylene under great pressure. The result is a block (sort of like a big wheel of cheese) that is then skived (cut) to form the base material. This method costs about three times as much as producing extruded bases. Sintered bases are much higher in molecular weight; with increasing molecular weight, abrasion resistance and wax absorption is increased. While its great to have a base that won't get gouged as much, it is a lot harder to fix. Ski999, you sure our GS:11's arent sintered? They're a different base then my GS:9s.... You know, i have to disagree with that. I just got a board with a sintered base, and my base repairs look 10x better. Then again, my old board (extruded) had a white base. Any dirt showed up through the clear ptex. Also, i may just be used to repairs now, and i have been more careful. Oh yeah, and i've been using one of these bad boys. Plastic welders work the best out of anything i've ever tried (drip candles and base repair iron) Edited January 16, 2006 by stevo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyro_boarder Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 How much would one of them run me and what other plastics can it weld? It looks like a fun tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 I think you can pick one up at harbor freight for like 30 bucks. But you need your own compressor. You can probably weld any plastic-not sure though. The one i'm using is fully contained, which is a few hundred bucks. (not mine though, borrowing it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyro_boarder Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 Hmmm... I wish I had plastic I needed to weld. Thanks for the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrian Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 im syaing sintered plastic isnt restricted to racers at all. crown plastics is crown plastics is crown plastics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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