Friday, January 28, 2011

DIY ski tuning bench and vises #1

After much searching I realized that there was not a suitable ski tuning bench and vice set up for my purposes. The problem being that I don't have a garage or carport to tune skis in, only a room in my basement that also doubles as a bedroom for guests on occasion. I don't like tuning skis outside on a deck in the cold and if you don't like it you won't do it, so why bother. As well I don't want to have to clean up after every time I wax and edge skis, so I wanted the bench to catch drippings, filings etc... With kids in race programs, as well as the adults skis, I end up waxing and tuning about 6 pairs of skis each weekend.

   So here are some of the things I was trying to achieve:
-a bench with foldable legs so I could get it out of the way for guests.
-one that catches all the debris associated with tuning
-one that didn't cost an arm and leg like some of the vise and table combos out there
-it needed to be adjustable for skis ranging from 120 cm to 190 cm
- it needed to be simple and quick to move/change from one pair to another
-and I wanted it to be able to hold a pair of skis not just one at a time.

There are lots of vises and benches out there that do some of  those things, but none that I could find that did them all, and even those that only did some were expensive, with vises costing hundreds of dollars and the same for tables.