Ski Tuning Bench ver. 2 Done!

Finally done. This one took too much head scratching, the double hinge was a pain in the a** and trying to figure out an easy and strong way to support it took many different tries. In the end it worked out, is pretty simple to set up and is very stable. It takes me a few minutes to set up, after ever having only set it up a couple of times. Included on the table is a power outlet with a short cord to attach to an extension cord, a small 6*8 inch piece of metal screwed to the table top to place an iron on and a small flip out shelf to put tools on while tuning. To help hold the skis down while scraping or edging, I have a simple tie down that uses 1/8 inch cord and a clamcleat ( which can be bought at marine supply stores). This system is kind of like the Tools 4 Boards set that you can buy, only it costs about $10 instead of $100. Below is a complete listing of all the materials that I bought for this project and what they were used for...

DIY Tuning Bench ver. 2.0

Finally sat down and started drawing out my new ski tuning table, thanks to a kick in the ass from my friend Nicholas who wants me to build one for him. A little more complex than the last but hopefully it will fold in half so it will be easy to store in a closet, yet still be sturdy enough for tuning. Like the last one it will have built in ski supports so there is no reason to buy vises or tie downs, but this time it will have sliding tracks for the tip and tail supports to facilitate varying sizes of skiis. After I finished the first bench I made a couple of small changes, the best being a tool/beverage holder which makes the whole process just that much more enjoyable. Another addition/change was installing two sliding T-tracks for the ski supports instead of plywood slots like the last one, which makes it easier to place the ski supports right where you want them. As well I found a cheap and reliable tie down system for when you really need to put some weight into scraping or filing, although I rarely use it because the ski support with rubber tops hold the skis very well. As well it looks pretty nice and catches 95% of the wax and metal scrapings, which is important when tuning ski's in your living room while your wife can see you!

Still have some work to do, check back later.

DIY Boot and Glove Dryer

 Another project brought about by my laziness and in this case self preservation. After skinning my knuckles numerous times removing and then re-inserting  five pairs of ski boot liners so that I can put them near our woodstove to dry, I decided that it was time to make a boot and glove dryer. A quick bit of research online and I was off to the races.

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.