I bent a lower a arm and during the impact the skag bent. I removed the skag and straightened it, but the ski still has a lot of twist to it. Is there a way to straighten these skis or is it time for a new one? I thought about getting the whole ski pretty warm then clamping it straight on the work bench.
Fixing a twisted gripper ski
- Thread starter toofpaste
- Start date
I would just buy a new ski. Look on eBay, there are always a ton of them out there. There are currently a couple single skis available for less than $100. The plastic might become more brittle if you heat it up and try bending it. Plus I don't think you will ever get it truly straight.
this will sound crazy..... but i have heated it with a heat gun and they will go back. But what i have found works good is to get your bath water as warm as you can and put the ski in and let it soak in there .
good luck
good luck
A
ak49er
Well-known member
I did the same thing, with a pair of Sly-Dog Powder Hounds.
I removed the skag, clamped angle iron on it, and let it sit for 7 days. It has a little "wrinkle" at the bend, but thus far no problem.
If you choose to use heat, I would not use anything more than a hair dryer.
Both the Sly-Dogs and the Grippers are made from UHMW, Ultra-High Molecular Weight Plastic, and will lose it's memoery with a little heat.
HDPE will not. (High Density Poly-ethelyne)
In any plastic, if you have bent it, and the bend area has lightnede up in color, it has been thermally modified due to friction, and is usually very weak at that area.
I removed the skag, clamped angle iron on it, and let it sit for 7 days. It has a little "wrinkle" at the bend, but thus far no problem.
If you choose to use heat, I would not use anything more than a hair dryer.
Both the Sly-Dogs and the Grippers are made from UHMW, Ultra-High Molecular Weight Plastic, and will lose it's memoery with a little heat.
HDPE will not. (High Density Poly-ethelyne)
In any plastic, if you have bent it, and the bend area has lightnede up in color, it has been thermally modified due to friction, and is usually very weak at that area.
There are no hard bends at all. Just a bit of an overall twist from tip to toe. It's super easy to straighten by hand but of coarse it doesn't stay. I used a heat gun on low and brought the whole ski up to about 90 degrees is all and clamped it straight gonna let it sit and see what happens. The ski to spindle bolt is bent all to hell though.
Me? I don't have a PM from you.
^x2^ as hot as you can get it in the tub, then let it soak for a few minutes, pull it out and twist it strait and let it cool, obviously take the carbide off before it goes for the swim!
Good luck!
Get it nice and hot and it will come back.... if you know of anyone with a hot water pressure-washer...(aka "steam jenny") then remove the pressure nozzle and let boiling water flow on it for a couple of minutes... it should come back into shape...
I've done the same thing with my neighbors sauna on the top shelf (his wife didn't like it though)
Skag off of course.
.
I've done the same thing with my neighbors sauna on the top shelf (his wife didn't like it though)
Skag off of course.
.
Thanks guys, I got it back into shape. And got the wife off of my back for buying more parts!
