Simmons Ski Bend Repair - Anyone know How??

[thump426er]

One of my Simmons Flexi-skis has a bit of a bend to it. Looking down the legth of one side of it, it's quite straight. Looking down the length of the other side of it, from the mount to the rear it is straight but from the mount (front bolt) to the front, the edge lifts up probably close to 1/2". The carbide did have a bit of the bend in it as well, pulled it off and straightened it no prob.

Does anyone out there have any experience with bending a ski back to shape? I know I have read somewhere that with the UMHW plastic you can heat it up and in theory just bend it back because the plastic will have a memory. Haven't been able to find this info lately when I search, thought I saw it on a ski manufacturers website though. This is my plan, to heat it and bend,,,, for now. Hoping someone has done this and can shed some insight for me before I do this. Thanks for any input.

 

[TheBreeze]

Hot water

I have heard that if you put it in hot water in the bathtub it will return to its originial shape. I have not personally tried this, but it is what i heard.

 

[sledneck84]

your on the right track. Heat it and see if it comes back on it's own, after a good cool down. If not, heat it and clamp it where you want it to stay and let it cool good. release clamps and see if it held, if not all the way straight yet just repeat again and it will come around. Just make sure you get it good and hot and let it cool all the way down. Good luck.

 

[thump426er]

Hot water is a good idea if i could figure out something large enough. Concentrated heat, torch etc,, or more like a patio heater????

 

[Ex-Member]

I wouldn't do concentrated heat because you'd risk burning the plastic. Water guarantees slow and relatively even heating. You also create stress zones in the plastic with a high temp change over a small area.

Ideally you want to heat the whole ski up to a few degrees below its melting point, which is a little above the boiling point of water iirc. Form it there and bring it down to room temp over 15mins or so. I realize not everyone has access to temp chambers capable of doing temperature ramps, but a bathtub full of hot water would probably do the trick. Could also try doing this in your oven, turn it to 250°F or so and let the ski soak in there for a bit. Clamp/form it, then put it back in the oven and turn off the heat. That gradual and even cooling is what will keep the structural integrity of the plastic.

Take your time and do it right.... breaking a ski when you're riding -sucks-.

 

[hatchers]

get the sled on something that will allow you to hold the bent section of the ski down with a C-Clamp, poor hot water over the area, walk away for a day or two and its done

 

[rockymking]

Don't forget to pull the runners before you put the ski in the tub of hot water. Check them to make sure they aren't bent while you heat up the bent ski ... the ski plastic has some memory so let it try and straighten itself by hot water heat first. Mine was tweaked bad after a tree strike, bent the carbides as well ... hot water fixed it up right.

 

[BackCountryBob]

I intentionally bend the tails of my Simmons up for better RER and have never melted the plastic. Remove the shoe and the runner, put the ski in a vise and apply heat from a heat gun. Sometimes you have to over twist the ski to get it to settle back where you want it. When I heat the tails it takes about 2 applications to get the tails where I want them. I've been forming Simmons skis for many years without any signs of cracking.

I have also severely bent the skis and damaged the shoes and left them behind a sunny window and presto they came back to their original shape by them selves.

BCB

 

[thump426er]

Sounds like a lot of options here,,, thanks for the input on this. Going to give one of these ideas a shot tomorrow night and I'll let you know how it works out,,,,, well prior to actually hitting the hills with it anyway.
thanks again.

 

[BigAl]

Had one of mine bend from a tree hit. I sat it on the garage floor and used a heat gun to get it nice and warm. Then used a couple concrete blocks to hold it in place while it cooled. Three year and plenty of abuse later, I'm still running the same ski.

 

[Wyoming T/A]

hot water in the bath tub

 

[Needspeed]

I used the Hot water in a bathtub method on some slp skis and it worked awesome. I just turned the hot water tank up all the way gave it a while to heat up trhen filled the tub and let it soak for a while.

 

[thump426er]

So that would stand to reason that my hot tub which is at 104 degrees should do the trick????

 

[Ex-Member]

So that would stand to reason that my hot tub which is at 104 degrees should do the trick????

doubt it... that's about 40*C, needs to be up closer to 100*C to work.

 

[snowcross338]

your on the right track. Heat it and see if it comes back on it's own, after a good cool down. If not, heat it and clamp it where you want it to stay and let it cool good. release clamps and see if it held, if not all the way straight yet just repeat again and it will come around. Just make sure you get it good and hot and let it cool all the way down. Good luck.

That's the way, just wanted to add use a heat gun to do this.

 

[nathaniel11]

take off the carbides and place in a hot tub

 

[thump426er]

Well that was the easiest fix I've ever done.... piece of wood, 2 bessey clamps and about 40 seconds of a heat gun. Done. Thanks for all the suggestions, super appreciate it. Little bit of "overflex" and apply the heat. Thanks again.