The kits good but only as good as you can put it together. Like everyone says, if you have a board you dont mind using as a practice cut, do that. You have to cut a real straight line, use as new a blade as possible, then epoxy the shit out of the inner edge, let it set, then epox again. I wouldnt say factory boards are far superior. It’s up to the user and technique. Everyone I ride with digs my DIY board and have no problem keeping up with the exception of being less fit.

my first two splitboards were DIY Voile kits (an old K2 Eldo and a Lib Tech, both 170ish). i used them a ton in the wasatch over five or six seasons before getting a Prior and they worked well for me. it’s definately the way to check out splitboarding if you don’t have the money for a Burton, Prior, etc.
on a DIY splitboard in ski mode, i have the boards on the opposite feet so that the metal edge is my inside edge and the cut/wood edge is the outside edge. even with my Prior i like the sidecut edge on the inside, but it doesn’t matter as much on a splitboard with a full edge wrap.

don’t be afraid, do it! when making my second splitter, i cut it sorta crooked and it still worked great. like flowtorch said, epoxy the shit out of the inside edge, twice. you’ll probably need to re-apply some epoxy eventually as it chips off from riding.

EDIT: i would only split a board with a wood core. i don’t think a foam-core board would be a good idea, although someone has probably split one with okay results.

I have never split a board, so this is all hypothetical, but this is what I’ve thought about it….

Bandsaw: I don’t like this idea, because a bandsaw won’t give you as straight a cut as a rigid blade. I agree with the earlier poster that you’ll get a narrower cut, though, so if you can find one those kick-ass 2″ wide blades for resawing lumber, that’s your best bet. Our bandsaw at work mostly burns through stuff, so my policy is always to use a brand-new blade anytime I care about the results. I would also cut the metal edges with something else, then use the bandsaw just to do the core.

Tablesaw: Tablesaw blades are generally 1/8th of an inch. I don’t feel bad about loosing an 1/8th, especially if you are going to try to install inside edges as some people have described doing in other threads. in fact, you might need to loose that 1/8th!!! Anyway, as its obvious, this is the way I would go.

Sleds: I would build a cutting sled out of MDF that I could clamp the board down to before running it. This is how I would do it:

1. take two layers of 3/4″ MDF and cut one ~3″ wider than your soon-to-be-splitty (stbs). take the other layer and cut it into ~2″inch wide strips. glue these strips to either side of the wide piece to make a channel down the middle of your cutting sled a little bit narrower than the board.

2. After the glue has dried, flip it over on the tablesaw and set the fence to nibble away the inside of the raised section. the blade will be about 13/16 out of the table saw in order to get the full depth of the layer + a bit. anyway, nibble off a tiny bit with each pass until the board JUST fits into the channel.

3. make a matched set of shims to capture the narrower side of the board. each of these will be 1/2 the difference in the tip width and tail width… I would cut them, and then sand them sitting next to each other to make sure they stay the same size as each other.

4.get a 2×4, and some cork. cut the 2×4 to go across the top of the channel at the points where the board touches the bottom. Put the cork between the 2x4s and the board so it’s really compressed. screw the 2x4s into the top the sled.

5. run the sled through the saw now that you have something nice and big, easy ot grab, and with a perfectly stright edge to run up against the table saw. yay.

Probably overkill, but when I don’t go overkill, I usually figure out a way to screw stuff up… 😳

Shep

@SchralphMacchio wrote:

3) The circular saw 5.5″ blade was carbide tipped, but really a wood-cutting blade with big jagged teeth. So after my experience with the edge I realized, crap, Burton binding patterns have screw inserts running down the middle!’ I cut up about 10 inches to the board and start to figure my options.

With a carbide blade you can cut right through those inserts. I’ve done it on two Burtons. It will make a horrendous screeching noise, the sparks will fly, and the inserts will get red-hot, but it should work. Uh… wear eye protection.

But dude. That is impressive that the insert issue didn’t occur to you until after starting the cut! 🙂

Here’s a Burton Malolo that survived the cut (the other was a Fish that I sold):

@SchralphMacchio wrote:

3.5) Totally didn’t think about the fiberglass layer, so I cleaned up and took added precautions after this point.

Yep, been there too… not fun having all those microscopic splinters all over your arms!

DIY’s are great. The inside edge is a non-issue if you swap sides when in split mode. As mentioned above, keep an eye on the epoxyed edge. I use a carpet laying straight edge as a guide to keep my cut straight. This sort of sraight edge will bend and c-clamp into the perfect straight line. Make sure you pull measurements to find the exact center of the board a few diff. times just to be precise. I would recomend using the same tape measurer and same side of the board everytime. If you are off center a little(within an 1/8+or- a hair) it is not that big of a deal, one ski will generally be bigger/smaller than the other. This will only have a minimal effect in split mode, but in board mode it means nothing. I have factory splits and DIY’s and I like the DIY’s the best so far. You loose a little stiffness when you split one so don’t split a flexy jibber type board, unless you want a noodle.
Have fun, they are fun to build, and watch your booze consumption. 😀

Wait, fusionmeat, Are you for real!?!. I can have my board professionally split by you at mtn technologies? OMFG!!! insert hyperlink here.

Makes me grumpy when I log on in the morning and three of the five new threads are the exact same advertisement. 😕

okay, I’ve vented. I’ll crawl back in my hole. 🙄

Shep