Swap Plates: any interest for Look Axial2/ Fritschi FR+ compatibility?

[skis_the_trees]

Any interest in swap plates made for a combination of Look PX bindings and Fritschi FreeRide (Plus) Bindings? I am going to make some plates for personal use similar to those offered by jondrums (BindingFreedom), but if interest was high enough I would consider having a small production run made instead of just making myself several pairs of one-offs. Things get more complex if I try to include the new Fritschi Freeride Pro, which I don't have in hand to reverse-engineer with, so I wasn't planning to include compatibility with this new binding.

Both the Look Axial 2 and FFR+ are reasonably priced and well liked, and I think a lot of my skis would benefit from being able to swap between these two bindings.

Let me know what your thoughts are. As I said, if interest is high enough I will have a small production run made.

[monkeywrenchMoose]

I'm not interested in buying plates but I am interested in where you are getting these kinds of things made. Is it cheap enough to have a plate or two made and only use one pair of bindings?

And are you just using a fabrication shop?

[skis_the_trees]

I have a small machine shop so I can easily (if time consumingly) make plates and prototypes. I've done small production runs for various things on my manual machines as well, but for something like this I would have them made CNC from a friend who is in the business.

[jondrums]

I don't feel like that's going to be a popular combination, but who knows. Good way to find out.

monkeywrench: Probably costs around $400+ for two toe and two heel plates - depending on which shop is doing the quoting. Gotta figure there's lots of design time too - depending on how experienced you are with CAD. It starts to make sense around 5-10 pairs.

[monkeywrenchMoose]

^^^ Thats more like what I figured. Machining aluminum(?), stainless(?) to such specs surely can not be cheap.

[skis_the_trees]

Jondrums: My guess was that the PX/FFR combo wouldn't be super popular, but I figured it was worth a thread to gauge interest - as you know it makes more sense to build many sets vs. several sets. Everyone on TGR wants Dukes, Dynafits, or turntables, of which these plates would fit none. Having made and marketed niche performance products for Porsches in the past, I must say your plates are a very nice product and a great value.

My current plan is to make 4 sets of plates for myself on my manual mill to allow for easy swaps. I also really don't have time to market or sell these commercially because I'd be lucky to break even not counting the time invested. I had considered doing inserts in my skis so that I can move around my FFR+ bindings, but it makes more sense to use a plate and have the ability to run my Axial2 bindings as well if I'm going to be skiing aggressively in-bounds.

Can I ask how much relief you used on the bottom on the plate between the ski and the areas not immediately surrounding the fasteners? Looks to be about .030"? I'm not going to go super crazy with relieving the other areas to save weight as I will be using a manual mill for these and I'm not aggressively concerned with saving the last couple grams. Thanks for any insight you can give.

[altis]

Another way exists.

The Fritschi bindings already have a lot of height so plan to mount those directly on the skis using some type of insert (BindingFreedom, QuiverKiller etc). Then, usig the same hole pattern, make some riser plates for the Looks out of cutting board. You could CNC these but it's a fairly easy job to manufacture these by hand if you're not too worried about appearance. This assumes, of course, that the two sets of holes don't interfere.

[jondrums]

altis-
the only problem with that, is that the mounting pattern for the heel plate of the FR+ has holes which are way back on the ski. Maybe if you add another insert just to help secure the heel-plate better.

yeah- making a few sets on a manual mill sounds ok. But if you're making 4 sets, you're almost in CNC territory. That's 8 toe plates, and 8 heel plates.

I can design and have small runs made pretty easily, and so I _would_ offer to make these for you - BUT I don't own fritschi bindings, so I can't be sure I'd get everything right.

I'm gathering all the requisite bindings to do a FKS/Axial/Dynafit plate now, so if you can wait for that, and can do dynafit - that would be money.

[skis_the_trees]

Altis - that solution isn't the best solution for several reasons. There's the problem jondrums mentions (small mounting area and only 3 screws for the FFR heal unit). I also would not trust cutting board (some type of polymer) as a material, especially when it will be holding on the bindings that will be used most aggressively (larger airs, 720s, 900s). It also doesn't make sense financially, because then it still requires a set on inserts into every set of skis that will be used (16 inserts/ski * 4 sets). While I can easily re-use an aluminum plate on another set of skis when one set is retired, it would be more difficult to salvage binding inserts and it is more labor to install them each time.

Jondrums - I agree 4 sets (16 plates) is treading into CNC territory. But making 4 sets is barely more time than making 1 set! Really it isn't that bad and will almost all be set-up time on the mill. I can drill 4 plates at a time, and I plan to set-up a jig with fixed X and Y clamping points, making it easy to do numerous sets of plates (numerous with regards to personal use). For relief I plan to just mill a large channel completely through longitudinal midline of the plates, so again this can easily be done 4 at a time, and perhaps some smaller linear channels to lighten things up with a ball end mill if I get fancy, but nothing that will require a lot of machine time.

Can you elucidate how much clearance you cut on the bottom of your plates? That is, I'm wondering how high off the ski the plate rides in areas that are not contiguous with mounting screws. I would be very appreciative for this info because while I can just go with a number I think will work fine, there's no reason to reinvent the wheel.

If you want to do a small run of Axial/FFR to have on hand for customers, I can provide you with the requisite information. Your future FKS/Axial/Dynafit plates will probably be wildly popular and for good reason.

[skis_the_trees]

Made 5 sets for myself - 3 are in current use and 2 for future sets of skis. So far so good, just put on my stainless hardware to replace the temporary zinc coated Phillips head bolts.

Overall a time consuming project, but lots of options now for my skis/bindings and it makes picking up new sets of skis easy because I don't need to invest in bindings or decide if I want to use them for touring or aggressive inbounds.

Picks cover the overall build process except mounting to the ski.

[stuckathuntermtn]

I don't see pics.
With what tone capone just described as happening to his knee, I'd almost think a sally/duke or fks/duke plate might be a good idea. Then again, you have solly/fits and you can get boots with interchangeable soles.
Or rossi just needs to hurry up with a touring binding.

[skis_the_trees]

Yes I seem to have trouble with uploading the pictures. They seem to load but do not appear functional after loading. I'll try again tomorrow.

[skis_the_trees]

OK maybe the pictures are working now...