PSA: Mount your own fucking skis.

[Knut]

Worked with an engineer friend today who was mounting his first pair of Dynafit bindings. After deciding not to buy a jig and that he didn't trust a shop, he came up with a pretty clever solution. He attached the bindings onto his boots, as they would be while mounted, and then scanned the whole thing with the boot sitting up on a flatbed scanner. He analyzed the image, finding the distances between the holes using software, and also the distance between the heel and toe holes, thereby generating XY coordinates for all the holes relative to the center line of the ski. He then put a ski bit in a CNC mill, found the center line using a feature of the mill, punched in the coordinates, and boom, done, perfect mount, didn't need to adjust anything.

I heard that all happened while I was doing this:


followed by this:


and when the CNC mill was finishing its magic I was probably joining this:

[tuco]

No, but do you think your buddy can come up with an algorithm for a more technical, yet less efficient, way to wipe my ass

[skifishbum]

i wanna know how long it took
then i wanna see some viddie of the rocket scientist skiing
cause if i spent the past couple decades huffin ptex and performing carpal tunnel building menial ski tech tasks
and your bro slays the sickgnars pow better than i
i'm gonna be furious

[SB]

The important thing here is how many beers did he drink?

With so much automation he should be consuming a 6 pack minimum per ski.

[skifishbum]

i doubt the marker cats read this drival
but fkna that is the shop manual other binding makers should strive to emulate

[HHTELE]

Just mounted 2 pair of Speed Radicals. Mounted them on early season beater skis, gonna move them to nice skis when it snows.

I have an older jig, which is awesome for the rear holes, and two of the front holes. I used it for the rear holes on the front binding. It's an old jig with some play, but this lined up the bindings perfectly.

What's the best way to use the binding as a jig? I eyeballed center, and it worked pretty well, but not perfect. Still required some monkeying around to keep binding centered.

When I move these, it will be to a brand new pair of Carbon Converts that I may want to insert, so I want the holes perfect (ish).

Got to be some way to center the hole exactly.
Any thoughts?

[skifishbum]

them front holes are 4cm apart on the radicals but the same width if ya got 2 holes right getting 2 more on a single plane shouldn't be tthat hard
jigs w/ play in em are gonna require measure twice drill once or a template w/ no play in it
calipers are a great measuring tools for mounting
as are new jigs

[YoEddy]

i doubt the marker cats read this drival
but fkna that is the shop manual other binding makers should strive to emulate

Gotta love those German engineers ... not so much with those damn French ones.

[skifishbum]

it's funny cause they seem to have a hell of a time including and keeping all the screws in the binding box
but at least i now what screw shoulda been there and ordering is easier

[Timberridge]

What's the best way to use the binding as a jig?

Get some transparency sheets. Put the binding on top. Mark the holes. Draw a centerline on the sheet, then line it up with the centerline on the ski. Punch the topsheet. Recheck before drilling.

[Shorty_J]

Get some transparency sheets. Put the binding on top. Mark the holes. Draw a centerline on the sheet, then line it up with the centerline on the ski. Punch the topsheet. Recheck before drilling.

This.

I bought a sheet of lexan that I cut into ski width strips and do the same thing when I remove a binding.

[dschane]

Or photocopy the binding and use as a paper template.

[Shorty_J]

Or photocopy the binding and use as a paper template.

That won't help you align the bindings front to back or left to right.

With the lexan or transparency option, you remove the binding, measure and mark the centre line on the ski and the boot centre, and then mark those lines on the transparency/lexan along with the location of the holes.

Boom... home-made template for your BSL.

[Timberridge]

Yeah the plastic sheet is more reusable--each time I do a mount I save it in a folder--vs. paper which is usually one and done. Use a small punch to mark the topsheet thru the plastic and the hole stays small.

The other nice thing in addition to being easier than paper to match to a center line or the 0 mark as Shorty stated, is that if you have holes from previous mounts it's easy to see issues and shift the template around before you punch the topsheet.

After trying a few different ways, its my preferred way to mount bindings freehand.

[dschane]

Right, now that I've had my fifth cup of coffee, I revise my answer -- photocopying is stupid, Just print out the paper template. If you put that on a transparency, I think you'd have the best option.

[auxym]

I would've mounted my new skis, but, where do you guys get your hands on those stepped drill bits?

[zeroforhire]

I would've mounted my new skis, but, where do you guys get your hands on those stepped drill bits?

Got mine at tognar

[Lambert]

I'm going to mount some inserts next week. Last year I made a jig for my Plum Yaks. After removing them today I noticed that a screw in the heel was slightly off centre. If I drill the wider hole for the insert and accept the slight offset do I have a problem with the inserts and new screws? Or should I try and move the drill a bit and try to get it perfect?

[Shorty_J]

I'm going to mount some inserts next week. Last year I made a jig for my Plum Yaks. After removing them today I noticed that a screw in the heel was slightly off centre. If I drill the wider hole for the insert and accept the slight offset do I have a problem with the inserts and new screws? Or should I try and move the drill a bit and try to get it perfect?

If the screw was off centre on the original mount and you didn't notice any problems, you still won't when you put an insert in there.

And it's pretty tough to get a new hole to not be centred in the same place as the original smaller hole.

[YoEddy]

I would've mounted my new skis, but, where do you guys get your hands on those stepped drill bits?

Tognar as mentioned is good. I get mine at Artechski.com - great family owned bidness. I also use SVST.com, which has a lot of really good tools, but you need to open an account.

I have it bookmarked, but have yet to use slidewright.com that appears to have a good offering as well.

[dschane]

I would've mounted my new skis, but, where do you guys get your hands on those stepped drill bits?

And this dude gives deals to TGR folk and posts good info. here:

http://www.slidewright.com/alpine-bi...drill-bits.php

[SB]

Terry @ slidewright is awesome mag.

[skifishbum]

if ya just need one bit and aint anal about it being brand new i got a bunch all sizes
i mounted 270sumhin silverttas for our local special forces national guard and still have a few transparent sticky templates they aint real wide but wide enough for whole patterns and have a centerline marks on both dimensions if anyone would want em.
other than that i managed to drill through crazy georges beater iclantics removing a plastic plug to remount in old holes
good thing were tight
he got a free nuggie from the shop
and i owes him one of mine first time i stop in fogaritaville

[auxym]

Woo, thanks all for the info, easier to find than I thought. I ended up getting this pair mounted, but will def do it myself next time.

[vostok4]

Just did my first mount, Tyrolia Adrenalins onto High Society FRs, followed lots of advice here, bought some scrap wood and mounted on the scrap first, I didn't use paper templates but a wax paper template that came with the bindings. Test mount = perfect. Real mount = toe piece went about 1mm too close to heel piece, as the walk/ski "hooks" at the heel don't allow the binding to freely release up and down (and I guess the coverage isn't that much when its locked, but I don't see that being a problem).

Need to dremel off a bit of the plastic to get them to move, only about 1mm and that's not plastic that faces the locking edge. Kind of sucks, but gotta screw up to learn I guess. I wonder if the wax paper shrunk (was about 6*C when I was drilling outside), since both mounts are exactly the same amount too close...

Anyways, thanks for all the info in the thread!