Tutorial: Make your Own Ascension Wide Tip Loops

[bio-smear]

Ok, granted, there are other things that our valuable time could be better dedicated to in an effort to save money on gear, but this is how I saved $13 less tax on some 90mm tip loops for my Ascension 110mm skins that came with tiny tip loops.

Some initial fumbling told me that the small tip loops that come with the 110mm skins would work on my Karhu Jaks, but they wouldn't be ideal and I'd likely be cursing them at some point while out in the BC. Hell, I may be cursing these hackjobs at some point if they explode on the skin track. The Black Diamond versions were $8 ay Reno Mountain Sports, but they didn't have them in stock. Plus, I needed an easy project to boost my self-esteem. If you care, and like stupid little projects, you can waste an hour on this one like I did.

I built 4, since I bear the burden of acquiring gear x2 for the woman. This is a recipe for a pair.

Materials:
-Roughly 2 feet of 3/32" steel cable (Lowes) = $.26/ft

-2 12" long pieces of 5/32" thinwall aluminum tubing = $.55 per length (This I could not find at Lowes, had to go to a Hobby/Model store)

-6" of 5/32" vinyl tubing

-Waterproof 2-part epoxy (Lowes, I bought Loctite brand, JB Weld works too)

Tools
-Heavy dikes, the non-shearing kind. Cutting the cable gets ugly with shear-style dikes.

-Small tubing cutter, the clamp style one that you spin around the tube.

-Needlenose pliers

Procedure
Well, if it's not obvious, you cut the pieces to length, dip the ends of the cable in epoxy, and assemble.

Cut 2 pieces of tubing to 9 cm ea
Cut 2 pieces of tubing to 7.3 cm ea
Cut 4 pieces of vinyl tubing to 3.5 cm ea
Cut 2 pieces of cable to 23.6 cm long

Mix a pool of epoxy and dip one end of a cable length in, roll it around so the epoxy covers about 3 cm of the end. Pull the unepoxied end of cable through the 9 cm length of aluminum tubing until the epoxied end terminates halfway into the tubing, slide on a piece of vinyl tubing, slide on the 7.3 cm length of aluminum, then the next piece of vinyl, snug them up to each other but not too much. Note the exposed cable in the photo on the corners. Finally dip the end of the cable in epoxy as you did the first end, and insert into the receiving end of the 9 cm piece, completing the loop. Snug it all up, wipe off the epoxy mess. Use some needlenose pliers to make some crimps near the ends of the 9cm tubing to keep it from slipping, the epoxy also helps this.

Use the epoxy liberally. Black Diamond does a nice swage of their aluminum tube, but I don't have a swage tool, so I had to improvise. That means epoxy.

[Conundrum]

Bump for a good looking job

[GapersGoHome]

I love buying materials for 2 bucks... and then spending 40 on tools... I wouldn't have it any other way; that satisfaction that you made something that looks good and works is priceless!

[soul_skier]

thats really clean, my custom tip loops are simply wire with duct tape wrapped around them

[vanisle]

Very nicely done,I love that kind of shit...id make my own skins if i thought there was a way.

[truth]

GT40 and I found an even easier way to do this that only requires an additional piece of wire, a vise and wire cutters. Basically we cut the wire as close to the end of the shorter AL tube. Since that tube is not crimped it slides right off. Next we cut each end of the wire to be an even length on either end of the longer, crimped AL tube. Using a hacksaw we cut the now removed piece of AL tube in half. Each of these halves is then used as a crimp to splice in an additional length of wire to get the size right for your tip.

[Goatboy]

Spokes or similar steel objects bent into rectangles of desired dimensions always worked ok.

Anyhow, that's some really nice work there!!

[bio-smear]

I'm thinking that the classic BD tip loop design is just not the optimum for square tipped skis. Doesn't using the Clipfix hardware require you to puncture the skin to attach it? I can see myself potentially using the same pair of skins on 2 different skis-- a conventional rounded tip that uses the BD style loop shown above, and then a hook-type for square tips. This is important considering that Moment may sweep the skiing universe with their steeze.

I'm thinking instead of a tip "loop," using a tip "cap." I'll see what I can come up with. This really is probably the most fruitless endeavor of recent times, but I enjoy it.

[sock_monkey]

my wide loops are a metal hanger cut into two pieces, twisted into loops and covered in tape. can't get any cheaper (cost and time) but it ain't near as perty as those.

nice work.

[Amphibious1]

that's great work! My 110 assensions came with ultra small tip loops (probably why they were on SAC) I just popped into BD repairs and they had a set of the larger ones in the drawer with all their pens and such. Kinda random, but, they were great. No charge.

[birdboatboy]

Bump for a sweet looking job. I'm going to embark on my own project. The cable I found at Home Depot (would've rather gone to Menard's) already had the vinyl coating on it and was still only $0.26 per foot. I'll try and post back with pics. Thanks for the inspiration.

[Kski]

Nice work on the custom tip loops, but I think you are working a bit too hard.

I make mine out of 1/8 inch stainless steel rod. You can buy a 3 foot section of SS rod for around $8 or less at the Hardware store, and can easily make several pairs of tip loops from that $8 investment.

I start by holding the rod up to the tip of the ski to determine the approx length of SS rod that I will need. Then I cut 2 lengths from my 3 foot SS rod.

Hold the cut length of rod centered up to your ski tip, and decide where you would like it to rest on the shovel. Mark each side of the rod with a sharpie (this is where you will bend the SS rod)

Put in a small vise and make the bends... I usually use a pair of big pliers or a small hammer to pound the rod around the vise jaws and create my bends. With this method you are not really creating a closed loop, but just bending the ends around to create a flattened out C shape. I usually file the cut ends of the rod a little so they wont scratch up my top sheets. The end result is a super-bomber tip loop.

Done... should take all of about 3-5 minutes per tip loop to make. I will post some pictures up tonight if I get a chance.

[lemon boy]

two words:
accessory
cord

[pechelman]

two more words
coat
hanger

i suppose if you were tricky like that, you could also run the coat hanger through the middle of the accessory cord and make it stiffer and hold its shape...not that it would matter

but yea, i like simple solutions

[bio-smear]

When I get a chance, I'll edit the OP to just feature some coat hanger pretzel work, or maybe just a photo of a roll of duct tape.

[birdboatboy]

Yes yes, it is overkill to try and re-create the BD tip loop. I do like the idea of the SS rod bent into a C. Either way, it is always fun to make something that is both functional and looks good...not to knock the coat hanger or accessory cord.

That said, here are the ones I just made tonight. Same as bio-smear's first post except I went for a square form factor with 8 cm long tubing on both sides and then 3.8 cm of plastic tubing in between. Seems to fit the blunt tip of my Madtrix Mojo's pretty well.

Also, I used galvanized cable with the coating already on it. This made the cuts much easier allowing me to use a simple side cutter, but forced me to have a joint underneath both pieces of tubing. Shouldn't be a problem with the amount JB Weld I used.