Easy way to bend Rossi Axial / Look P12 brakes for wide skis.

**1000-oaks** · 04-20-2007, 03:10 PM

Rebending Rossi Axial / Look P-series brakes for wide skis is a real bitch, which is probably why a lot of guys go with Salomon for fat skis. Bending Rossi brakes can actually be pretty easy though, IF you heat the bends to red hot first. I used a Bernzomatic MAPP gas hand torch ($30 at hardware store, a regular propane pencil torch would probably work fine too), one leather glove, a file, a crescent wrench, and a spray bottle of water. Took about an hour and a half to do both bindings. I modified a pair of 100mm Rossi wide-brakes to fit 130mm Pontoon waists, but this technique could probably be used to widen the standard brake for mid-fat skis - saving you $45 for wide brakes.

- Clip off plastic cover where brake arms enter assembly. (you don't need it, and it'll melt anyway)
- Put first brake arm in vise vertically, preferably with bend at 90 degrees to vise so it doesn't slip when you put pressure on it.
- Heat original bend until cherry red, then slowly rotate assembly upward until arm is straight. Note that you can control where the rod is bending by where you move the heat / cherry spot. Only do one arm.
- Remove from vise and mist promptly with water spray bottle to cool everything (water spray is kinder to the metal than submerging in water), especially the plastic ends on the arms that are about to melt off.
- Hold brake assembly over ski and mark where the outside center of the new bend needs to be by making a little groove with the edge of a file. (so you can still see the mark when it's red-hot)
- Put arm back in vise, position so that the opposite arm is perpendicular to the vise. (so the arm you're working on doesn't slip when you're making the new bend, and so the new arm is parallel with the other arm)
- Heat area to be bent to cherry red, and slowly bend it to 90 degrees. (Cherry a small area for a tight bend, cherry a larger area for a larger radius bend. The vise will suck heat away from the area, so don't try to make your bend right at the vise, make it about 3/16" above.)
- Remove and cool arm and test fit on ski. If you didn't get it right and need to move the bend in or out, it's pretty easy to heat and straighten the arm again, let it air-cool for several seconds to lose the cherry red (no water needed), then move the heat up or down a bit to where the bend actually needs to be.
- Do other side the same way.

I still had to do some minor adjusting afterwards, so I put the brake in the vise and bent as needed using the crescent wrench. (Also used the hole in end of wrench over each arm so that I could use the wrench as a lever.) Overall I say it came out great; the super-wide brakes work bitchin', and almost look factory.

Keywords for searching: Axial Axial2 Look P10 P12 P14 Rossignol Rossi Power wide brake

**Captain Sensible** · 04-21-2007, 03:30 PM

can any enjinerds comment on potential metal fatigue (or other weakening) with this method?

**marshalolson** · 04-21-2007, 06:22 PM

FYI bending look/rossi axial/pivot type brakes is not hard at all. you don not need to do any of that, just bend them with a bar straight out, and then bend them around the ski. super easy.

i put some super skinny axials on a set of blowers (110) with no trouble what-so-ever.

**setjo** · 04-22-2007, 01:13 AM

someone with materials experience would be best to comment...

Not sure what the brakes are made from but if the metal is tempered/heat treated you fuck that up when you heat it and therefore reduce its strength.

**1000-oaks** · 04-22-2007, 06:31 PM

It's just a ski brake, doesn't have to be very strong. One ski doesn't weigh much. I'll bet you could hang well over 500 lbs from the arm I normalized (removed the temper, if there was one). The rods are almost 1/4" in diameter. I'd have no problem hanging my body weight from it.

And even if the rod is tempered, the only part of the rod that needs to have spring steel behavior is under the heel, which isn't affected by heating out on the arms. Removing a temper affects only the metal's "springiness" or its hardness, which makes it easier to bend but doesn't affect the tensile strength a whole heck of a lot. In fact, drag racing ring and pinion are intentionally "soft" so that they can take high impact loading without shattering.

**birdboatboy** · 04-22-2007, 08:21 PM

I like the MAPP torch idea overall, but can attest to the just bend it with a bar method as well. Worked for me so far.

Originally Posted by marshalolson

FYI bending look/rossi axial/pivot type brakes is not hard at all. you don not need to do any of that, just bend them with a bar straight out, and then bend them around the ski. super easy.

i put some super skinny axials on a set of blowers (110) with no trouble what-so-ever.

**1000-oaks** · 12-21-2007, 04:19 PM

I got lazy and tried to bend a regular Rossi Axial 2 brake the other day without heating with a torch first; SNAP. Barely bent at all before it broke.

Rossi must heat treat the rod after they bend it, re-heating it takes the temper out and softens it. (which is fine, it doesn't need to be that stiff anyhow)

**Tye 1on** · 12-21-2007, 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by 1000-oaks

I got lazy and tried to bend a regular Rossi Axial 2 brake the other day without heating with a torch first; SNAP. Barely bent at all before it broke.

Rossi must heat treat the rod after they bend it, re-heating it takes the temper out and softens it. (which is fine, it doesn't need to be that stiff anyhow)

that woulda pissed me off a bit. May have some rossi scratch 14 w/gotama-width brakes, with one fkd up toepiece, up on the auction block in a week or so. PM if interested...

**skideeppow** · 12-25-2007, 07:04 PM

i am pretty sure this does not work for 10-18 race springs. There is a sick thread here that shows how to do these step by step with pics.
I AM talking the old school rotomat heels

**pea tear griffen** · 12-25-2007, 11:36 PM

what about 06 look px12's? the brakes look a little beefy to just bend with the metal bar method, but if anyone else had luck with that it would save me a lot of work heating it and crap.

**1000-oaks** · 12-26-2007, 12:44 AM

Originally Posted by Tye 1on

that woulda pissed me off a bit. May have some rossi scratch 14 w/gotama-width brakes, with one fkd up toepiece, up on the auction block in a week or so. PM if interested...

Thanks for the offer but I was just goofing around with a pair of narrow brakes, seeing if I could bend them to fit my 85mm rock skis instead of using the pair of wide brakes I got from REI. No big loss.

**1000-oaks** · 12-26-2007, 12:46 AM

Originally Posted by pea tear griffen

what about 06 look px12's? the brakes look a little beefy to just bend with the metal bar method, but if anyone else had luck with that it would save me a lot of work heating it and crap.

I wouldn't try it without heat, that's the same binding as the Rossi Axial2 brake I snapped.

**iscariot** · 03-27-2008, 02:13 PM

I have these bindings and am mounting them on K2 Hellbents (127mm underfoot).

I'm wondering if these brake arms need to be heated before bending? (ie. do I need to remove the temper so I do not snap the brake)
I think they are an 04/05 model binding.

Additionally, they have a 90mm brake. Should I try to bend that around the Hellbents or should I use a 100mm brake?

**CDubz** · 03-27-2008, 04:52 PM

I've used marshalolson's technique to bend numerous look/rossi bindings without a problem. Just slide a pole over the brake arm for leverage bend it out, then bend it down. I just did this with a set of 80mm arms and bent them easily to fit some LP's. Granted those only needed to be bent an additional 17mm and yours need to be 37mm. If you have enough brake arm to work with I don't think it should be a problem though.

**thommy21** · 03-27-2008, 05:36 PM

I've bent 4-5 sets of these and have yet to snap one. The 80's can be bent to fit a Praxis size ski. I don't do the bend around the ski method though. It doesn't seem to get them quite right and can ding the side walls. I take them off and bend them in a vice with a straight mtb handlebar.

**iscariot** · 03-27-2008, 06:12 PM

Alright, I will try the non-heating, just-bending scenario first.

If it snaps I'll have to buy powder straps or something because I don't have a replacement brake.

**thommy21** · 03-27-2008, 06:28 PM

If you do (I don't thik you will) I have some extra skinnys laying around I can sent to you.

**iscariot** · 03-27-2008, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by thommy21

If you do (I don't thik you will) I have some extra skinnys laying around I can sent to you.

Sweet, thanks. I'll let you know how it goes.

**CO_Hokie** · 11-09-2010, 10:09 PM

Originally Posted by Captain Sensible

can any enjinerds comment on potential metal fatigue (or other weakening) with this method?

Heating metal will always change up the material's properties. Heating up the brakes will temper them (i.e. tempered steel) which makes it more brittle but for the purposes of ski brakes there is no real effect. If you don't heat them you fatigue them also (think of bending a soda can top over and over until it brakes) though again doing this one (or even 2-3 times) will have almost no real effect on the metal. Bottom line, bending brakes is fine and if the brakes do fail (slim to none chance)- buy new brakes- you would have had to anyway.