Making a Template

[Ed el Loco]

So if I was to make a naxo NX21 plastic template, like the solly one I got from Conundrum last year. Could I just glue or tape the attached paper jig to some plastic that I have scribed a center line on. Line up that with the red line, drill the holes for M on the heel, and toe. Scribe on the green line for 325bsl and line that with the mounting line on the ski and drill away. Right?

[pechelman]

^ yes

i would just double check the heel first though before you drill it on your final plastic jig

i always like to line it up by hand and dbl check it against the paper jig before i drill since there's no adjustment if its off

[Ed el Loco]

Good to know, I have never worked with AT binding before.

[phattypowpow]

There's no beating pechelman's approach if you want to take the high road. However, you can make a paper jig without CAD and get good results. These steps are very similar to pech's but this approach creates two templates, one for the toe and one for the heel piece. Use these steps for each template:

1) Measure the hole pattern very carefully, including distances between diagonal holes.

2) Start your template by drawing the center line (CL) and then drawing a perpendicular line (PL1) on which the front holes will lie.

3) Mark the front holes on PL1 from your measurements in step 1. Double check that each hole is equidistant from the CL and the correct distance from each other

4) Measure the distance between the front and rear sets of holes on the binding (toe or heel). If you put a line through the front holes (PL1) and a line through the rear holes, this distance (L) is distance between these two lines.

5) Measure L from the PL1 along the center line and mark it. Draw a line (PL2) perpendicular to CL through this point.

6) Repeat step 3 for the rear holes on PL2.

7) Make sure that your template has the same measurements as the binding. Using the diagonal distance between holes is a good extra check.

Once you've done this for toe and heel, all you need to do is plate the templates on the center line of the ski. It's fairly easy to place them:

a) Place the binding toe and heel on a table and then put your boot "into" them, just like they were mounted on a ski. As pechelman said, this part can be a little trickier but don't sweat too much since most bindings can adjust for a mm or 2.

b) Measure the distance (DF) from the boot sole center on your boot to the rear holes on the toe. Measure along the surface of the table - it's easy to see the boot midsole mark and the screws hole on the bindings.

c) Do the same for the front holes on the heel.

d) Place your templates on the skis along its center line. Use your measurements from b) and c) to set the placement of each template from the center mark on the ski (or wherever you want to use as a mounting reference point).

e) With each template securely taped, place the bindings on the templates to confirm all the holes match and that it looks like your boot would step in snugly. Once confirmed, remove the bindings and centerpunch each hole.

f) Drill with a 4.1 ski bit, glue, and screw!

Finding the centerline, adjusting forward pressure, and testing the binding release is up to you. If you want to mount this binding for boots of different boot soles, just move the templates by repeating a-f (the easy steps). Rocket science, it is not!

[somegeek]

i dont have any rossi\looks as ive only ever skied or mounted, naxos, fritschis, dynafit, or solly bindings.

to make a jig you need 4 things
a) calipers
b) computer with a cad program and a printer that can do 11x17
c) the bindings in question
d) the boots you want to mount

step 1
carefully measure the binding hole pattern and write it down
remeasure, verify
remeasure, verify
cross check your numbers with metric values by converting them for a sanity check
if its a number that converts to 24.93mm, its probably actually 25mm
see what 25mm is in inches, and double check your measurement to see if its plausible, if its not, stick with what you have

step 2
set your bindings on a table, make sure your heel is centered in its track, and place your boot in them as close as you can to how you think theyd be mounted on a real ski. this part is tricky and very by feel
measure the distance from the toe of your boot to either one of the holes of your toe peice, or something on the toe peice that you can relate to the hole pattern. you're looking to get a relative distance so you know how much to offset the toe on the template.

similarly, take a measurement on the heel to provide a sanity check down the road as well as to provide a relative placement on the template.

step 3
go into cad, draw the toe and heel pattern centered about one long center line
locate the toe\heel patterns relative to one another based off the measurements you took in step 2
double check this with your BSL by drawing a line to verify it fits and is relatively good spot
check your BSL center on the cad and compare it with your setup in step 2. compare it to something like a hole on the toe peice since thats what sets your center and is the more critical of the two peices.

step 4
add in dimensions on your cad, print it off 1:1 scale on an 11x17 paper (everything but the most squatch of sizes should fit fine)
lay out the template, place your bindings on it, and double check that everything lines up, or verify with a jig if you can get access to one like at a ski shop or something.
place your boot in there also, and double check that the BSL line you drew on the CAD in Step 3 matches with the one on your boot. (forget about the heel peice and just set it aside during this step)
I also like to draw a toe line to verify that the boot is correct in its relative position to the toe peice in my cad

step 5
drink some beer because at this point its probably been about an hour if youve done this before, and more like 3-4 if you havent

step 6
go back to your cad model
clean things up
add cross hairs to your circles you drew for the toe\heel pattern
add a BSL line if you havent
add a toe line if you havent
add a heel line if you want
add dimensions on everything of worth (gives a great way to dbl check that the template prints 1:1)
print file to pdf, and save
done

it takes a while, but onec its done, mounting is really easy so long as you follow good shop practice when working with the paper jig. Ive mounted probably about 7-8 dynafits and 6-7 sollys with mine and have had no trouble, and others have used them with similar results. I can layout and drill dynafit mount now in 20 minutes (this is not counting the actual putting in glue, screwing in the bindings, and setting forward position of the heel)

Bump for dopeness... thanks for taking the time to post this.

I mounted my bindings tonight. I fired up Visio and knocked out a template after taking measurements - a back half and front half. I printed out three copies.



I then took a template, binding and boot and got things lined up and temporarily mounted on a board to get my template spacing(front to back) down correctly and to mark the centerline of the boot on my template. Then I took a fresh copy of the template, spaced and marked it according to my working template and mounted my first binding. In comparison to my other ski, the factory mark was off by about 4mm regarding the center for the boot mount. I mounted a new copy of my template on there and drilled and mounted.

I did eff up on the first ski and drilled with a 5/32"(3.96mm) bit instead of a 9/64(3.57mm) - non-metallic top caps. The bolts went in tight but for insurance I pulled them and filled the holes with 30minute epoxy/fiberglass globs and immediately remounted my binding. From reading over on telmarktips(per a hint on this site), epoxy is the biz for maximum pull through strength. I drilled my second ski with the proper 9/64" bit and the screws were a little more snug going in. I just prepped these holes with gorilla glue.

Looking forward to putting some time in on these. My first fatties...



somegeek

[Ed el Loco]

I made a plastic template using the vinyl in this thread:

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...hlight=dynafit

I had to print it on 2 sheets because it's 23 inches and I can only print 18, and line it up by hand. Once I made the template I drilled a junk ski and mounted the binding. Every thing looked good so I drilled glued and screwed the nx21 to my firstbloods.

thanks to corn dog for he skis and rugbydave for the binders, and pechelman for being the mayor of tech talk.

[cinnepa]

anyone have or know where i could get a paper template for a head/tyrolia mojo 15? much appreciated.

[Damon]

Would there be any interest in BSL specific plastic jigs? I've got the rossi/solly/marker jigs, but I'm not sure it's worth my time to make em.

[Rasputin]

My Salomon template is a DR9 suspension plate (I have several), no measuring involved, it can even be adjusted for different boot lengths. Easy as pie.

[krp8128]

My Salomon template is a DR9 suspension plate (I have several), no measuring involved, it can even be adjusted for different boot lengths. Easy as pie.

Shit.

I just gave one of those away....

[cinnepa]

tyrolia?.....head?........anyone?