PSA: Mount your own fucking skis.

[FrankZappa]

Well the "hammer-drill" worked except on one. I have a stripped screw head and that thing has to come out. Suggestions?

Hammer a reground tip in.
Try spin the binding combined with the driver.
Try hammering in next size up - possibly T20-plus, an allen hex maybe or T25
Drill the head out

[Bird Blaster]

Thanks. I have a T-25 I may try.

How do I drill a head out? Drill until I can get the head to pop off?

[FrankZappa]

I don't have a T-25 here to measure, but when I measure over (would be flats on a hex) the ones I have they seem to jump about .020-.025" per size jump: T8 - T10 - T15 - T20. So maybe a T25 does that too. If so, might not be out of the question to mash it in there.

If you drill the head, go up to about the tap drill size. I assume that to be about a 4mm drill. Maybe a little more if needed. Just do the head so you have something left to grab with some vise-grips to get the screw out.

Screws are probably stainless so if you're just using a high speed steel drill it'll probably get beat/worn easy. If you've got a drill with cobalt in it that'll hold up much better.

[Bird Blaster]

Great. Thanks for the tips! I will try when I get home

[Bird Blaster]

Great. Thanks for the tips! Worked. Had to drill the head off though.

[bern43]

some 'Deep' Thoughts (apologies to JH):

-how do the plates look when placed over the holes?

-To 'move' a mark, stick an awl at angle into the mark in the direction you want to move. Then raise it to vertical while applying force.

-Alpine screw mounts are more forgiving than insert mounts and there could easily be over a 1/2mm movement when installing the screw in the ski.

-if you are confident that only one is off, you can try installing the binding/plate with the correct screw locations and use the binding to 'right' the off screw.

The plates look ok when placed over the holes. The hole pattern matches the up with the tiny divots. But it's really hard to eyeball if it's exactly spot on. Think I'll try moving the divots in the right direction and remeasure.

[TransplantedFromRMNP]

i fucked up my mount! got some freeride pluses from splat and put them on my 189cm icelantic keepers last night. i had 7tm tours on the skis previously and the mount was on the B tele pin line marked on the ski. this mount always seemed pretty far back to me, which i didnt like. i had had a few drinks and i somehow mounted the freerides boot center 7cm forward from the BC line! measure twice, drill once! i skied them all day today and then realized my error. however for comparison, all last winter i skied OG surface live lifes mounted on the NEW line (essentially cord center) and liked the feel of the more center mount on those skis. i'd like to have a more forward mount on the keepers, but not +7! i am not sure what to do. maybe remount the freerides half way between the CC and BC lines or +4.5cm BC
holy swiss cheese!
FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKING JONG

[Liveezy]

I have mounted a few sets myself. It's easy with a template.

[Alpinord]

i fucked up my mount! got some freeride pluses from splat and put them on my 189cm icelantic keepers last night. i had 7tm tours on the skis previously and the mount was on the B tele pin line marked on the ski. this mount always seemed pretty far back to me, which i didnt like. i had had a few drinks and i somehow mounted the freerides boot center 7cm forward from the BC line! measure twice, drill once! i skied them all day today and then realized my error. however for comparison, all last winter i skied OG surface live lifes mounted on the NEW line (essentially cord center) and liked the feel of the more center mount on those skis. i'd like to have a more forward mount on the keepers, but not +7! i am not sure what to do. maybe remount the freerides half way between the CC and BC lines or +4.5cm BC
holy swiss cheese!
FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKING JONG

I mounted my Keepers on the BC line and really enjoyed what they could on one powder day so far. A demo pair I tried in a variety of conditions were also mounted on the BC line (I think) and I loved 'em, so I bought a pair. With the long rocker, I'd personally be hesitant to go too far forward. YMMV.

One thing about using inserts is that you can set up a couple mounting locations for different conditions or purposes.

[Wild4umlauts]

Here's a sketch of what I'm talking about. Obviously, the arcs I drew for the edge radius is very exaggerated, but you should be able to get the point.

In this case the scribe lines actually intersect - so you can connect the intersection points and get the actual center line (shown in red.)

Depending how you set up your scribe, it's also possible that the two scribe lines don't intersect. If they're close enough you can simply find the middle of the "gap" between the two for the center line, or readjust the scribe and do it again so they do intersect.

Just wanted to pass along my thanks for this method. Used it on 2 sets of skis over the past couple days and it's the best method I've tried so far. It's quick and accurate. What I did to "improve" it a bit was to drill a very small hole through the steel straight edge of my combo square (at about the 5" mark). The hole is only large enough for the tip of a ball point pen to barely stick through. Then I adjust the distance of the hole from the combo square's angle edge so that the hole will definitely pass over the center of the ski as you draw the arc. Lay a piece of blue tape down the center of the ski and then use the pen to draw 2 arcs from each side of the ski. Totally money - no more wondering if I've got center marked perfectly.

[Kim Jong-un]

Just wanted to pass along my thanks for this method. Used it on 2 sets of skis over the past couple days and it's the best method I've tried so far. It's quick and accurate. What I did to "improve" it a bit was to drill a very small hole through the steel straight edge of my combo square (at about the 5" mark). The hole is only large enough for the tip of a ball point pen to barely stick through. Then I adjust the distance of the hole from the combo square's angle edge so that the hole will definitely pass over the center of the ski as you draw the arc. Lay a piece of blue tape down the center of the ski and then use the pen to draw 2 arcs from each side of the ski. Totally money - no more wondering if I've got center marked perfectly.

Agreed. I will add, that I've found that you get good accuracy if you do the line crosses
~ 18"-24" apart--depends on the straightedge length you use--and then double check along that length with a couple other line crosses. If you do this, or mount a bunch of different width skis, your combo square will look like swiss cheese with all the holes you drill in it. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, one of these little mini squares with precision holes can be had for not much more than the cost of a cheap square. Something like this:

http://www.woodpeck.com/saddletsquares.html

or this

http://www.amazon.com/INCRA-TINYT03-...ref=pd_cp_hi_2

Edit: I'll add that I have the second one, but the first one looks like it might be a better tool for skis as its one solid piece and likely extends down farther for thick core skis. It's machined out of solid aluminum, but if Terry could get some similar plastic ones made up and sell them for <$20 each I think we'd have a killer centerline finder

[Alpinord]

How about something like this:



I may have mentioned this before, but if you do not have a long straight edge you can use a 2mm or so cord/string to check alignment. By either taping the ends or simply holding it with arms outstretched over mark farther apart you can easily double check your marking.

[Kim Jong-un]

How about something like this:

I find it more cumbersome and less monkey proof than scribing the arcs because unlike a jig that moves the guides in equal increments, you have to reset those brass guides to get a second mark on a different section of the ski...or no?

[Alpinord]

I find it more cumbersome and less monkey proof than scribing the arcs because unlike a jig that moves the guides in equal increments, you have to reset those brass guides to get a second mark on a different section of the ski...or no?

You can move the locks or you simply move the guide down the ski until it hits the same width of the skis again, mark and then connect the dots. Brainless, simple and quick. (You need to be reasonably square to the centerline, however.)

I'm thinking wood versus plastic.

[FrankZappa]

Then there's the "paper trick" for finding center quickly, easily & with minimal fiddly-FKNAround

[The SMP]

Then there's the "paper trick" for finding center quickly, easily & with minimal fiddly-FKNAround

I did this method on my last mount. It worked great. I made marks closer to the tips and tails to minimize any errors. Then I connected with my 48" straight edge. No measuring, no arcs. Done and done.

[Wild4umlauts]

Then there's the "paper trick" for finding center quickly, easily & with minimal fiddly-FKNAround

This isn't as accurate as scribing arcs. The "paper trick" doesn't guarantee that you're square to the center line of the ski. The beauty of the scribed arcs method is that there's very little room to screw it up. I triple checked what the scribed arcs found as the center line with every other method I'm aware of and it clearly was the most accurate while also being the fastest.

My combo square has an adjustable ruler so I only had to drill one hole that will work with every width ski. No Swiss cheese situation here.

[Core Shot]

I do it simpler these days.

Run masking tape down the middle.

Put a speed square on one side and mark the eighth inch nearest the centerline (e.g. 1 and 7/8" )
Then flip the square over to the other side of the ski and mark the same distance.

Use your eyeballs to split the difference and find the true center.

Do this in three or four locations and use a straightedge to connect the dots down the centerline.

Centering tools are cool but this works quite well.

[iscariot]

I do it simpler these days.

Run masking tape down the middle.

Put a speed square on one side and mark the eighth inch nearest the centerline (e.g. 1 and 7/8" )
Then flip the square over to the other side of the ski and mark the same distance.

Use your eyeballs to split the difference and find the true center.

Do this in three or four locations and use a straightedge to connect the dots down the centerline.

Centering tools are cool but this works quite well.

Yep. This is what I do...minus the masking tape.

[mtaylor]

I thought that getting my skis drilled at a shop, and screwing down the bindings myself would be a good idea. Now I have a crooked dynafit toe. I'm sure they'll re do it for me, but I would rather fix it myself at this point.

[alkos]

I thought that getting my skis drilled at a shop, and screwing down the bindings myself would be a good idea. Now I have a crooked dynafit toe. I'm sure they'll re do it for me, but I would rather fix it myself at this point.

How crooked are they? If they're just a bit off you should be fine:

1. Back off the screws
2. Insert boot into both toe and heel pieces
3. Does the boot fit? If so, tighten the front 2 screws on the toe, and any screws on the heel that you can access.
4. Remove boot, tighten remaining screws.
5. Go skiing.
6. Next time, mount your own fucking skis (see this thread)

[mtaylor]

5mm off crooked. The skis already have a bunch of holes in them, so I filled the old holes with epoxy/steel wool and I am going to correct it with inserts. Lining it up with paper, it should work.

I did that by the way. Then I tried to ski them without repairing it, and got 2 turn in before a toe release. I got to the parking lot with the toes locked.

[DRZ1050i]

Mounted my Candide Pows last night with the help of Jondrum's templates. Mounted the bindings to a scrap piece of wood first to use as a sanity check, everything was gravy. Thought I might have to buy new brakes for them, but was able to bend the stock 97mm (Deadbolt/ Tyrolia 15) ones to fit.


Had all kinds of a hard time finding a #3 Pozidriv, ends up a #2 Robertson (square) also fits, and works better than a Phillips.

[davieboot]

Had all kinds of a hard time finding a #3 Pozidriv, ends up a #2 Robertson (square) also fits, and works better than a Phillips.

I hate to repeat stuff that is a simple search away (probably within this exact thread), but hell with it. It has been said here many times before, but http://www.wihatools.com/indexes/indxpozi.htm is a good source for your pozidriv stuff. For more ski specific tools, Slide Wright has what you need.

[DRZ1050i]

I hate to repeat stuff that is a simple search away (probably within this exact thread), but hell with it. It has been said here many times before, but http://www.wihatools.com/indexes/indxpozi.htm is a good source for your pozidriv stuff. For more ski specific tools, Slide Wright has what you need.

Thanks, but I meant had a hard time finding one locally. Harbor Freight, Tractor Supply, True Value, etc all had nothing. Of course teh interwebz has everything. Didn't feel like waiting for it to ship, so went looking around the local stores.