PSA: Mount your own fucking skis.

[Pudge.]

Spent the afternoon lining up some BG's, going to drill and finish later this week

[1000-oaks]

Just finished dropping BF inserts in a pair of 138's, went a lot faster than my first set in Bros a couple years ago. (Nothing like drilling 1/4" holes in brand-new skis, not for the faint of heart.) Bought a scrap of 1.25" acrylic sheet from a local plastics house and made it into a pretty sweet tapping guide. Having your guide 1.5" high ensures perfectly vertical tapped holes.




Super-easy to center on the holes. And the rubber feet get the guide up off the ski so you can watch the depth marks on the tap (and provide clearance for the slight curvature of the topsheet), and gives the chips somewhere to go. I start with a tapered tap to get good solid threads in the top half of the holes (where the binding retention plates are), then knock out the lower wood threads with a bottoming tap. (Don't use a stop collar on a tap, you can tear out your new threads if you hit the collar and keep turning the tap.)

[cowardlyginger]

Just finished dropping BF inserts in a pair of 138's, went a lot faster than my first set in Bros a couple years ago. (Nothing like drilling 1/4" holes in brand-new skis, not for the faint of heart.) Bought a scrap of 1.25" acrylic sheet from a local plastics house and made it into a pretty sweet tapping guide. Having your guide 1.5" high ensures perfectly vertical tapped holes.

I like that guide. Just did a new pair of skis (with inserts) last night and was constantly worried about not getting the tap straight. All came out well (my best insert install to date, easily) but this might be a good thing to have.

Pretty cheap to get that chunk of acrylic?

[Pudge.]

Anything standard I can use to fill old holes and for a new mount? Or do I need to order some specialized epoxy/glue? I am not using inserts, just a regular mount

[dark_star]

Lots and lots and lots already written about this.

[1000-oaks]

Thick acrylic is a lot more expensive than you'd think, but if you can find scraps on eBay or a plastic supply house you could probably get a piece like mine for $10 or $20.

[DRZ1050i]

Thick acrylic is a lot more expensive than you'd think, but if you can find scraps on eBay or a plastic supply house you could probably get a piece like mine for $10 or $20.

Or you could just use a block of wood as a guide.. or go to Home Depot, the plexiglass cutting booth always has lots of scraps that they'll probably give you for free. Glue/ clamp a couple of the 1/4" ones together and you have a block. Chances are the scraps won't be the same size- glue them together using epoxy or summat then cut into whatever pretty shape you want once it's cured.

[Pudge.]

Yuss

[pfluffenmeister]

I just got done mounting SollyFits on MY OWN FUCKIN' SKIS (191 Lhasa Fats to be exact ).

[NoPostholio]

Anyone find a good source for screws with torx head like radicals are mounted with - searched online and came up with only phillips, then went to two stores that specialize in fasteners and they looked at me like I had meteor fragments. They wouldnt even attempt ordering them.

[Ted Striker]

^^^ McMaster-Carr

[davieboot]

Seconded. McMaster has everything.

[skimaxpower]

Anyone find a good source for screws with torx head like radicals are mounted with - searched online and came up with only phillips, then went to two stores that specialize in fasteners and they looked at me like I had meteor fragments. They wouldnt even attempt ordering them.

Torx screws suck for ski bindings. If you're ordering replacement screws, you might as well get posi-drive (ie: phillips) screws like every other ski binding on the market.

[NoPostholio]

I was just reading the Lou D blog about breaking torx - Haven't had any problems yet and prob swapped radicals about half dozen times this year. On the other hand I barely got the posi screws out of my onyx bindings and won't be able to get another use out of them. I have more of a problem with the posi -
Haven't been able to figure out the size or type from that extensive fastener site, bit thanks for that link.


There is not much of a difference btwn the g3 onyx vs dynafit radical screws except 1/8" longer on rear screw for onyx, but basically same screw just with different drive interface - just need to hunt down specs for the size. I think dynafiddle screws might be in four-un units like used in canuckastania

[PlayItLeo]

Don't know if it's been mentioned before, but if your having problems with posidrive screws stripping you can always use a #2 square drive bit to get them in/out. I used to use deckmate screws a lot for work and, though they were a posidrive screw, always used a square bit because they would strip under high torque with the posidrive bit.

[NoPostholio]

^^^never knew that, and just tried it for success on last of the stripped posi

Thanks Leo

[PlayItLeo]

^^^ Nice.

[COBuckeye]

Has anyone tried to install inserts for Duke/Baron/Tour and Radical? Seems like the larger toe pattern of the Radical (as opposed to the Vertical) has some conflicts with the D/B/T. Only way around this that I can see is to mount the D/B/T 0.5cm forward of the Radical.

Any other solutions? Perhaps a different binding that plays better with the Radical hole pattern?

[PlayItLeo]

Looking for some advice from the collective -

I'm about to mount up some 185 praxis pows that I scored in gear swap and, due to some crowding (this will be the third mount) was going to reuse two of the toe piece holes and two of the heel holes, but when I laid it out with my template it appears that the previous mount was off by 4mm from ski to ski. I had planned to put my boot center at 99 from tip, but to get the holes to line up I have to scoot my jig forward 2mm of the line on one ski 2mm back on the other. Basically, if I mount them up equidistant from the tip the holes on one of the skis will end up figure eighting with the old holes. I'm not too worried about the heel holes because I can just mount them in the old holes and slide the heel piece back on the track (right?), but the toe holes are the real issue.

I've read a ton a threads saying pows are really sensitive to mount position so the question is, do I just mount 'em up 4mm off from each other and not sweat it (seems to have been good enough for the previous owner) or would it be better to go with inserts? The previous holes have been filled with epoxy and were for an fks and I'm switching to sallys. Thanks for any input.

[cowardlyginger]

Looking for some advice from the collective -

I'm about to mount up some 185 praxis pows that I scored in gear swap and, due to some crowding (this will be the third mount) was going to reuse two of the toe piece holes and two of the heel holes, but when I laid it out with my template it appears that the previous mount was off by 4mm from ski to ski. I had planned to put my boot center at 99 from tip, but to get the holes to line up I have to scoot my jig forward 2mm of the line on one ski 2mm back on the other. Basically, if I mount them up equidistant from the tip the holes on one of the skis will end up figure eighting with the old holes. I'm not too worried about the heel holes because I can just mount them in the old holes and slide the heel piece back on the track (right?), but the toe holes are the real issue.

I've read a ton a threads saying pows are really sensitive to mount position so the question is, do I just mount 'em up 4mm off from each other and not sweat it (seems to have been good enough for the previous owner) or would it be better to go with inserts? The previous holes have been filled with epoxy and were for an fks and I'm switching to sallys. Thanks for any input.

Are checking the center line as displayed on the graphic or measuring it yourself?

I'd be concerned that the holes might be in the correct place and the graphic on the ski is wrong. That may or may not be giving the previous owner/mounter too much credit. I can't speak to that ski as I don't have any experience with it. Regardless, I always want my mount to be spot on, if only so I don't have to question my gear.

[PlayItLeo]

Are checking the center line as displayed on the graphic or measuring it yourself?

I'd be concerned that the holes might be in the correct place and the graphic on the ski is wrong. That may or may not be giving the previous owner/mounter too much credit. I can't speak to that ski as I don't have any experience with it. Regardless, I always want my mount to be spot on, if only so I don't have to question my gear.

Measured it myself. Straight pull of tape off the tip.

[John_B]

If you are running inserts with Dynafits, it may be a good idea to drill out the threads on the toepiece to make it easier to get the toepiece flush with the ski. First time I mounted my Verticals I thought I had them flush but one side of the toepiece was a millimeter off the topsheet and I barely noticed it.

[Ted Striker]

Never skied the pows, but on a hard snow ski, you'd probably notice a 4mm difference. I say this because I had a pair that was off by 5mm, and on hard snow you could notice that one side was pivot-y-er for lack of a better term. But that was only when you were thinking about it. On a good snow day, it didn't matter.

[shroom]

PM auvgeek

[Shorty_J]

Anything standard I can use to fill old holes and for a new mount? Or do I need to order some specialized epoxy/glue? I am not using inserts, just a regular mount

If you mean plugging holes, I personally use epoxy. YMMV.