3d printed mounting jig

[oldirty]

Edit: printable files now available here: https://skijig.com

For those who like to mount their own f***ing skis...but hate paper templates...

I wanted to share a project I've been working on the past few weeks to build a 3d printable ski mounting jig. I've never been super happy using paper templates for mounting my skis. It's not difficult, but my abilities to find center consistently have never made the engineer in me happy. It always seems for me that I spend 90% of the time it takes for the mount finding the damn center line, and in the end always feel like I'm a few mm off.

Here are design requirements:
- Self-aligning around ski center line
- Interchangable mounting patterns (like jiggarex)
- Ability to set BSL (240-360mm)
- Be mostly 3d printable with the exception of a few pieces of hardware

Basically the design uses a right-hand and left-hand 1/4-20 screw, coupled togther, to move the jaw pieces in and out at the same rate. This self-aligns the jig to center. Jaw opening range is ~66mm - 146mm. The rails are 1" x 1/8" aluminum flat bar. This provides rigidity to the jig and gives a surface to 'slide' the toe and heel patterns on. The toe and heel patterns get locked in with a set-screw.

I figured there might be a few mags that have (or have access to) a 3d printer. I hope to make the files/bom open for download so anyone can download them and make one of these things. I will put the files on thingiverse once I've tested it out. Also, I hope that with making the design 'open', others can make improvements or add to the available binding patterns as new ones become available.

Any feedback is gladly accepted. I want to make mouting with a jig more accessible.

I've got the 3d model complete and have started printed pieces. Here's some pics (pattern is for look pivot @360 bsl max):

Attachment 302881

[CHAIR_97]

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[ACH]

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[thefortrees]

Hell yeah! Great idea mang

[PeachesNCream]

Beautiful. Are you thinking of this just for personal/mag use or maybe turning it into a little side business like B & D? Any idea on what it would cost to make?

Great design. Looks like the blue and grey parts would be universal and then you could buy the red parts for specific bindings? The only issue I'm wondering about is if it's all hard plastic, would the jig have a tendency to slide? I'm thinking something as simple as a built in C-clamp or bar clamp with rubber stoppers could do the trick.

I haven't used a real jig before (just paper templates) but how is the hole depth determined. I've just always used the ski bit with a stopper on it.

Mounted a pair of bindings this weekend with a paper template and probably spent 15 minutes just aligning the template. The engineer in me feels your pain as well.

[Eluder]

Looks like a fun project.

Anything to prevent the bit from eating the drill bit guides?

How do you determine proper BSL?

[ACH]

Anything to prevent the bit from eating the drill bit guides?

https://www.mcmaster.com/drill-jig-bushings

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Nice work. Another worthy project would be 3D printable binding shims, especially if it could be done for under $20 a pair. I have no idea what the price of printing with ABS/Nylon/HDPE would be.

[oldirty]

Beautiful. Are you thinking of this just for personal/mag use or maybe turning it into a little side business like B & D? Any idea on what it would cost to make?

I wasn't really my intent for starting the project, but I did have that thought. Wanted to get some feedback first before investigating that. You mentioned B & D, is he the mag that did the jiga-rex? I was thinking this could be a cool community/open source project but I realize not everyone has CAD/engineering/3d printer. I figured worst case you could always have the asian kid down the street print it up for a couple bucks if I made the files available.

Having priced parts out it seems adventageous to bulk buy everything and pass the savings on. My mcmaster cart alone for this is over $110, but thats because you have to buy 100 screws, 40 nuts, 6 ft of threaded rod, etc. When you get it down to unit costs its somewhere ~$35 in parts alone for the whole jig. Definitely feasible..

Great design. Looks like the blue and grey parts would be universal and then you could buy the red parts for specific bindings? The only issue I'm wondering about is if it's all hard plastic, would the jig have a tendency to slide? I'm thinking something as simple as a built in C-clamp or bar clamp with rubber stoppers could do the trick.

Yeh, basically. The frame and jaws stay, but you can swap out the binding patterns for whatever binding you need.

I haven't used a real jig before (just paper templates) but how is the hole depth determined. I've just always used the ski bit with a stopper on it.

https://www.mcmaster.com/8865a143 that bad larry right there.

Also, there was a question on setting bsl. Basically there will be an adhesive mm tape measure on side of the aluminum rails (see below). It will be a left-right and right-left tape butted together at the center of the rail, so it ascends in both directions from the center. The binding pattern slides have a built in arrow which will point to the ruler allowing you to set the bsl. (sorry, hard to explain). I.e. for a 315 bsl, set the front slide to the 31.5 cm index and set the rear slide to the 31.5cm index, tighten the screws, and you should be good to go.

Here's some updated shots of the model:

[neufox47]

I’ll take one. Do you offer 2 day shipping?

Seriously though, I’ll buy one. Regretted not buying a Jiggarex.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Beautiful. Are you thinking of this just for personal/mag use or maybe turning it into a little side business like B & D? Any idea on what it would cost to make?

Great design. Looks like the blue and grey parts would be universal and then you could buy the red parts for specific bindings? The only issue I'm wondering about is if it's all hard plastic, would the jig have a tendency to slide? I'm thinking something as simple as a built in C-clamp or bar clamp with rubber stoppers could do the trick.

I haven't used a real jig before (just paper templates) but how is the hole depth determined. I've just always used the ski bit with a stopper on it.

Mounted a pair of bindings this weekend with a paper template and probably spent 15 minutes just aligning the template. The engineer in me feels your pain as well.

As far as I've ever been able to tell, you always use the stepped bit. The holes don't have a set depth as much as guide the drill. I've even seen over zealous drilling make some not so nice holes in a ski.

[waxoff]

I would seriously contemplate a jig like this but only for marking or center punching the hole locations, but drill free-hand like done with paper templates. That way you wouldn't have to worry about the jig life being threatened by the drilling.

[HAB]

I'm in the midst of making something very similar, but with machined aluminum and steel parts. I'll post pics when I get a chance. It's going to be overkill, but it'll last forever and it's been a fun project.

[oldirty]

I would seriously contemplate a jig like this but only for marking or center punching the hole locations, but drill free-hand like done with paper templates. That way you wouldn't have to worry about the jig life being threatened by the drilling.

I think this is the biggest problem to overcome. You could use a center drill to start/mark the holes with the jig. Then follow up with a regular drill with stopper after removing the jig.

Something like this:
https://www.mcmaster.com/2915a75

I would like to provide a drill guide though mostly for the insert folks. Getting the he perpendicular is key, so an integrated drill guide would be nice. The drill spacers are $10/piece which is just too much for this project (idea is cheap and accessible). I've got a few ideas for a sleeve that would cover the bit, keeping it from chewing up the template, and still providing a vertical guide.

An ultra-short flute bit would fix this problem if such a bit existed off the shelf. I may look at having a custom bit made to support the jig.

Great feedback!

[HAB]

Use a removable drill bushing with a shoulder, and just move it from hole to hole. That's what I'm doing.

https://www.mcmaster.com/8493a131

[bigdude2468]

Not that familiar with 3D printing other than a small printer the local library has for 8th graders to fiddle with. Is it a practical way to mass produce components?

[oldirty]

Not that familiar with 3D printing other than a small printer the local library has for 8th graders to fiddle with. Is it a practical way to mass produce components?

Yes and no. For massive production runs, probably not. But for moderate runs it can be a feasible production method. One of the best 3d printer manufacturers actually 3d prints most of it's parts for production. They essentially have a room full of 3d printers.

It really comes down to the details in print settings, design, layup, and material. If done properly you can get some quality parts. And as long as the draw backs of printing are acceptable for the product it's ok.

I think for this application it would be fine. I don't think anything about this would be mass produced.

[OldMil]

No offense but this just looks like a Jigarex rip off.

https://www.tognar.com/jigarex-ski-b...-mounting-jig/

[oldirty]

Use a removable drill bushing with a shoulder, and just move it from hole to hole. That's what I'm doing.

https://www.mcmaster.com/8493a131

Thanks man! didn't even see those earlier. Very helpful and that knurled shoulder is perfect.

I added them into the model with some nice shoulders on the jig plate to prevent rotating when drilling.

Looking forward to seeing your project.

[mrkbrnblm]

This is a thing of beauty. I have access to a printer and would love to print one if/when you make the design available. The one concern I'd have is about the durability of the aluminum side rails. Flat aluminum stock in that orientation will have very little resistance to bending side-to-side. Once it's clamped on the ski, it'd be plenty rigid and would self-align/self-straighten to some extent, but I'd worry about dropping the thing or putting something heavy on top of it on my workbench and bending it. Any reason you can't make the side rails with a right angle extrusion to give you rigidity in both the horizontal and vertical plane? Having the angle profile would also make for more surface area to contact the two end pieces. With the right sort of profile in the two printed end pieces, I imagine you could significantly simplify the hardware/attachment components. Just a L-shaped slot that the aluminum angle fits into and a set screw or two to hold it all together.

The other question I'd have is about the consistency of the adhesive tape measure. It seems like it would be a non-trivial thing to line two tape measures up exactly in the same place on every set without some sort of visual reference to make the assembly easier.

[bagtagley]

This is a thing of beauty. I have access to a printer and would love to print one if/when you make the design available.

This

[PeachesNCream]

No offense but this just looks like a Jigarex rip off.

https://www.tognar.com/jigarex-ski-b...-mounting-jig/

I think his goal is to make this "cheap and accessible" like he said before. I wouldn't call $260 + $50 accessible. Plus if you think you can do something better, nothing wrong with doing it. ie Kingpin vs tecton vs shift vs cast. They're all basically the same thing but believe they can do it better for one reason or another. His niche he seems to be going for is "cheap and accessible". Plus its a fun project

[oldirty]

Thanks all for the encourging feedback. I'm going to work on the prototype and testing over the next few weeks. Hopeful I will have some working files up in a month or two so people can start printing. Like brundo said, I'm not trying to rip jiggerex off, just looking to have a better option for those who dont want to dish out 300 bones for a jig, especially if they already have to tools to make something similiar.

This is a thing of beauty. I have access to a printer and would love to print one if/when you make the design available. The one concern I'd have is about the durability of the aluminum side rails. Flat aluminum stock in that orientation will have very little resistance to bending side-to-side. Once it's clamped on the ski, it'd be plenty rigid and would self-align/self-straighten to some extent, but I'd worry about dropping the thing or putting something heavy on top of it on my workbench and bending it. Any reason you can't make the side rails with a right angle extrusion to give you rigidity in both the horizontal and vertical plane? Having the angle profile would also make for more surface area to contact the two end pieces. With the right sort of profile in the two printed end pieces, I imagine you could significantly simplify the hardware/attachment components. Just a L-shaped slot that the aluminum angle fits into and a set screw or two to hold it all together.

The other question I'd have is about the consistency of the adhesive tape measure. It seems like it would be a non-trivial thing to line two tape measures up exactly in the same place on every set without some sort of visual reference to make the assembly easier.

Very good point. When I was initially designing this I didnt consider the rigidity of those rails, I looked at them more as a component that jsut holds the patterns relative to each other. Besides just overall durability, user induced flex could also be a problem when drilling the holes. You wouldn't want those rails to flex while drilling. So yes, I agree, I should add at some rigidity in the horizontal plane, either through an angle bar or thicker flat stock or different material. I will have to play with this a bit in the design. I may just try it with the flat bars first and see how it holds up, it may not be a problem.

For the measuring tape, there will only be a tape on one side. The tape will have 0mm at the center of the jig, then ascend in both directions. All boot center line references will be made relative to the 0 mark on the tape. So, if the tape was placed in the wrong spot by a few mm then the only effect it would have is it would move the boot position relative to the jig and not the center.

I think the best thing for the tape is to have a custom sticker made. A quick search on Alibaba.com shows a few venders that can do this for <$.50 a piece (w/ min quantities tho). For prototyping, the tape measure will be made up of two tapes because a "center" tape is not really a thing. So I will have two tapes in opposite directions with their zeros (actually probably like 240mm point) touching at the center of the jig. The only issue is the tape graduations will actually need to be scaled down by 50%. This is because both the toe and heel jigs will move in/out together around the center, so if I move the toe from 320mm to 310mm and the heel in from 320mm to 310mm, I've shortened the bsl by 20mm to 300mm. If i scaled the graduations by 50%, the same scenerios moves the toe 5mm and the heel 5mm, giving you the correct bsl even though the tape will show 320 -> 310.

[OldMil]

Like brundo said, I'm not trying to rip jiggerex off, just looking to have a better option for those who dont want to dish out 300 bones for a jig, especially if they already have to tools to make something similiar.

Fair enough. That is a noble pursuit. I just feel like you should have mentioned in your OP that you were basically copying the Jigarex design in order to make a cheap/accessible universal jig that anyone can 3D print. Your OP makes it seem like you invented this when it was actually invented by davieboot like 7 years ago.

[oldirty]

Fair enough. That is a noble pursuit. I just feel like you should have mentioned in your OP that you were basically copying the Jigarex design in order to make a cheap/accessible universal jig that anyone can 3D print. Your OP makes it seem like you invented this when it was actually invented by davieboot like 7 years ago.

You should consider actually reading the OP...