DIY boot CASTing

[GoldenBC]

Has anyone tried putting tech toe inserts into their own boots? I’m getting cast curious, well, probably more like I’m bored, and feel like it would be pretty easy to do. It wouldn’t be through the shop for obvious liability concerns.

I’ve seen many boots done by CAST and honestly, it looks pretty sloppy. Of course they have their unique CAST tech fitting but I have a collection that I have removed from old boots that offer plenty of ways of securing them. Tools are not an issue either.

So, has anyone tried this before and learned any lessons?

[FloridaSnow]

Has anyone tried putting tech toe inserts into their own boots? I’m getting cast curious, well, probably more like I’m bored, and feel like it would be pretty easy to do. It wouldn’t be through the shop for obvious liability concerns.

I’ve seen many boots done by CAST and honestly, it looks pretty sloppy. Of course they have their unique CAST tech fitting but I have a collection that I have removed from old boots that offer plenty of ways of securing them. Tools are not an issue either.

So, has anyone tried this before and learned any lessons?

someone recently posted a horror story of how cast mangled up their insert job.

[Judo Chop!]

they sent me these instructions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgMDtDY6AAk
I have not done it.
I may send them my Shadows over the summer, or just DIY with a dremmel and some patience.

[KillerMonkey]

Id probably be fine with this for something like shifts, where you only use the pins for the way up.

[XXX-er]

from watching that vid I think you want a table router or at least router & make a jig for the job

I seem to remember CAST wants 200$ to do a boot the customer supplies ?

[halliday]

Id probably be fine with this for something like shifts, where you only use the pins for the way up.

This would be fine for when the skins are on. There is no fucking way I would ski on a home made tech toe insert. It's not worth it.

[GoldenBC]

$300 for cast to do it I believe.

These jobs should definitely only be used for the up. Don’t ski it.

I guess I’m curious if people have done it with reclaimed tech inserts or if they bought the cast ones for $100.

[XXX-er]

I remember reading about somebody who had retro fitted front & back tech fittings and posted here on TGR which could probably be found with a search

I agree you wana use cast or any retro fitted tech toe for the the up only

if you reuse a fitting try and use a real dynafit toe fitting

[abraham]

$300 for cast to do it I believe.

These jobs should definitely only be used for the up. Don’t ski it.

I guess I’m curious if people have done it with reclaimed tech inserts or if they bought the cast ones for $100.

It seems to me that the screws through the insert might be important. There are a couple versions of the dynafit inserts that I've seen but I think all are molded into the boot and smaller than the Cast one.

[GoldenBC]

I’d be inclined to T nut them. There are definitely differences in quality of inserts but I don’t think that would be a real concern. More so, the hole layout. I would epoxy.

left is Tecnica, right is Dalbello. The tecnica one seems cheap.

[GoldenBC]

I’d be inclined to T nut them. There are definitely differences in quality of inserts but I don’t think that would be a real concern. More so, the hole layout. I would epoxy.

Top is Tecnica, bottom is Dalbello. The tecnica one seems cheap.

[toast2266]

I've had a couple of boots converted by cast. It seems to me like the complicated part would be the new sole that goes under the tech fitting. Cast mills the boot, installs the tech fitting, and then installs a gripwalk sole (on both the toe and heel). I can more or less get how the milling and tech installation could be done at home, but is the replacement sole something that's attainable?

Edit - looking around, it appears there are plenty of generic-ish replacement soles for various boots, so I guess that's probably not too big of a deal.

[XXX-er]

the distance between pin holes also looks different so i would measure & compare to a real dynafit or Scarpa toe fitting cuz scarpa also uses real dynafit hardware and intuition liners ... unfortunaley scarpas don't fit me

Its been a long time but remembering the salomon debacle their toe fitting did not have that bar connecting the pin sockets (at least these 2 have it) and so depended on the metal of the plate which had the huge holes so it just folded like a cheap tent, I remember looking at a pict and wondering who designed it ... maybe the kid in the mail room

the fitting on the right looks more skookum like they paid an engineer

[GoldenBC]

Size difference is from wide angle lens. Widths are exactly the same.

The Salomon debacle was from skiing and not touring. Skiing needs a much stronger interface of course.

Replacement soles are easy. You can make most soles work on most boots if you have a router for din height.

[gaijin]

Just a question to the industry peeps... how are swappable tech/din/GW soles not a thing yet?

Maybe it's a production/cost variable that just doesn't make sense from a manufacturer's perspective.

K2 adding tech toes to their no-walk-mode Recon 140 is a step in the right direction, though.

[arild]

Just a question to the industry peeps... how are swappable tech/din/GW soles not a thing yet?

Maybe it's a production/cost variable that just doesn't make sense from a manufacturer's perspective.

K2 adding tech toes to their no-walk-mode Recon 140 is a step in the right direction, though.

The OG cochise boots had swappable sole blocks. They skied, diplomatically put, like crap.

Sent fra min LE2123 via Tapatalk

[GoldenBC]

If the tech fittings are in the removable soles, they ski like shit. They also need the big cumbersome toes like the Cochise which means it’s the entire toe lug and not just a thing you screw on the bottom.

[Eluder]

It seems like the type of thing that you would learn a lot from a couple of test runs. Do you have extra fittings, shells and soles to practice on?

[gregL]

It seems like the type of thing that you would learn a lot from a couple of test runs. Do you have extra fittings, shells and soles to practice on?

Barry Allison at evo Village Sports in Whistler does them with CAST's blessing - he showed me a couple he'd done, says it takes a couple tries to get it right.

[XXX-er]

[QUOTE,=GoldenBC;7048153]Size difference is from wide angle lens. Widths are exactly the same.

The Salomon debacle was from skiing and not touring. Skiing needs a much stronger interface of course.
.[/QUOTE]

I think it was after the salomon thing somebody was checking fittings, I think that BD had a different spacing on the toe bar between sockets, garmont as it became scott had some had bad sockets
the 2 toe bars in the pict definatley look different which is why i asked

[detrusor]

The original black diamond crossover boots had both soles, skied ok.

[XXX-er]

I think that ^^ was the Factor (green/ green color) some Not many swapable AT/ DIN soles were tech friendly, apparently BD's with fixed tech fittings were a slightly different spec, none of the garmont AT swapable soles were tech friendly

a buddy bought the Cosmo with bad pin sockets and I remember seeing/ feeling it first hand

Dynafit & Scarpa used real Dynafit fittings

you would think all the fittings would be the same cuz all they needed to do is copy a dynafit but someone nerded out on this stuff and found out not so

its all stuff i read at least 10 yrs ago but maybe its buried in wildsnow ?

[gregL]

you would think all the fittings would be the same cuz all they needed to do is copy a dynafit but someone nerded out on this stuff and found out not so

Actually people bought these boots and found out the hard way they didn't work. We had some problems with La Sportiva as well. Now there is an ISO spec for the fittings (Dynafit's).

[snoboy]

Salomon alpine boots had sole blocks that could be swapped with the tech fitting ones from their touring line. Too bad the shells would crack in less than a season (happened to me twice).

Kind of puzzled with the growth of tech touring binders like the CAST, Marker, Solly etc, that the few proper alpine boots with tech fittings seem to have disappeared from the market. Threads like these show there is obviously some demand for them... Love my Dalbellos, wish I had bought a backup pair when they went out of production.

[Judo Chop!]

give it a couple years and I bet we'll see a few more.