PSA: Mount your own fucking skis.

Did my first threaded insert install on fresh skis. Stressful!
Went well with a few of the inserts spinning when I threaded them in but not after epoxy.
I overdid the tapping and should have stopped. Learned my lesson.
I used gflex as recommended by my buddy that lent me the bit and tap. Long cure but stays flexible not brittle.
I want a better way to remove the screw I use to thread in the inserts.
Make sure you have good solvent to clean up the epoxy overflow! I was worried I would epoxy my bindings down until I found some solvent in my basement.
And get vibratite BEFORE you start. I couldn't find it locally and had to order.

If you are worried about it, do it! I didn't use a drill press but had a little plastic guide to keep the bit vertical.

Long story short looking for a mounting bit in Santa Barbara CA asap. Need it by Wednesday. Or in mammoth on Thursday.
I am flying out to visit and said I would bring a bit but I forgot....

Inserts drill bits and taps are standard sizes. You can find them at home depot.

Put a wing nut on the screw you use to drive the inserts to get better Strava times.

Buy a bottle of wine with a real cork, drink the wine but save the cork and mayeb wait a day

drill a hole thru the cork with a 5/16th or 4.1 or 3.9 or wtf you are gona use

Get the right depth of hole by slipping the bit up/ down in the chuck to leave as much bit protruding from the cork as needed

if the drill slips all that happens is the hole won't be deep enough so tighten the chuck & try again

Its dentist proof eh

https://www.slidewright.com/dp/slide...allation-tool/

This little tool will make your life really easy. Wind the insert into the ski at the correct depth every time. Also, buy a selection of correctly sized stepped bits for screws and inserts.

That tool looks nice. The right sized flat works fine too, even if it’s annoying.

I bought a drill depth drop collar and a drill press for inserts. The “step” on the binding freedom drill bit is pretty small, and even if you stop the drill there it’s still slightly too deep of a hole IMO. I like it so the insert gets just sub flush .5mm with the topsheet when it bottoms out in the hole, rather than letting the insert “float” in the threads without bottoming out. Not sure if it’s necessary but should theoretically probably improve the spin out resistance and bond between the insert and ski core (I think)

Recently bought a pair of skis with inserts though and about half of the inserts were sticking up above the topsheet a mm or two [emoji849] I ground them flat to the topsheet with a dremel lol. Whatever Janky drill setup the person who mounted them was using did not have the right depth stop

drill collars and pieces of ductape on the drill bit slip so be careful and don't slip on that bottle of wine either

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Originally Posted by XXX-er

Buy a bottle of wine with a real cork, drink the wine but save the cork and mayeb wait a day

drill a hole thru the cork with a 5/16th or 4.1 or 3.9 or wtf you are gona use

Get the right depth of hole by slipping the bit up/ down in the chuck to leave as much bit protruding from the cork as needed

if the drill slips all that happens is the hole won't be deep enough so tighten the chuck & try again

Its dentist proof eh

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This is a great idea [emoji1783]

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Originally Posted by ~mikey b

we use that at the shop I work at for Dynafit mounts

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And revisiting this two months later ...
... I suspect that the Dynafit plates are sold only to Dynafit retailers?
(I've tried my contacts at Dynafit for my skimo race series, but although they're all too willing to give me product donations to be used as prizes for my races -- thank you, greatly appreciated! -- alas they seem to have no interest in accepting my money in exchange for jigs.)

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Originally Posted by jhyatt

This is a great idea [emoji1783]

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either that or the XXX-er is high on toluene

you can use any piece of wood or metal right but at the time I was making a lot of wine kits so I had bags of 100 corks sittting around

the piece of wood or whatever you wana use for a stop is about 1.5 inches or the length of a wine bottle cork

also if you can hold your drill by the handle and the drill bit end of the drill its much more stable

Are the majority of people on here mounting using paper templates?

Got my hands on a Strive jig the other day and I’m going to be mounting some skis here soon. Is having a jig basically idiot proof? I see a lot of people are putting some time into finding the center of ski and getting all their measurements perfect — so, I’m not sure if I still need to do all of this even with a jig.


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I’d say having a jig is close to idiot proof. Certainly more so than using paper templates. The jig will self-center across the width of the ski. The jig will have a mark for boot center that you’ll have to line up with your desired mount point along the length of the ski.

So in that case I need not to worry about spending extra time confirming that the bindings will be centered on the ski? The jig is brand new btw (so no need to worry about feet that have worn out)

I’m assuming I still need to do my due diligence in checking that the top sheets are accurately showing where the mount point is?


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It never hurts to double check everything. Double check that your jig is truly on a center line vs biased one way or the other.

The vast majority of skiers are on skis with jig mounted bindings with varying degrees of care and accuracy. There will be some level of 'slop factor' with the jigs or any method you use....which will not ruin your day unless you let it.

Measuring and using templates can also have errors with scale and human error, but I'll bet the OCD DIYers are splitting hairs that no one will ever benefit substantially vs simply careful use of a jig, template or binding layout tool: https://www.slidewright.com/Bindings...out_tools.jpeg

Muggy be careful using a drill press. Yeah it will drill near perfect vertical holes but even with a small drill press there is too much mechanical advantage. Too much mechanical advantage coupled with a fucking hillbilly wine cork system could lead to disaster.

What AlpiNord said. There will be some tolerance in the jig centering, probably more than if you are really anal with your paper mount, less than you should be able to feel. Check to confirm the marking on the ski are the same distance from the tails of both skis.

TBH I rarely got perfect heel pin alignment with paper templates. Mottns jig is so much better.

A test mount on a 1x 4 or 6 with a centerline & mount line drawn might be a good start for a test drive and calibration of your jig.

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Originally Posted by halliday

Muggy be careful using a drill press. Yeah it will drill near perfect vertical holes but even with a small drill press there is too much mechanical advantage. Too much mechanical advantage coupled with a fucking hillbilly wine cork system could lead to disaster.

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Actualy the beauty of using a positive stop between the work and the drill chuck be it metal or wood or a wine bottle cork is if you set it up right its dentist proof cuz you can only drill as deep as whatever bit is protruding from the chuck

I don't think you need a positive stop with a drill press, of course that would depend on the end loser setting up the drill press correctly

But I see a lot of people who don't really understand what they are doing,

they don't just look at something and get it

which is why not ever one is a mechanic

I’ve seen a lot of shop mounted skis with slightly crooked or not centered mounts. Off up to two-three mm from center? They’re not fool proof especially if they have some slop or there’s some high teenager using them

Paper templates can be fucked up relatively easily. I personally do not like the commercially available templates. They make it difficult to align the front and rear papers perfectly when taping them together.

I make my own templates in SolidWorks (Two-D drawings) with a lot of thin vertical lines + boot center line where I can overall map the toe piece and heel piece sheet precisely. Sort of hard to explain without pictures

I’ve used a drill press with good results, you do have to be very diligent keeping the drill on hole center. Clamps and a piece of wood under the ski can help, but aren’t perfect

Hand drilling isn’t too hard either, but need to pay attention to keeping the drill vertical. Inserts are a lot more touchy than normal screws

I’m pretty OCD, a full mount install and setup with paper templates takes me 2-3 hours start to finish, including prepping the templates and skis, filling old holes, flattening volcanoes, etc


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general mounting question.if you mount to a specific BSL is the heel's range of adjustment centered on that BSL? aka if i mount a Strive to 300, it will easily have enough range to go 290 to 310? Maybe 295 to 305 at least?also, does anyone have a quick link to the Strive 14 GW template?

Templates and jigs are typically all set up to be in the middle of the adjustment range, but paper templates especially are not always correct. Strive heels are different between 12/14 and 16, so not sure the adjustment is the same on the two versions. It probably matches wardens, which are 24mm and 30mm total travel iirc. Best way is to know for sure is to do a quick mount on a 2x4.

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Originally Posted by skivt27

general mounting question.if you mount to a specific BSL is the heel's range of adjustment centered on that BSL? aka if i mount a Strive to 300, it will easily have enough range to go 290 to 310? Maybe 295 to 305 at least?also, does anyone have a quick link to the Strive 14 GW template?

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Easy solution is a test mount on a 2x4 with the template/jig set to your boot...then see where it lands in the adjustment range.

it *should* be in the center but who knows.

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Originally Posted by skivt27

general mounting question.if you mount to a specific BSL is the heel's range of adjustment centered on that BSL? aka if i mount a Strive to 300, it will easily have enough range to go 290 to 310? Maybe 295 to 305 at least?also, does anyone have a quick link to the Strive 14 GW template?

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Shorter BSL will be forward of center by half the difference between the two boots. Longer BSL would be behind center.

In other words a 290 boot would be .5cm forward, 310 boot would be .5cm behind.

Mounted my own fucking skis. Thread made finding the centerline easy. I like the calipers plus centerline ruler method. Made it easy and idiot proof. Had to move the toe forward slightly and the heels back slightly but with the heel track on Attacks it only moved me forward about 6mm. Mounting the bindings was a learning experience. Countersinking is really important and I was surprised how much I needed to take off. Also the rear of the heel pieces on the Attacks kept riding up the screws because the holes are tighter than a ducks ass. Couldn't get them to be flush to the ski for the life of me until I drilled the holes out with a 3/16" bit so the screws could turn freely. Then used GFlex to seal old holes and new screws. Anyways. They're done and hopefully I don't die. https://imgur.com/o6WOWwl Edit: Christ this site is busted. https://imgur.com/o6WOWwl https://i.imgur.com/UcSdodq.png