Inserts off... by <1mm

[Ted Striker]

I'm not arguing with you -

Yeah I wasn't arguing with you either - just trying to help.

or good enough shop skills to drill accurately by hand? many cheaper home drill presses (like many of the central machinery/chinese rebadged crap jobs) are pretty shit for accuracy anyways.

Heh.. that too. And yeah, the drill press at harbor freight or wherever is shit for sure.

My point was (and is) if you have a half decent drill press, don't not use it because some guy in some thread said not to.

[Shorty_J]

In the future I'll install the bindings before the epoxy is setting/curing as, at the very least, it seems like a redundancy to help improve accuracy and swaps.

Make sure you wipe of any excess epoxy on the topsheet and also make sure there's none inside the insert if you're going to do this.

If not, you might end up with your binding epoxied to your topsheet, and/or your fasteners epoxied to the inserts (the latter which might result in you accidentally backing out your inserts when you try to remove the fastener from it).

[shafty85]

An update, though none of you may care, and a question.

I got the calipers out today and measured the installed inserts and compared to the template and came up with the following results:

• -maximum lateral difference was 1.25mm in one set and 1.05mm in another. This would result if each hole were only 0.625mm and 0.525mm offset, respectively. It seems to me that this should be within the tolerance of error for installing bindings, but what do I know? On my next install I'm going to attempt to get everything within 0.5mm. Wish me luck.
• -all other lateral dimensions were <1mm off
• -maximum diagonal offset, from insert at front of heel or toe piece to opposite rear inserts of same heel or toe piece, was 1.15mm
• -all other diagonal measurements were off by <1mm
• -I compared the diameter of the 5M screws (came up as 4.9mm, not 5mm) to the expanded holes I drilled in the bindings, which I measured as 5.5mm, and found a 0.6mm difference. This gives only 0.3mm around the screw to avoid having to screw the screw through the binding baseplates. This seems like a reasonable number to me, but again, I'm a complete JONG at this.

These numbers mean that, due to using a ruler yesterday, I completely fucking lied with the title of the thread and am prepared to take the public flogging associated with such blatant disregard for socially acceptable actions.

Question: What ratio do you mix steel wool and epoxy to fill holes with? I'm remounting a few skis and need to fill some holes that will no longer be used.

[cat in january]

If you are not going to redrill the holes and are just filling them, then no need for the steel wool.

[Nitrox]

I find that my inserts turn out much better when I am drilling fresh holes and not boring out existing holes. If I bore existing holes I'd rather use a drill press and milling bit. The milling bit cuts new holes through the existing holes. For new holes I center punch through the template and then visually line up the binding before drilling.

[thin cover]

1mm? Make binding holes bigger.

I have taken a solder gun and melted out a tiny portion of dukes plate binding holes to make it work before.

[shafty85]

If you are not going to redrill the holes and are just filling them, then no need for the steel wool.

Good to know, thanks. So, if I am going to redrill holes - what ratio should the steel wool and epoxy be mixed at?

[Nitrox]

Good to know, thanks. So, if I am going to redrill holes - what ratio should the steel wool and epoxy be mixed at?

I'd rather fill the holes with steelbed.

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[Speedfreak]

I have taken a solder gun and melted out a tiny portion of dukes plate binding holes to make it work before.

I've done this as well. Blew the insert install on my Comis the day before leaving on a trip, so I just "adjusted" the holes on the Duke plate. Come to think of it - I grabbed those Dukes you sold me a few years back that are thoroughly beat to shit at this point so I wouldn't "ruin" a brand new set. Anyhow - it looks Like I'll be pulling those inserts, filling, and re-inserting for Axls and 916s - those enlarged holes freak me out in the bigguy/tearout department. Glad to hear other people have done this -- I was thinking I was the only idiot who could have fucked up the install.

[Johnny Deep]

If you can't finess the last one its off my more like 2+mm IME. Remove, fill, and get a drill press. Drill press is the only reliable way I've found to install. Drill bits like to walk when going through skis.

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A jig with proper drill bits work well too.

[Johnny Deep]

I have taken a solder gun and melted out a tiny portion of dukes plate binding holes to make it work before.

I'm filing that one in the back of my mind.

[shafty85]

A jig with proper drill bits work well too.

Agreed. I've got the proper bits but am sans jig. Hoping to get my hands on salomon, look and dynafiddle jigs in the future but can't wait forever to mount the skis.

[frorider]

Hey Shafty - sounds like you got the situation under control based on the advise to drill out the dynafit holes. As an engineer, I can think of absolutely no good reason for why they make those holes so tight - to the point where the screws are actually threaded into the plastic. It is worse in every single way. So I always drill out the holes in dynafit bindings before mounting - whether inserts, plates, or standard mounts.

I hereby revoke your engineer card.

Think about it a bit more. Hint: dynafit engineers only thread the holes on the toepiece. At least on the Verticals I have. Non-releaseable tele bindings would have benefited from this threaded baseplate approach as well, but that's water under the bridge.

[shafty85]

Hey Shafty - sounds like you got the situation under control based on the advise to drill out the dynafit holes. As an engineer, I can think of absolutely no good reason for why they make those holes so tight - to the point where the screws are actually threaded into the plastic. It is worse in every single way. So I always drill out the holes in dynafit bindings before mounting - whether inserts, plates, or standard mounts.

I didn't see this earlier, but damn it makes me feel more confident in the fix. What size bit do you drill out the holes with? I used a 7/32. Thanks, John.

[frorider]

PS Shafty, just to be clear, in your shoes I would've also drilled out the dynafit holes. Those threads help minimize horizontal deformation in a hole in the ski core, but that is irrelevant when mounting into an insert (or a metal plate).

[shafty85]

PS Shafty, just to be clear, in your shoes I would've also drilled out the dynafit holes. Those threads help minimize horizontal deformation in a hole in the ski core, but that is irrelevant when mounting into an insert (or a metal plate).

Sweet, thanks!

[coldfeet]

I didn't see this earlier, but damn it makes me feel more confident in the fix. What size bit do you drill out the holes with? I used a 7/32. Thanks, John.

I'm no Dynafit expert, but I just mounted a pair with regular screws not inserts, and drilled the plates out with a 7/32". It reduced the resistance on the screw from stupid-tight to threads-in-lightly; lightly just like every other binding I've played with.

Those tight threads are moronic IMO and probably the cause of a number of stripped threads in skis during install.