Mounting adventure, Part I

Wandrin* · 11-12-2005, 09:57 PM

OK, so I bought myself a pair of Spatulas and have been sitting on them while I decided what binding to attach and who to have attach them. I finally decided to go alpine and my conversations about mounting them have resulted in comments like, "we don't touch them", "no jig will fit them - so we freehand the install", etc. etc. I worked in a shop some years back so, in true (former) Utard fashion I decided to do it myself and save $30. After all, I figured I could freehand as well as the next guy and I have a stake in the outcome.

I first set up shop - in the kitchen of course.

I had to find a centerline so I used two drafting triangles and a ruler to measure the exact center at several points and drew a centerline.

Wandrin* · 11-12-2005, 10:06 PM

I was saved by the fact that the binding came with a plastic base plate that mounted under the entire binding/boot area. I set the system up and marked the centerline from the boot onto the plastic plate and then used that to align the plate on the ski.

I then used a centerpunch to mark the eight drill points.

It was a little nerveracking to make the first hole.

It was way too late to do anything but forge ahead. I countersunk the plastic mounting plate attached to the top of the ski.

Wandrin* · 11-12-2005, 10:16 PM

I did a dry run of the binding mount and here is where things started to fall apart. For one, the screws were too short and I fired off a yelp here in a fit of panic... I set the project aside for a while to wait for responses. (This is also where I kinda forgot to keep taking pictures). After several people said, "get longer screws, idiot" I started playing with the different screw lengths that came with the binding. It turns out that almost every set of left/right screws were a different length. After juggling them around it turned out that I only needed a set of four to complete my increase of 1/8". I set off to find some screws, buy the epoxy I would need at the end and I was also hoping to get the holes tapped. Two shops later I had the screws I needed and the skis tapped. After another dry run and swapping out one last screw that I had stripped trying to make them work when they were too short I mixed up the epoxy and tightened everything down.

Not too bad, a day late - I had hoped to take them to Crystal with me today instead of chasing around trying to get them mounted - but fun none the less.