PSA: Mount your own fucking skis.

[doebedoe]

Mounting some Pivots tomorrow night. Last/only time I manhandled the heels and it went fine -- but this time I'm mounting my buddy's dentist powder skis and don't want to crock it up.

Besides mounting with the skis on blocks to reduce the chance of ovalizing the heel holes, and snugging up the front two heel screws before pushing brake plate down to do the back two -- any other tricks of the trade?

Yes, the beer fridge is fully stocked. I also get to tune/wax/adjust demo binders of his gf's new Kastles.

[AyoBeng]

If you can't drill a vertical hole with a shouldered ski drill bit (like the one depicted below, available from Slidewright), you shouldn't be mounting skis.

I have less of a problem with drilling holes straight and more of a problem with the bit walking when I'm going freehand. Not sure if my drill sucks or me (more likely the latter). My bits haven't been used much so they're not dull. I used the drill guide from my Binding Freedom on my last mount and they came out perfect.

[GeezerSteve]

I have less of a problem with drilling holes straight and more of a problem with the bit walking when I'm going freehand.

Do you punch with a center punch before you drill?

[XXX-er]

a 4" drywall screw makes a great centerpunch

A side benefit of using the wine bottle cork drill stop means you can hold the drill by the drill bit

[GeezerSteve]

a 4" drywall screw makes a great centerpunch

A drywall screw is a so so center punch at best, although 100X better than not punching, so if that's all you've got, use it. A proper center punch of the correct size makes a broader cone-shaped dimple, designed to prevent the drill from walking. (I have a set of centerpunches for different metals and different size drills.) If you're doing lots of mounts, the best centerpunch for metal top sheet skis is an automatic center punch (spring loaded), which allows you to place the punch in the exact spot then simply push and let the tool do the work of punching. No hammer required. I have a fancy Starrett automatic w/adjustable stroke, a gift (along with a bunch of other machine shop tools) from a generous friend. He gets free mounts for life. You can get a serviceable auto punch for $10-$15 if you shop around.

[XXX-er]

I don't have all the tools or much of a shop so often I use whatever is handy ... the macgyver approach,

No stepped bits for the jig, no jig so I usually centerpunch and drill a small pilot hole which then allows me to hold the binding over the holes to see if the holes are centered in the binding and at this point I could still possibly deal with having drilled the pilot off center

dry wall screws have a very fine point, are very sharp, you can get a whole bag for a couple of bucks and they are even good for construction projects

[Banh Mi]

Anyone in Bozeman/Big Sky that can help me mount a pair??


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[GeezerSteve]

No stepped bits for the jig, no jig so I usually centerpunch and drill a small pilot hole which then allows me to hold the binding over the holes to see if the holes are centered in the binding and at this point I could still possibly deal with having drilled the pilot off center

conservative approach, well done

[Dee Hubbs]

Mounting some Pivots tomorrow night. Last/only time I manhandled the heels and it went fine -- but this time I'm mounting my buddy's dentist powder skis and don't want to crock it up.

Besides mounting with the skis on blocks to reduce the chance of ovalizing the heel holes, and snugging up the front two heel screws before pushing brake plate down to do the back two -- any other tricks of the trade?

Yes, the beer fridge is fully stocked. I also get to tune/wax/adjust demo binders of his gf's new Kastles.

Having the skis blocked so the brake arms hang free is key.
Hand drive the front screws on the heel base plate. Sung, bit not torqued down.
Press down the brake plate (do not lift the brake arms)
While holding down the brake plate put a long screwdriver between the brake arm, top of the ski and the second brake arm to keep them retracted. This gives you clear access to to the rear holes and the half moon.
Drive the rear screws to full torque spec, pull the screwdriver to release the brakes, torque up the front screws.
This process will avoid the ovalization of the front screw holes. This is still a prolific problem when mounting Pivots with brakes that are not wide enough of the ski, or trying to mount them on a flat surface without the brakes retracted. I wish I had a dollar for every time I had to fix a pulled out Pivot heel piece because of ovalized holes. (Add a Armada soft core ski and its a shit mix)

[doebedoe]

Thanks DH -- appreciate the step by step. I hand drive all my screws when mounting bindings.

Anyone know if DPS suggests/requires epoxy when mounting Foundation series skis? Typically I just use Titebond II / III or SVST Binding Mount glue.

EDIT: NM, found answer a bit hidden on DPS site: https://www.dpsskis.com/en/company/faqs/tuning-mounting

[NW_SKIER]

If it's carbon, use epoxy.

[doebedoe]

If it's carbon, use epoxy.

I believe Foundations have some carbon in them, but core is wood. DPS website makes no distinctions for mounting. So I'll pickup either some polyurethane glue or 2 part epoxy.

[2FUNKY]

If it's carbon, use epoxy.

What he said.

[Vitamin I]

The night before I roadtripped to the Colorado WROD’s, I mounted 5 pairs of well-used skis at home in Calif.



- 195cm Rossignol SC108 2009, used, now mounted with used mismatched 957E DIN=17 metal heels & plastic S914 toes, for 314mm BSL at -14.4cm from true center (+0.5cm from manufacturer recommended line).

- 194cm Faction Thirteen 2010, used, now mounted with used 977E DIN=14 metal heels & plastic toes, for 314mm BSL at -13.5cm from true center (which is manufacturer’s published recommended mount point, so disregard the lines on the topsheet graphics, which were way out of position that year).

- 187cm Kastle MX108 2010, used, now mounted with used S900 DIN=14 metal tab heels (somewhat uncommon for the tab heels to have metal heelcups) & plastic toes, for 314mm BSL at -12.6cm from true center (+0.0cm from manufacturer recommended line).
*** This sketchy mount could potentially end up being my first pull-out, with soft core, drilled multiple times, some slightly overlapping holes, one nylon insert, and I even had to drill one new hole into the plastic outer rim of an epoxied nylon insert. Fingers crossed. I Sharpied “SKETCHY” onto the skis, to remind myself to NEVER allow any friends to borrow this ski.

- 190cm Moment Bibby 2010, used, now mounted with used mismatched 916 metal heels & plastic Demo Jester toes, for testing mount position within the range of -4cm to -6cm from true center for my 314mm BSL (manufacturer recommended line is -6cm from true center).
*** This temporary mismatched mount has a weird-feeling negative ramp angle, but I think I can look past that and still dial in my favorite mount position for future 916 toes.

- 179cm K2 Hellbent 2009, used, now mounted with used 997E DIN=14 metal heels & plastic toes, for 314mm BSL at -1.2cm from true center (about +6cm from manufacturer recommended “”standard 0” line).
*** Fack! I can't believe I dimpled the bases on 3 heel screws. I thought I was being very careful, but I guess I became weary late at night. I will just ski them as is on the WROD's, then fix it when I return home for Thanksgiving.

.

[S.B.]

Did my first ever qk inserts, it's really not that harder than regular binding mounting. Anyways, 186 sickle mounted -4 from center and 192 tsts mounted +1 from reccomended, both for a 293mm bsl

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[AlpiNord]

I'm tired of schlepping long skis around. I'm going short this year on home made skis.

[AlpiNord]

In an attempt to illustrate the basic steps of the process of test mounting ski bindings from a binding template, here's a rough video which hopefully helps. If and when I can find another window to improve on the shooting and production, I'll replace this. Feel free to critique the process and provide points missed that ought to be covered.

[NW_SKIER]

1:30 into the video and no mention of an open alcoholic beverage. Fail

[AlpiNord]

Damn! Now I'll have to start over.

[AlpiNord]

Damn! Now I'll have to start over.

"Brought to you by 10 Barrel"

[::: :::]

Damn! Now I'll have to start over.

"Brought to you by 10 Barrel"

too soon
thoughts and prayers, micol

[Aus George]

Help me tech jongs!

Mounted some Marker F12's on some skis (first mount) with some help from a mate who has literally mounted 100's of skis. His knowledge was great however he was busy at the time and seems pretty relaxed about things, where I am more of a perfectionist... Long story short, I/we didn't countersink the holes (I didn't know you had too) and they have all slightly volcanoed. Only 1mm-0.5mm however you can see the gap if you look closely enough. The skis have no metal and I also suspect I/we over tightened them a bit but I have no idea (first ever mount). We also just used wood glue and on further research here I will use epoxy in the future. He said to just leave them as is and see how they ski, not to remount and fix the lifting bindings as we have a really good purchase right now in the wood. Well I did tour/ski them and got home and could see water drops under the binding. Also all the wood glue has gone white. Now my worry is they will eventually rust.

In your experience what would you do?

My thoughts were to remove the bindings, countersink/chisel the holes then use helicoils. I am a mechanic by trade and realise that helicoiling, while a lot of work (doesn't bother me) should in theory really pull the bindings down without volcanoing. I would also use epoxy in the whole installation. I am aware you will probable never be able to remove the bindings with this method, however that is not an issue for me as I want to set and forget.

I know the easy option is to remove the bindings clean up the volcano's then just remount. The issue is one of the plates for the heel, we wound the screws in and out about 3 times as it vocanoed really bad, then on my mates advice just left it as is cause we didn't want to loose too much purchase. Like I said he is pretty casual about it all which is why I will do all my mounts myself in the future.

I think I will also drill out the screw holes on the bindings to ensure its not those plastic tabs causing the issue.

[Flyoverland Captive]

^^^ Overthinking. Go ski them.

[teledad]

Remove, clean up volcanos with a flat file or a utility knife, remount with slow-cure epoxy. No need for helicoils unless you have spinners.

[Aus George]

Remove, clean up volcanos with a flat file or a utility knife, remount with slow-cure epoxy. No need for helicoils unless you have spinners.

After cleaning up the volcano's with knife/chisel should I slightly countersink the holes to prevent more volcanoing?