Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Binding Mounting

Like everyone who has had many pairs of skis mounted, I've had shops mount several pairs wrong. Stories include diagonal mounts, BACKWARDS MOUNTS, drilling thru skis, and using the big jig for the small plate bindings.

There are two options: 
  1. Take them to a reputable shop to do the mount: EVERY shop messes up mounts. People make mistakes. It happens. So go to a big shop. A big shop has the resources/money to make up for a mistake, they can afford to replace your messed up skis.
  2. Mount your own bindings: Save yourself the money, the wait, and the backwards mounts, and do it yourself. My good friends Emiel and Emrys Hall showed me the ropes years ago, which I really appreciate! To mount your own bindings you will need these things:
  • Binding Template
    • Most bindings have a unique screw pattern - print out the right template! Make sure is that your printer has not scaled the template to fit on the page. Check this with a tape measure after printing out each template.
  • Plastic Drill Hole Plugs
    • These keep water out of old binding drill holes. Some people just like to put epoxy in the holes. I think its difficult to completely fill a hole with epoxy because of how epoxy likes to stick to your applicator. These plugs can smashed in with a couple light blows with a mallet.
  • Drill Bit
    • There are 2 drill bit sizes used for binding mounts. 3.6mm for skis without metal in them and 4.1mm for skis with metal. Regardless of whether or not there is metal in the ski what I like to do is drill the hole with the 3.6mm bit, then IF there is metal I go back with a 4.1 mm bit and go just through the metal sheet, but not past it.
    • Of course you can use just a normal drill bit and tape it at 9mm or use a collar, but eventually you'll mess up and drill thru your skis. The Slide Wright bits prevent that and are very quick and easy to use.
    • Drill bits can also be found here
  • Pozi Drive #3
    • Screw driver for the screw used for binding mounts.
  • Wood Glue
    • Put this in the drill holes before you screw the binding in. Epoxy works too.
  • Hammer/mallet
    • Used to smash the plastic plugs into old drill holes.
  • Punch
    • Used to mark the locations where you will be drilling.
  • Tape Measure/Calipers
  • Additional Resources: 
Method 
  1. Mark the boot centerline on each ski. 
    Although almost all skis have recommended mount points marked you want to check this! Top sheets often shift during pressing! You can check this by measuring from the tip of the ski and marking your mount position of choice on each ski
  2. Find and mark the centerline of the ski
  3. Tape template to ski
    Use the repeating vertical lines located on the sides of the template to make sure it is centered on the ski along with the centerline marked in step # 2.
  4. Center punch the mounting hole locations
  5. Remove template
  6. Immediately circle all punched drill hole locations with a black sharpie
  7. Check that holes are where you want them
    1. Place skis next to each other, compare.
    2. Measure distance from tip to several hole locations
    3. Measure distance from side of ski to several hole locations, make sure they are symmetrical on each ski.
  8. Make sure you won't drill through skis!Check to make sure that the drill bit is short enough that when drilled to its tape/collar it will not drill into the base material
  9. Drill holes
  10. Clean out holes
    Blow sawdust out, use a razor if necessary to remove ski material dangling from holes.
  11. Put glue in holes
    You don't need to fill holes completely, screws will take up most of hole volume. You can use either a toothpick or a syringe as an applicator. Wipe away excess glue.
  12. Check Screw Length
    As described by Emiel you don't want a screw that is too long for your ski to 
    accommodate: "Be sure to check the length of the screws you are using. if the screws are too long they can dimple the base or cause other issues. a good way to accomplish this is to place the screws in one half of the binding (say the left half). then position the bindings on the skis in the approximate location you are mounting and hang the screws over the sidewall of the ski. you will be able to see if the screws are too short/too long before you do any drilling or screwing into the skis. do this for both the toe and heel pieces."
  13. Screw the bindings in
    Apply ample downward pressure to screwdriver while screwing in, especially as the screw starts to catch so that the screw by itself is not doing all the work to get into the ski and as not to rip out the ski material as the screw tries to catch. DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN SCREWS! Doing this will strip them and significantly reduce their strength. If you do strip it to the point you think the screw has lost all structure integrity, per Emiel Hall's suggestion: remove screw, jam hole full of steel wool and epoxy, reapply screw.
  14. Set forward pressure, DIN, etc
  15. Enjoy!

7 comments:

  1. Yes! Very stoked on this update!

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  2. Mike, Thanks for the post. That's extremely helpful because binding mounting always seems like something simple to do, and yet, a bit scary to undertake.

    How do you usually position the bindings on the ski, as far as forwards or back go?

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  3. Thanks for the feedback guys!

    Mike - binding position. Generally skis are marked with recommended mount points. The three common recommended mount points are traditional, modern, and center. These serve as a good mounting baseline. Center is the true center of the ski and is mounted here for two purposes: terrain park skiing, landing and skiing switch in powder. Center mount provides quicker, easier, and more swivelly turn initiation at the cost that your tips dive really really easily in soft snow. Traditional mount is the best for reducing tip dive in soft snow but comes at the cost of slower, more difficult turn initiation. People say mounting a ski this far back provides more stable performance at speed. The tradition mount point is 60% back from the tip of the ski. Modern provides a compromise somewhere between center and traditional. You still get the quicker turn initiation of a center mounted ski with the most of the float of a ski mounted farther back. If you have tip rocker, which helps prevent tip dive, this mount is the way to go. If there is a recommended mount point on a ski I would definitely use that as the mount point unless you have significant reason to believe that you can do better. Of course there is a fair amount of personal preference in ski mounts, I have skied center mounted all mountain skis that float just fine, and others that sink like submarines.

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  4. damn, very comprehensive mike! i hate not having a work bench/drill. when i have a garage again...

    -Mehus

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  5. be sure to check the length of the screws you are using. if the screws are too long they can dimple the base or cause other issues.

    a good way to accomplish this is to place the screws in one half of the binding (say the left half). then position the bindings on the skis in the approximate location you are mounting and hang the screws over the sidewall of the ski. you will be able to see if the screws are too short/too long before you do any drilling or screwing into the skis. do this for both the toe and heel pieces.

    otherwise this is quite the informative post. also, do you still have my drill bit Mike?

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  6. oh and here is a link with a bunch of paper templates for all kinds of bindings. be sure to follow the instructions for printing.

    http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php/153971-Binding-Mount-Paper-Templates

    as mike mentioned, the proper drill bit is priceless. costs half as much as a single mount, saves you from drilling through the ski, and countersinks the topsheet so you won't get any volcano action. so spend the $15 and get a drill bit from Tognar.

    http://tognar.com/binding_tools_boot_canting_glue_ski_snowboard.html

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  7. Thanks for the great comments Emiel! They have been incorporated into the How To above.

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