Mounting Bindings with Paper Templates

[crgildart]

I couldn’t count how many. I worked in a shop for 5 years, certified by Marker and Salomon, and trained for a bunch of touring bindings. And I’ve mounted a whole bunch of alpine, touring, and tele bindings for friends at home since then. Even one or two people from this site. Never had a failure. Even corrected a couple bad mounts that other people did.

As I posted earlier I find a drill press makes it easier, faster, very accurate, and much less stressful for my home mounts. Maybe I’d be a little more pedantic if I’d worked in a shop longer?

Edit: Have you done many home mounts, @Uncle-A?

Agreed. If I had a nice drill press I'd 100% use it for mounting bindings.

 

[Uncle-A]

I couldn’t count how many. I worked in a shop for 5 years, certified by Marker and Salomon, and trained for a bunch of touring bindings. And I’ve mounted a whole bunch of alpine, touring, and tele bindings for friends at home since then. Even one or two people from this site. Never had a failure. Even corrected a couple bad mounts that other people did.

As I posted earlier I find a drill press makes it easier, faster, very accurate, and much less stressful for my home mounts. Maybe I’d be a little more pedantic if I’d worked in a shop longer?

Edit: Have you done many home mounts, @Uncle-A?

Maybe in the triple digits of home mounting. All I can say for me there is no point in talking about this any longer. I have already said, for you the drill press is a good option. I will leave it at that.

 

[GB_Ski]

Never realized a drill press can be a controversial topic.

 

[Noodler]

Do shop jigs correct for ‘curvature’ on the top of skis?

I have a few real-deal mounting jigs. There usually isn't a ton of curvature on the top of the ski across the binding mount area, but what little there is doesn't seem to affect a shop jig. There's usually sufficient length in the "feet" of the jig to securely grip the ski sides (along the metal edges). The biggest issue is that jigs do wear out. I have found that the steel "cylinder bit guides" can develop some play and allow an off-angle hole to be drilled if you're not careful.

 

[Uncle-A]

I have a few real-deal mounting jigs. There usually isn't a ton of curvature on the top of the ski across the binding mount area, but what little there is doesn't seem to affect a shop jig. There's usually sufficient length in the "feet" of the jig to securely grip the ski sides (along the metal edges). The biggest issue is that jigs do wear out. I have found that the steel "cylinder bit guides" can develop some play and allow an off-angle hole to be drilled if you're not careful.

The wear on a jig is a real issue, years ago when Spademan bindings were a hot item, I had one wear so much that the mount was off by almost 3 degrees. We had to get a new one from the manufacturer. Fortunately only one pair of skis came back with an issue, a lot is to be said about good shop maintenance.

 

[Dwight]

Take the next step up from paper templates.
Print your own or have someone else print the templates for you.

Printables

www.printables.com

 

[GB_Ski]

So I have a question for paper templates mounters. My kids' boots BSL are usually too small to match what paper templates show. How do you adjust the paper template to match the BSL?

 

[SlideWright]

So I have a question for paper templates mounters. My kids' boots BSL are usually too small to match what paper templates show. How do you adjust the paper template to match the BSL?

You can measure and add BSl lines. Which binding & BSL?

 

[GB_Ski]

You can measure and add BSl lines. Which binding & BSL?

Look NX7, BSL of 240.

 

[tomahawkins]

Look NX7, BSL of 240.

Test first. Probably the same as SPX, but not sure.

binding-templates/look-spx/look-spx-bsl-240.svg at master · tomahawkins/binding-templates

Alpine binding mounting templates. Contribute to tomahawkins/binding-templates development by creating an account on GitHub.

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