Mounting 3 pin bindings

[fisheater]

Skis are on the way, picking up some 3-pin cable bindings. I know how to find chord center and balance point, do the pins go on the balance point, or chord center? I have mounted quite a few alpine bindings, making my own paper templates, but there was always a line on the ski and a line on the boot. I am new to mounting pins, and would appreciate some help.
Thank you

[MikeK]

Fish,

I've moved this out of the ski review section so it can be it's own discussion. Here is the process I use to mount pins:

The earlier posters are correct--the skis are symmetrical and the bindings are asymmetrical (the wider side goes to the outsides of the skis).

How to mount 3-pin bindings:

Tools: #3 Posidrive (or Pozidriv) screwdriver (not Phillips), drill, centerpunch (or sharp nail),
9/64 inch drill bit, 4-hour (or longer) epoxy

Posidrive screwdriver:
http://www.akers-ski.com/Merchant2/m...Category_Code=
BTW, the BD Binding Buddy has a posidrive bit
http://www.rei.com/product/791389

0. If you remove old bindings, there are small plastic plugs that you can put in the old holes. However you do it, plug and epoxy the old holes to keep water out of the ski core.

1. Put 2 inch masking tape on the mounting zone of the ski.
(To draw lines on.)
2. Draw ski centerline on tape.
3. To find (lengthwise) center of ski. I balance the ski over a
sharp edge="balance line". Other definitions of center: halfway
between tip and tail, halfway between ground contact points. (All
should yield similar results.) The balance line is probably best for
XC skis.
4. Average balance line from both skis and draw on tape.
5. Locate hole #1 on centerline 1 inch forward of balance line. (This
puts the pins on the balance line.)
6. Center-punch and drill hole #1 with 9/64 inch (3.6mm) bit.
Use tape on drill bit to limit depth. (It is best not to drill holes
through the base. . It can be fixed if you do...)
7. Dry mount (no glue) the binding with #1 screw only.
8. Put boot in binding. (Note left and right bindings and boots are
different. The skis are symmetrical.)
9. Center heel on ski. (I put a bit of tape on the back of the
heel, lay a straight edge from the center pin hole across the
center of the heel, and mark where the straight edge crosses the
back of the heel. When centering the heel on the ski, I simply
align this mark with the ski centerline.)
10. Remove boot without rotating binding.
11. Trace holes #2 and #3 from holes in binding.
12. Remove binding and drill holes #2 and #3.
13. Dry mount binding with all 3 screws.
14. Dry mount heel plate under center of boot heel with 1 screw. (#4)
(Don't install the plastic snap-in plate until final mount.)
15. Do other ski up to this point.
16. Remove bindings and heel plates. (Keep left bindings with left ski,
etc. The holes may not be symmetric.)
17. Mix epoxy and put in holes.
18. Mount bindings and wait for glue to harden. (I wait til the next day.)
19. Ski
Code:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
bal line=pin line
|
| #2
|-1 inch-| 0
ski | ski
tip cl------0--------+------------------------------------0--cl tail
#1 | #4
| 0
| #3
|

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
* In case you need to remove the bindings, 4-hour epoxy can be
softened by heat, faster epoxy cannot.
* It is worth reading http://www.telemarktips.com/BindingMount.html This describes how to mount similar Telemark bindings rather than XC ski bindings, but some of the tips are useful.

Doug

Here is the original:

http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.p ... post367172

PS I don't use a template.

[Woodserson]

If you really want to make your life easy, Voile's and I'm assuming Rottefella use a 3.5x9.5mm drill bit, you can get those here:

http://www.slidewright.com/alpine--nord ... l-bits.php

[MikeK]

Also I'm using this driver, I like it quite a bit:

http://www.kctoolco.com/wiha-softfinish ... oC5dTw_wcB

[Cannatonic]

Skis are on the way, picking up some 3-pin cable bindings. I know how to find chord center and balance point, do the pins go on the balance point, or chord center? I have mounted quite a few alpine bindings, making my own paper templates, but there was always a line on the ski and a line on the boot. I am new to mounting pins, and would appreciate some help.
Thank you

what are the skis? is this more XC, or ski area, etc?

[lilcliffy]

Fisheater is speaking of the Asnes USGI Combat skis from Coleman's. The original question was posted in the ASnes Combat review.

[fisheater]

The skis are the Anses USGI Combat Skis. The binding are Voile 3-pin cables. I am going 3 pin because I ski on T-4 boots. The cable is removable and it will probably stay in the pack. I have some S-bound 112's, that I enjoy, but not really the best choice for a quick kick around the groomed trail.
The second set are for my son. They are probably a little stiff and big, but he likes the ski hill better than kicking. These are so he can ski the easier MTB trails we ride.
I do not have boots for him yet, and he may use the military boot binding on his. I am driving to ski this weekend, a shop I called near our destination has some of those bindings. I had only called about kick wax and 3-pins. No use buying boots that will not fit next year.
Thank you,
Bob

[lilcliffy]

Bob,

Did you get an answer to your original question regarding balance point versus chord-center?

You may already know this- mounting at chord-center on a traditional Nordic ski moves the binding forward of balance point (with some current designs, balance point/chord-center are near the same).

The traditional perspective is that balance point offers the most effective K&G performance.

Moving the binding position forward improves turning initiation- especially on hard/dense snow.

I have all of my XC-focused XC & XCD skis mounted at balance point.

My residual "Telemark" setups are mounted forward of balance point.

My downhill techniques on flexible BC-XC gear do not suffer from the binding being mounted at balance point. On flexible BC-XC tech- I physically pick up my skis A LOT during turn transitions.

[Cannatonic]

so LC where would you mount those Ingstad - if BP is 1cm behind CC. On that shape of ski it doesn't matter much, the two points are almost on top of each other. I would go with BP on the USGI skis, they're true XC skis.

[MikeK]

I measured the same relationship on the USGI ski, see the table in the review. I mounted those on BP. Shouldn't matter much.