Rant: Rottefella NNN/Universal JIG piece of JUNK

[Woodserson]

I can't stand it anymore. The newer (by a few years) Rott universal jig is a giant piece of junk. I hate it. It comes with multiple plastic inserts for different bindings in an attempt to do lots with less and it fails the precision test miserably. The plastic insert bends at a different rate than the metal frame when you place the jig on the ski and there is unacceptable amount of play between the plastic and frame. This leads to variations in hole placement that leads to bindings that are not parallel to the ski-- the whole gddmm point of using a jig!

I've struggled with this jig for three years, mounted more than a dozen skis with it, and found a way to make it work by holding the plastic insert firmly against my chest, blah blah blah with lots of double checking and more complicated techniques, but today after successfully mounting my Ingstad WL I went to mount my Green Mans and something wandered about half a millimeter WHICH MAY SEEM INCONSEQUENTIAL until you notice that the binding is pointing off in some other direction when multiplied over the length of a 200cm ski and the tail of binding is clearly hanging off one side.

So now I have holes in a ski and I'm going to have to fill them and redrill. Unfortunately they are exactly where I want the binding (I went with -1cm BP) and so now I'm going to have to puzzle out a new location because drilling new holes will be so close to the old one that the screws or the drill bit will just find their way back to the original holes. Unless I use marine epoxy, but that could crack when driving a new screw unless I time it perfectly and get to redrill when it's hard enough to not let the bit into the old hole and yet soft enough to accept the new screw. I'm just rambling now.

Avoid this jig at all costs, look for the older metal ones. My Voile jig does great double duty with the NNN-BC but only if the ski is wide enough, the new Voile Jig doesn't fit the 54mm waisted ski anymore (duh).

AVOID

[Verskis]

Paper jigs have done it for me, thumbs up for them!

[Johnny]

Hey, that's the one I bought last summer... But I actually never used it as I finally found my old Voile one...

Sad to see it's a piece of crap... 3p jigs are getting very hard to find...!

[DPO777]

Yes I can relate on that with the be all binding jig not working as it should. The older one was more solid but only did up to the BC binding configuration.

For the reasons you have outlined I made my own templates out of some aluminum flat stock.

One is for BC bindings with screws and the other is for BC bindings with Stainless Steel inserts.

Just used it on 5 sets of skis using the screw version and worked really well. Yes you have to mark centers and clamp down but fair trade off for accuracy and you can clamp template to any waist width ski. I think the Rossi jig has a ski width limit?

Going to make one for the Xplore binding. Maybe I should go into production LOL

I found this downloadable paper centering sheet works well. Doesn't matter on printout scale accuracy as you are going to balance it equal from steel edge to steel edge. Print in color as it makes it easier to fine tune. Leave a bit extra paper either side of the ruler when you cut it out and fold it in behind. It lasts a lot longer as thicker when you pressure onto the steel edges.

https://www.slidewright.com/Bindings/sk ... jJjrv6y4eu

I use a collar on the drill and a brake line reamer to chamfer the top of the holes. Amazon of course for that.

One note is the E99 where bang on on the balance point across the two skis, the Rossi 65s close but the Sporten explorer skins and the surprisingly the Asnes Gammie 54s were up to a centimeter + different balance point btween skis. So I went equal center point favoring the tip up off balance a bit. I figured I could just double side tape a suitable size coin to the back of the one ski to bring tip up a bit as well but likely not going to notice in my realm of skiing talents.

A bit more on the BC binding and template here

http://www.telemarktalk.com/viewtopic.p ... 8ad#p72559

[corlay]

I think the only advantage of a "jig",
is to determine the center of the ski *base*,
and translate that mark to the top of the ski.
(because you want to center a binding at the mid-line of the base, and *not* the top of the ski, because those two geometries aren't necessarily consistent with eachother)

For all other setup,
I get by just fine with a set of vernier calipers...

[Bohemian]

Thanks for the info! Now I'm happy for having bought several old Rottefella jigs from the times well before that "new" jig with all that plastic.
It would be nice to find a Voile jig for mounting Switchback & 3-pin hardwire bindings.

[Theme]

I recently got myself the jig. It sure does have some slack... but works quite ok if you find the right direction to hold the plastic piece against, while drilling.

But the greatest issue was, that aside from the blue Xplore mounting plates, the rest had issues in the heel plates. I had my NNN-BC heel guide split apart. It would not lock in place like usual. Without too much force. It just snapped.



Turns out that the edge holding it against the metal had faulty molding or something, making it too large/sharp. Basically impossible to snap into place.



Seems Rotte has tried to solve this by cutting a groove in the faulty heel plates, instead of scrapping them... to give it a bit more range of motion, but also increasing the risk of breaking it. No doubt I'd break the others too if I tried pushing them on.



No wonder the piece broke.



Compared to the blue one, the shape is rough and the groove weakens this structure.

[bmholt_]

Oh, wild. I've mounted more NNN/Xplore setups than I can count with that jig and haven't ever had it lead me astray. It's also the only one we've ever had in our shop though so I have no point of reference. I do agree that it's a little janky feeling, especially compared to the old metal Voile jig we have for their tele stuff, but I haven't ever found it to be so far off that it caused any real issues.

[DPO777]

I recently got myself the jig. It sure does have some slack... but works quite ok if you find the right direction to hold the plastic piece against, while drilling.

But the greatest issue was, that aside from the blue Xplore mounting plates, the rest had issues in the heel plates. I had my NNN-BC heel guide split apart. It would not lock in place like usual. Without too much force. It just snapped.



Turns out that the edge holding it against the metal had faulty molding or something, making it too large/sharp. Basically impossible to snap into place.



Seems Rotte has tried to solve this by cutting a groove in the faulty heel plates, instead of scrapping them... to give it a bit more range of motion, but also increasing the risk of breaking it. No doubt I'd break the others too if I tried pushing them on.



No wonder the piece broke.



Compared to the blue one, the shape is rough and the groove weakens this structure.

Doesn't that jig have a limit on the width of ski you can mount it on?

Too bad on your plastic breakage.

In the past I find a dedicated jig works better than a do all jig. The ones I made from 1/4" aluminum flat plate are dedicated to the NNN-BC binding only and can do any width ski. It will not break for as long as the BC binding is still being used. The ones that have plastic moving parts I find are more delicate and subject to breakage over the long haul unless you are very gentle with them. Of course with anything YEMV.

[DPO777]

Thanks for the info! Now I'm happy for having bought several old Rottefella jigs from the times well before that "new" jig with all that plastic.
It would be nice to find a Voile jig for mounting Switchback & 3-pin hardwire bindings.

It as well can be made from the aluminum flat stock and serve your skis and your friends skis for years.

They will always be bringing the beer and or treats in exchange to mount their bindings LOL