Mounting Marker Tour Bindings

The thing about skiing the "backcountry" in Pennsylvania is that we don't get a lot of snow.  The highest snow regions in PA average around 150 inches per year (Laurel Highlands) and the Pittsburgh region is much less, around 40 inches if we're lucky.  This means that for "sidecountry" or "urban backcountry" skiing, I need to take out my rock skis.  For this I have relied heavily on my original prototype Goliath skis which have traditional alpine bindings.  I finally found a pair of affordable Marker Tour F10 bindings and decided to mount them on the Goliaths.

The great thing about Marker Duke, Baron, and Tour bindings is that they come with an adhesive mounting template as shown below.

The mounting template gives you the boot/binding center for a range of boot sole lengths, so once you know your boot length you can line up the center of the template as necessary.  At this point you should already have the proper Small or Large binding depending on your boot size.  When finding the boot center location on the ski you have to make sure that the new pilot holes are not too close to past drill holes or you could tear out a screw or weaken the ski too much.  Once you have mounted your template you will need to drill the holes.

Marker recommends a 9.5 mm deep hole with an unspecified diameter.  A little internet research will point you to a 3.5mm or 3.6mm diameter bit unless you have a metal topsheet in which case a 4.1mm bit is recommended.  In typical frugal engineer fashion, instead of buying a bit I decided to use a bit I had; 3.6mm is equal to 0.142 inches which is remarkably close to a 9/64 inch bit (0.141in).  To get the 9.5mm depth I taped off the drill bit as shown below.  Drill the five holes for the toe and four holes for the heel of each binding using the proper Small or Large pattern.

 Once complete, I filled the old holes with a two part epoxy to ensure that water would not get down into the core.

 Prior to mounting the bindings, I filled each drill hole with a water resistant wood glue; epoxy will do the same job.  The glue simply seals water out of the hole and helps keep the screw in place over time.  You can mount the toe or heel part of the binding first, it doesn't matter.  Just make sure the release mechanism operates properly once you've got it mounted.  To install the toe screws you will have to have the binding in the engaged position for some and touring position for others.
 

 

 Once the bindings are mounted you will have to adjust the binding properly for you boot.  This is where I'm supposed to recommend you have this done at your local ski shop so they can properly test release of the boot. However, if you choose to do it yourself, Marker provides instructions.  The DIN setting is simple; the toe piece (on the side) and heel piece (just behind the red indicator gage) each have a screw that adjusts the spring tension.  There are many DIN calculators online.

Once the DIN is set you will want to adjust the toe plate.  The Marker Duke, Baron, and Tour toe plates are adjustable to fit alpine or touring bindings.  This is adjusted with a screw at the front of the toe piece as shown below.  Marker provides a nice gage to ensure the toe piece is adjusted correctly. Simply place the folded gage between the boot and binding.  adjust the gap until you can pull the gage out and expose the green check mark and not the red x.  If you cannot pull it out at all, then it is too tight.

Finally, you will need to adjust the heel piece.  This can be done when the boot is locked into the binding.  Adjust the screw until it is flush with the binding as shown below.  Make sure to release and lock the boot again to verify.

 I am really looking forward to taking these new bindings out for a test run when PA finally gets some snow this year.

Final Details and Testing

This year I decided to use the Marker Baron again which I removed from the original Aftermaths.  I plan to use these skis for a small amount of touring if the weather ever corporates.  At this point the original Aftermaths have been retired due to the stiffness being too high.  I may mount different bindings on them someday.  My friend Matt again offered to help me mount the bindings and tune the skis again this year.  The bases were fairly flat, but were slightly convex due to epoxy seeping under the edge of the tips and tails during pressing.

The finalized skis are shown below.

 

This years skis are light at 7lb 0oz for the pair (1591 grams per ski, 3181 grams total); this makes them the lightest skis I have made.  For comparison, the 177 cm long Volkl Kendo, which has a very similar width but is 9cm shorter, weighs in at 1849 grams per ski, or 3698 grams total (8lb 2.2 oz). The skis have a good flex and good torsional resistance.  Their performance on the hill was exceptional. I took them to a local resort, Blue Knob, which is known for having the best terrain in the mid-Atlantic.  I put the skis to the test: speed, agility around moguls, and impact off of a few jumps and drop-offs, and even some fresh powder.  I am looking forward to taking them out west in March.

 

Bindings, Grinding, Sharpening, and Wax

The final steps in the ski building process are to mount bindings, grind the base, sharpen the edges, and wax the skis.  I have done all of these steps in the past, but didn't have time to do them all myself this year.  I took the skis to Cycle Sport and Ski in Greensburg, PA and had the skis finished off there.  Using a professional grinding machine and expertise does have its benefits.

One additional step I needed to complete once the shop was done with them was to seal the edges of the skis.  In the process of finishing the skis, I ground the tip and tail round and ground the edges.  This process exposed some of the wood core.  In order to ensure that the core was safe from water I mixed up a little extra epoxy and went around the edges.

The ground and waxed base:

 The finished skis:

The bindings I used are shown below; note that none of these were bought at full price.  There is typically a significant discount for bindings from previous seasons.

Marker Free Ten Binding (MSRP $210)

Head Gold Thang Binding (MSRP $215)

Marker Baron Alpine Touring Binding (MSRP $445)

A final cost assessment shows that for three skis it took approximately $816 and 101 hrs of labor.  Per ski this is $272 and 34 hours of work.  Some of the final cost of the skis went into building the molds and templates; this would reduce the cost of the skis into the $240 range.  If I were to make $20 per hour working on this skis I would have to charge $920 per pair.  Ordering materials in bulk and automating machining processes would save additional costs.  Note that bindings, grinding, sharpening and waxing are not factored into this price.  A full cost and labor report is below:

For price and ski style comparison two Volkl skis are listed below.  I'm not saying that my skis are just as good as Volkl skis, but just comparing the price for a similar style ski:

Panjshir:  Gotama $825
Arlia:       Kenja $775

 Three generations of HOLUTA skis: