Mounting SNS Profil Mountings?

I picked up some Fischer RCR Crown skis + SNS Profil Classic bindings
on the cheap over the summer.
I'm thinking about mounting them myself.
I have a 3.5x15 xc-specific drill bit, and I have lots of experience
mounting alpine downhill and alpine touring bindings, but no
experience with xc.
My understanding is that the first step is to find the balance point
of the ski using a scraper.
But are Profil binding paper templates available anywhere? (If not,
seems like getting the distance between the two parts exactly right
could be tricky.)
And if I just have a shop do it (or the area where I patrol at once
their shop opens up in December), anything I should say to them about
the mounting point for that particular ski?

Jonathan,
My advice would be to bring it to a shop and watch the guy do it. There is a
tool (binding jig) they use that is spring loaded and clamps onto the ski.
It centers the drill holes in the jig over the ski from side to side. A
person can do it yourself, but it is easy to mistakenly angle the back of
the binding off to the side. Usually a XC shop will charge $10-15 to mount
bindings.

Another tool they use is a drill bit that goes in the jig limiting how deep
the bit goes.
I saw one ski in our youth ski club that had the mounting screw coming out
the bottom of the base! Not good.

However if you want to try it yourself, what I did is use the binding as a
template. Find the balance point as you described, then use a square and
thin magic marker to put a line across the top of the ski. Then place the
binding pin slot over the line on the ski. To drill the holes, I did it in
one of two ways. Either make a mark with the magic marker through the top of
the binding to locate the center of the holes and then take off the binding,
center punch, then drill. Or clamp the binding onto the ski and use that as
a drill jig. I put a piece of cloth on the bottom of the ski and then used
c-clamps to try and hold the binding down. As I noted, you'll find it hard
to hold the binding in place while drilling and easy to misalign. Not to
mention worrying about crushing your skis. You only get one chance.

As for binding location, center the binding pin slot over the balance point.
Sometimes on classic skis the location will be moved about 1cm. This is
suppose to weight the front of the ski to help keep it in the tracks.

Also, sometimes you find the balance point does not match up between skis. I
was told to 'average' out the location.

--

Paul Haltvick
Bay Design and Build - LLC
Engineering, Construction and Information Technology Services
FSx Midwest - Fischer / Swix Racing

"Jonathan S. Shefftz" wrote in message
oups.com...
I picked up some Fischer RCR Crown skis + SNS Profil Classic bindings
on the cheap over the summer.
I'm thinking about mounting them myself.
I have a 3.5x15 xc-specific drill bit, and I have lots of experience
mounting alpine downhill and alpine touring bindings, but no
experience with xc.
My understanding is that the first step is to find the balance point
of the ski using a scraper.
But are Profil binding paper templates available anywhere? (If not,
seems like getting the distance between the two parts exactly right
could be tricky.)
And if I just have a shop do it (or the area where I patrol at once
their shop opens up in December), anything I should say to them about
the mounting point for that particular ski?

Paul, thanks for the feedback. Sounds like even I bring them into a
local shop, if it's not a very race-oriented shop, then perhaps I
should do the careful measurements for the balance point.
And I agree that mechanic jigs are very helpful - I have the three
jigs for the most popular alpine touring bindings on the market, plus
three alpine downhill jigs, and although I did many alpine touring
mounts before I owned the jigs, sure was easier with them!
I also have the xc-specific 3.5x15mm drill bit (along with six other
ski bits, ugh, what a quiver!) with the depth limiter. Before I owned
them, once a friend mounted some bindings in my work shop using a
regular hardware store drill bit with a huge wad of duct tape wrapped
around it to limit the depth. It worked, but it also convinced me to
get the real tools!


On Sep 26, 9:25 am, "Norski" wrote:
Jonathan,
My advice would be to bring it to a shop and watch the guy do it. There is a
tool (binding jig) they use that is spring loaded and clamps onto the ski.
It centers the drill holes in the jig over the ski from side to side. A
person can do it yourself, but it is easy to mistakenly angle the back of
the binding off to the side. Usually a XC shop will charge $10-15 to mount
bindings.

Another tool they use is a drill bit that goes in the jig limiting how deep
the bit goes.
I saw one ski in our youth ski club that had the mounting screw coming out
the bottom of the base! Not good.

However if you want to try it yourself, what I did is use the binding as a
template. Find the balance point as you described, then use a square and
thin magic marker to put a line across the top of the ski. Then place the
binding pin slot over the line on the ski. To drill the holes, I did it in
one of two ways. Either make a mark with the magic marker through the top of
the binding to locate the center of the holes and then take off the binding,
center punch, then drill. Or clamp the binding onto the ski and use that as
a drill jig. I put a piece of cloth on the bottom of the ski and then used
c-clamps to try and hold the binding down. As I noted, you'll find it hard
to hold the binding in place while drilling and easy to misalign. Not to
mention worrying about crushing your skis. You only get one chance.

As for binding location, center the binding pin slot over the balance point.
Sometimes on classic skis the location will be moved about 1cm. This is
suppose to weight the front of the ski to help keep it in the tracks.

Also, sometimes you find the balance point does not match up between skis. I
was told to 'average' out the location.

--

Paul Haltvick
Bay Design and Build - LLC
Engineering, Construction and Information Technology Services
FSx Midwest - Fischer / Swix Racing

"Jonathan S. Shefftz" wrote in ooglegroups.com...

I picked up some Fischer RCR Crown skis + SNS Profil Classic bindings
on the cheap over the summer.
I'm thinking about mounting them myself.
I have a 3.5x15 xc-specific drill bit, and I have lots of experience
mounting alpine downhill and alpine touring bindings, but no
experience with xc.
My understanding is that the first step is to find the balance point
of the ski using a scraper.
But are Profil binding paper templates available anywhere? (If not,
seems like getting the distance between the two parts exactly right
could be tricky.)
And if I just have a shop do it (or the area where I patrol at once
their shop opens up in December), anything I should say to them about
the mounting point for that particular ski?