POLR 2019 Binding

[jasonq]

So, last spring and early summer was spent fiddling with the design. pretty much functionally unchanged.

What has changed is i redesigned pretty much every plastic part to be printable on my home 3d printer and simplifed everything as much as possible. And spend hours and hours trying different filaments types, brands, and print setings. Now i can print or machine all the parts needed at my home shop. printing takes about 40 hours per pair of bindings. yeah, FDM 3d printers are slow.

pretty confident about all the parts, except one aspect of the riser. if that proves too weak in FDM (it was fine with SLS and MJF), i have a design that adds a stainless support tube.

before getting the pics, here are the parts and descriptions:
threaded swage: machined from a vented 1/4-20 set screw using my micromill as a lathe (set screw in collet, lathe bit in vise)
cable: cut and swaged with hand swager

cable adjuster barrel: 3/8" OD aluminum tube cut to length, cleaned up, and threaded 1/4-20 down the center
cable adjuster cap: 3d printed from eSun PETG held into barrel by 1/4-20 screw (head of screw takes the load)

Spring: Axl Stiffy

heel cross bar: machined from 1/2" aluminum rod using my micromill

heel pad: 3d printed from eSun PETG

heel throw: 3d printed from Taulman Alloy 910 nylon

leash pull: 3d printed from eSun PETG

Riser: 3d printed from Taulman Alloy 910 nylon

And Pics:

[Nick D]

That looks really slick Jason. Can you clip the heel throw behind the riser for climbing? I assume weight wise it’s +/- 1,000 grams.

[jasonq]

yeah, that is exactly how the heel arrangement works. you can clip the throw behind the pad. And the elevator has 3 positions:
heel throw clipped and above elevator for carrying the skis. (2nd pic of binding, one without boot)
heel throw clipped, elevatorin middle position for touring with a flat heel (left pic in the side by side)
heel throw clipped, elevator under boot (right pic in the side by side).
elevatoragainst ski, throw on boot for skiing down (last pic)

so touring you go between the middle position and under boot position.

for longer climbs the entire cable assembly, springs and all comes off/on in a few seconds with no tools. just slide the springs forward of the binding riser, slide the cables out the sides. hard to see the the outside plastic around the springs does not go all the way to the ski surface so once the springs are slid forwards, you can move the cables out sideways.

[backcountrybananaboy]

Ingenious design. I think the heel throw snapping behind the heel piece ala bd01 is one of the more elegant ways to deal with the cables while touring on TTS bindings, but it does require more stack height. I think removing the cartridges for each transition is excessive fiddle-factor. Whats the weight and hows it ski?!

[dschane]

Nice design, amazing 3D printing.

[chamonix]

Elegant design..

[jnicol]

Very nice Jason! What a lot of work you have put into these, and it looks to have paid off well.

I like the springs out front and nothing under the boot to catch snow. I wonder if your bellow support comes back far enough though? I don't see any way to adjust the pivot - I'm sure you don't care as you probably made it perfectly to match your own taste.

I notice you've also beautified and formalized the boot bungee - with matching colour no less!

[Charley White]

Very great. Continuing inspiration, Jason.

[jasonq]

some answers to questions...

stack height. the heel is the exact same height as the axl hammerheel. And the ramp angle is what i am used to (~= voile hard wire, which is probably the same as a switchback).

i haven't skied this exact version, but i i skied most of last year on one that should ski exactly the same. same pivot, springs, geometry, etc, and it was pretty much what i wanted

no, pivot is not adjustable, because i dialed it in with adjustable versions. once i knew where i wanted it, it simplified a lot to just fix it there.

bellow support is plenty for me. just enough drop + just enough support.

weight, all in is ~600 grams, which is higher than you'd expect. The main reason is i am using a vertical toe which is all steel, that is 155 grams. most of these things have all aluminum toes. if i changed to the cheapest toe available today, a speed turn2 (Al + steel), it would drop ~30 grams. If i went to a superlight toe, it would drop ~80 grams. Beyond that, using the G3 mount pattern and mounting the dynatoe to the riser means the riser is beefier. if it mounted thru the riser, etc, it would drop about 15 grams. Lastly, the heel is printed from PETG which is about 15% heavier than nylon, that is about 5 grams (but PETG is about 1/3 the cost). And super lastly, a heel elevator like the HH would drop more weight since the steel wire is shorter since it starts above the surface of the ski, probably another 5 grams. So getting to 500 grams is certainly possible, and straight forward, if i want to spend 300 bucks on super light toes.

[jorider]

Very impressive Jason, thanks for sharing, learning a lot from your post's, building my own design as well. I'm finding the 3d printing very challenging but it's really cool that you can create and build your own binding, especially when it turns out that it ski's awesome.

[jnicol]

no, pivot is not adjustable, because i dialed it in with adjustable versions. once i knew where i wanted it, it simplified a lot to just fix it there.

bellow support is plenty for me. just enough drop + just enough support.

Nice to be able to go as simple and light as possible.

[Dostie]

jasonq,

Awesome stuff. Knowing how long this stuff takes to tinker with makes the cost of Meidjo downright affordable. Or Lynx. Or Outlaw. But especially Switchback.

[Charley White]

Jason, I'm curious about the "heel cross bar." Can you explain some of the performance and assembly considerations in its design?

[telemarkmark]

Brilliant! The smooth action of an Axl, power of the Tech Toe, change from ski to frère pivot without removing the boot, strip down for climbing, all with a very respectable low weight. When I first saw this I did wonder why better than the previous versions, but I had not appreciated that the spring and cable assembly could be easily removed. You definitely have a winner here. Looks not too difficult to put together, will you be making the 3D printer files available?

[dschane]

weight, all in is ~600 grams, which is higher than you'd expect.

That's still impressively wicked light.

I'll take a pair; where's the add-to-your-cart button.