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June, 2025

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Idea for CAST systems

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-eREKTion-
Posts: 1632 - Karma: 10,996
Hear me out, what if CAST made plates for heel pieces too? Get CAST plates for all your skis and swap out your pivots and add pin toes when needed. Sounds pretty sick, admittedly, all my skis are in the same break size range but I think it could be a good way to lower the price barrier in ski equipment. Also, I feel like ski/binding manufacturers could have solved this problem years ago if they weren’t money grabbing bitches.


someone tell me I’m stupid and wrong.
4 years ago
12 0
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tmwtrmash
Posts: 149 - Karma: 1,065
Idk if u have heard of quiver killers but they claim to let you swap one set of bindings between skis w machine screw inserts. I dont know the reliability of them but people do use them so...
4 years ago
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anders_a
Posts: 1680 - Karma: 5,605
I have CAST on all my pivot skis, as I mount all my pivot skis with Binding Freedom inserts

If you use a jig, its 100% perfect every time, never had an alignment issue
4 years ago
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anders_a
Posts: 1680 - Karma: 5,605
Should add I was suuuuuuper sceptical to inserts like quiver killer or binding freedom before, but damn, they are just solid! way more than a traditional screw mount, especially lighter skis with lighter cores the difference is huge.
4 years ago
4 0
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Thegenericskier
Posts: 2960 - Karma: 34,928
just gave my final marketing presentation on a product like this. might be trying to make something work this summer with 3d printing
4 years ago
3 0
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Cascara
Posts: 159 - Karma: 451
One of my coworkers and I have been brainstorming and working on some solutions for this exact problem. The main concern we have with with using binding freedom inserts in the heel is that they introduce a large stress concentrations when the ski flexes so skis often break there. We have toyed around with making custom pivot heel plates but haven't gotten very far yet. If we end up figuring out anything clever, I will post back with some photos
4 years ago
3 0
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CatdickBojangles
Posts: 6490 - Karma: 66,562
Pivot toes + tech heel on the way down
4 years ago
9 0
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TRVP_ANGEL
Posts: 12721 - Karma: 120,369
CatdickBojanglesPivot toes + tech heel on the way down


tech heel toe + tech heel . Could revolutionize the game ngl
4 years ago
1 0
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anders_a
Posts: 1680 - Karma: 5,605
lol I might try that just for kicks, even delta will probably be nice! say kingpin 13 heel
4 years ago
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No.Quarter
Posts: 5257 - Karma: 16,966
LINE_EnginerdOne of my coworkers and I have been brainstorming and working on some solutions for this exact problem. The main concern we have with with using binding freedom inserts in the heel is that they introduce a large stress concentrations when the ski flexes so skis often break there. We have toyed around with making custom pivot heel plates but haven't gotten very far yet. If we end up figuring out anything clever, I will post back with some photos


Thread size and stress concentration should be inverse relationships right? So an insert would result in a lower stress concentration than a normal screw.
4 years ago
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Cascara
Posts: 159 - Karma: 451
No.QuarterThread size and stress concentration should be inverse relationships right? So an insert would result in a lower stress concentration than a normal screw.


Ya, you are totally right but in my experience that is not what happens in skis.

We have seen many broken skis at the location of the inserts. This even happens on skis that don't break otherwise. My belief is that it has more to do with removing a large amount of the composites on the top of the beam which are handling large compressive loads in bending. The neutral axis in skis is relatively low because the steel is soo stiff. a Low neutral axis means the top composite layers have to carry a lot of compressive stress. The different in stiffness between the insert, fiberglass layers and core induce additional stresses in that location where the amount of reinforcement is lower. Ultimately the failure we see it the top layers buckling away from the core at the location of the inserts.

That make sense?
4 years ago
0 0
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No.Quarter
Posts: 5257 - Karma: 16,966
LINE_EnginerdYa, you are totally right but in my experience that is not what happens in skis.

We have seen many broken skis at the location of the inserts. This even happens on skis that don't break otherwise. My belief is that it has more to do with removing a large amount of the composites on the top of the beam which are handling large compressive loads in bending. The neutral axis in skis is relatively low because the steel is soo stiff. a Low neutral axis means the top composite layers have to carry a lot of compressive stress. The different in stiffness between the insert, fiberglass layers and core induce additional stresses in that location where the amount of reinforcement is lower. Ultimately the failure we see it the top layers buckling away from the core at the location of the inserts.

That make sense?


Yeah I think so, you're saying that the top layers of composite aren't as effective in their ability to retain their strength with threaded features? Similar to how it is difficult to make threads in a carbon fiber part so the solution is more often to install an aluminum insert that is reliant on the geometry and surface interfaces bonding well rather than cutting threads into the composite.
4 years ago
0 0
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No.Quarter
Posts: 5257 - Karma: 16,966
actually that was a bad analogy but my point is that the issue lies in the ability of composites to retain strength in threaded features.
4 years ago
0 0
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Cascara
Posts: 159 - Karma: 451
No.Quarteractually that was a bad analogy but my point is that the issue lies in the ability of composites to retain strength in threaded features.


Chopped strand composites can do a good job retaining screws.
4 years ago
0 0
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dolanslebensraum
Posts: 5959 - Karma: -13,093
-eREKTion-Hear me out, what if CAST made plates for heel pieces too? Get CAST plates for all your skis and swap out your pivots and add pin toes when needed. Sounds pretty sick, admittedly, all my skis are in the same break size range but I think it could be a good way to lower the price barrier in ski equipment. Also, I feel like ski/binding manufacturers could have solved this problem years ago if they weren’t money grabbing bitches.


someone tell me I’m stupid and wrong.

Since when does your idea give birth to smarter indian babies
4 years ago
0 1
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