JRAZZ

That's the advantage of using countersunk screws. They are surprisingly forgiving for a mismatched angle. The real problem is in length though. Once you have a lot of cant ant lift the difference between the 4 screws is big and then you need to be careful when you screw them in so you don't punch a hole through the bottom of your board.

That looks great! Can you post the code? (maybe as an attachment or in line if it's short?) The lightening holes should be dead simple as they should not have any rounding on them. The bottom rounding is the most important as that prevents a sharp contact point with the board (and possible topsheet damage) Anyway, that's the way I thought to make the parts. Design in an easy to use package and then, once I know what I want, import it to OpenSCAD.

I am NOT the source for plate recommendations. I was being slightly poky because I just discovered them for softboot riding.

Hmmmm... Really doubt you'll find a mainstream board that's burly enough for hardboots. Most manufacturers want their boards to be approachable and making them strong enough for hardboots makes them too stiff for most riders. You can find inexpensive boards though! I'm a huge fan of Steepwaters (not the Arbor made version but the original). Yeah, it's flat and has an extruded base but it's pretty thick and has a nice big sidecut for a "softboot" board. Hugely versatile and pretty robust. Dirt cheap too. I've been riding mine with softboots, hardboots, and now softboots with plates. It can take it. Hit up @www.oldsnowboards.com he might still have some available. I have no familiarity with the Prior 4x4 but they seem to be regarded as great all-mountain boards too. Other than that I think @lonbordin's suggestion of stalking the "for Sale" forum here is probably your best bet of getting an inexpensive all-mountain board that can handle hardboots.

That's why plates rule!

Look here:

Yeah, that was and still is the plan. However the deeper I delve into OpenSCAD the more it looks like I have to write a Python script to really get the geometry I want. :( Some people like to have toe lift and this can be added with the definition of another plane. Since I don't use lifts I didn't bother. Keep in mind that the thickness (23.5mm) is critical for the 40mm countersunk screws. The twist is there so the bottom is perpendicular with the board. When you mount your bindings at an angle this creates an asymmetry that might make the board twist while you bend it. The theory is that having the bindings mount perpendicular to the board eliminates that. In my very non scientific test yesterday it seems that the board reacted to this very well. I come form a background of CAD. Have been using various tools for the past 15 years or so. I really like what Onshape is doing. They're basically building a first rate parametric modeler and giving it to everyone through a browser. I've been waiting for years for something like this to come along. To me, having the files also being hosted by them is awesome as well. p.s. They have a phone app (iOS and Android I think). Check it out. If you have an iPad you can design on it.

Interesting. I have a 163 twin with a 25cm waist. I run it with a 21.5" (54.5cm) stance. I do run forward angles (27/9) but I can't imagine bending with the feet that far apart. I say take a screwdriver to the hill and try out a couple of different stances. You might be surprised what feels good.

Thanks :) I've been using Onshape for some time now for personal stuff. Really great fro stuff like this. It's completely free, parametric, and easy to share. They only stipulate that your designs are public unless you pay. I don't mind that one bit as it's really powerful. Probably can do 90% of what you can do with Solidworks. Maybe a bit less convenient. Oh, and did I mention it runs in your browser? No installation needed. Yeah, it's a game changer. I'll get around to makind an OpenSCAD model but for now this will have to do :) Anyway, here's the link to the CAD model of the plates. It's parametric so anyone with CAD familiarity should be able to modify it to their needs. If anyone is shy about that, let me know and I'll generate STL files for you based on the cant and angles you need. https://cad.onshape.com/documents/c7776aa1f3f95b931cb7cf21/w/7c3a90a27e138083b406b429/e/11d76d5de9e966be0f554e2c Thanks! I'm really psyched about incorporating these two hobbies

Aaaaand the verdict is.... They work. Well what did I expect? They felt solid and nothing came loose. My stance was a lot more comfortable and I had no problems moving the board around. I rode this board with softboots and hardboots before and this setup really reminded me of how the hardboots felt. Definitely had more authority. I looked over the board and nothing was sticking out, broken, or loose so I'm calling this a success! I'm going to go back into CAD and make a version I can post on Thingiverse. If I get it right it will be customizable so anyone can get in and get the angles/cants they want. Democracy!!!! One nice thing I noticed is that since there is essentially a hard plastic tube around each screw, there isn't any binding suck! The base is totally flat. You could really feel that in how the board ran on the flat.

I try to run 1.3333/π... Really depends if I can get my protractor to measure in mils.

Fun day up with Odd Job. Snow was firm. People were too much. Made progress and had fun, cannot complain!

Fair enough... I made the screw holes a tight fit to minimize the side loads. Should also help with them backing out. I’ll examine them today and see if anything came loose. Possibly loctite them in. Thanks for the heads up!

I am. 40mm socket head. What’s the concern?

Tru dat! Once you go brown....

Anybody planning to ride tomorrow? (Friday)

^^^ Awesome :) I might skip work tomorrow and test these out. Will let you know!

Absolutely, your thread got me thinking about printed plates so I have to thank you for that! Honestly I was contemplating saving up for power plates. Here are the print details. Slicer: Cura Layer height: 0.2mm (0.4mm nozzle) Infill: 20% triangles - I wanted good strength top to bottom Material: ABS - For cold weather performance (see this link for good cold weather plastics). Once I run out of red I'll use Black as it is much more UV resistant. PETG should also be a good choice. Stay away from ASA as it gets really brittle. Temps: 250/95 (nozzle/bed) with an enclosure. This combination yields excellent layer adhesion. Wall/floor/ceiling thickness: 0.8mm Print time was ~24 hours for both plates together The plates came out super super strong. The rule of thumb for stress on general plastics is 3kg/mm^2. Taking into account infill density and wall thickness this should be able to support up to 3 metric tons before collapsing . I weigh a lot but not that much. You'd be surprised at how strong these materials are in compression. I would only be worried if you set these up in tension perpendicular to the layers. I would love to see what we can come up with next!

These came out really sweet! Both plates together weigh ~200 grams are dead straight and super tough. They position the binding exactly as I wanted. Now I just need to ride them. If I can get a certain softboot rider to get over his disdain of no camber boards we might get a second opinion :)

I say keep it going. I live vicariously through you :)

Latest OpenSCAD file will always be posted here. Power_Plate.scad

I want to try and ride my softboot board with plates. However, dropping $$$ on a power plate or gecko system is just not in the cards right now. What is? 3D printing! Fire up the CAD, sketch up a snowboard, drop in some plates (3 degree cant, 27/9 front/back, 25mm rise) Slice it up Print in ABS And 16 hours later we have this: Which is totally unworkable! For some reason I placed the screw holes 50mm apart. Wonder why I can't mount it... So right now I got the new version printing. More to come! And I'm also working on an adjustable version. Once it's ready I'll post the files. EDIT: Sorry but with the move to ASF we lost the pictures. I'll readd them here along with the current SCAD file. Power_Plate.scad

I'm almost in the same boat. Last week I got to try Mr @slopestar's monster Saber back to back with my Donek Twin (which used to be his as well). My takeaway is the same, e.i. the Twin is a flexy fun poppy board while the Saber is all business. I think you need both. Sometimes you need to be serious and sometimes you need to goof off. Once I fill the coffers and get the boss's approval I think I'll give Sean a call!

Don’t talk about food! Don’t you know there’s an Odd Job about?

^^^ dude, that avatar is sweet! This day sucked! Huuuuge crew so I won't be naming any names or pointing fingers, sorry. I do want to say that we had a rare pcdenver sighting though. Conditions were bleh (technical term). 2"-3" on crust with a throng of exuberant straightliners thrown on top. Was not fun and some checked out early. All was not lost though! Progress was made, conclusions were reached and understandings were to be had! Silver lining there. Lance, you didn't miss anything. You definitely made the right call! Aaron, Thanks for the back foot tip! That was exactly what I needed. Made a huge difference. Here's hoping for a firmer, quieter one next week!