Here’s a 3D-printable rendition of a “Free-bord style” toe-hook that I made. I changed the way that it mounts a little because I never liked the way that the Free-bord bindings were fastened. I’m not exactly certain why. I think it has something to do with the fact that you have to turn them a lot to get a small change in the angle on the toe-hook. This way works better for me.
The hook part slide-adjusts and locks into place with 1/4" x 1 1/4" bolts and t-nuts. It has a 3/4" range. I reinforced the post on the baseplate with a 5/16" x 1 1/12" bolt. This bolt-hole can also be used for fastening the bindings to your deck, but a longer bolt would have to be used. The mounting-holes on the base-plate are the same width as truck-holes and there is a range of adjustment right around 30 degrees.
I haven’t had a chance to do testing with these, but they do seem quite sturdy. If you give them a shot, be careful and check them frequently to make sure that they aren’t starting to break.
The spring-loaded design in the back-ground is a stop on the way to making a ratcheting toe-hook that would clamp down like a safety bar on a roller coaster and then release with a button.
This is very cool, I might give it a try! Though I would print the deck-mount part 90° from the orientation you have it, so the layer lines are straight up and down when it’s mounted to the deck. That way it doesn’t want to snap along one of those layer lines.
I would love to be able to mount these to the existing binding holes on my Haero Bro. Would you be interested in designing a mounting bracket for that? I’m pretty sure that MTB decks use a standardized bolt pattern for bindings, so that could be one-size-fits-all for carvers and eMTB’s
What do you think about a toolless height adjustment? I had envisioned it could just be a chunky tab you have to bend then you can pull it up a notch or ratchet it back down.
I might be able to figure that out. In this design the bolts squeeze the toe-hook part in place which gets rid of play between the two parts. It keeps it from wiggling. That could be a possible problem for a tool-less design.
I just printed one out. Reoriented the base 90 degrees so the print lines would be stronger to the main force, used 100% infill for the base and I think 30% for the hook. 2 colors because I wasn’t sure I had enough black. Didn’t have any T Nuts so used regular. Gave it a test ride in the woods and it seems good, though I don’t seem to have enough clamping force to keep the hook from sliding to the top range of the adjustment under load. Might need to slide some thin rubber in there for better grip when tightening the bolts. Or maybe I need to print the hook at 100% infill for more rigidity.
This is an oldie but a goodie. I didn’t really do much testing on this one before I moved on to the ratcheting design on my website. Your idea to put a thin strip of rubber in there would probably solve the problem with it slipping.
