#also realizing that my current setup is not the best as my plates are angled weird | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

amazingworkspaces-blog · 7 years ago

Photo

The My DIY battlestation with built in PC and Console. Workspace

Here are some of the products that make this workspace an Amazing Workspace:

Marking holes for exhaust fans.

Let me know if you have questions about V2 or if you would like to see something in particular.

Made the inner hole slightly larger to give me wiggle room. This fixed the issue, not seen here.

Very handy and out of the way.

not too bad, but that little bit in the left corner made me uncomfortable.

Not too bad.

Modular.

I love the desk PC's, but in day to day, I don't like the aluminum look of some and don't find the glass top practical. I wanted something that could look just like regular furniture instead of a desk sized pc case. Additionally, I wanted something that could be just a regular desk with a regular pc in a case next to. Maybe, just like in my original setup, all I wanted to do was to hide the wire clutter and unused electronics, like modems and routers. Maybe all I have is an Xbox and wanted it to sit nicely out of way but in reach. Or maybe, I wanted to have 2 systems in one desk connected to the same monitors, 1 for gaming, 1 for working. I could even have the desk be a corner shape and not just straight. Additionally, I could make it into a his and hers setup, with 2 of everything in one long entertainment unit. Moreover, I have to be able to change any of the above mentioned setup into any other setup with just a few new parts and without the need to buy a whole new desk.

All I can say is I should have never touched MDF for a project like this. This stuff is 3x more expensive though.

More holes drilled though fresh paint. NICE...

Time for transplant.

Time to make some space for cables. Don't ask me why I waited until it was painted, but hey, not the dumbest thing so far.

The best toy EVA!

It will fit a total of 4 standard 5.25" bay thingies. So the vertical panel, just like that middle portion with USB extensions, is made to fit a 5.25" bay. So if I wanted to, i could grab one of those dins that has usb ports and power ports and micro SD ports and it would fit in just perfectly. The left, square portion fits 3 of the 5.25" bays. All i would have to do is get a different aluminum panel with more cutouts if I wanted a professional look. The idea was, it would be cheaper to get a new aluminum plate and spray paint it, than getting a new MDF part and going through the hassle of sealing, priming, painting.

Here is a few grea more ideas that didn't work out as planned.

The lack of space and any prior experience turned this into a very long and tedious process. Additionally I made the smart choice of stacking the freshly sealed panels on top of each other, so they stuck to each other pretty well. The next obvious and "only" logical step was to put brown paper as a separator. And then all my parts had paper stuck to them. On that note I decided to leave that problem for another day.

Main point of this desk was NOT to make a water cooled hard tubed porn, even though it is in the plans, but instead to make functional piece that makes sense. And on that note please don't expect anything extraordinary when it comes to hardware.

A MUST LIST:

Test fitting to see how close my measurements were. It was looking perfect here. Little did I know.

Ooopsies. Wrong hole.

The one with the big hole is for the power cable that will go to the PC side.

Also, I added individual switched to the fan channels. I did this because my 1.5 year old doesn't give a shit about fast spinning objects. To her, there is only one goal, touch the spinny thingie. To save her from her I can turn off finger choppers on the fly.

The desk is made up of simple modules. These are symmetrical square boxes that can be mixed and matched. My build is made up of 3 such modules. The Large, Medium and Small. However, any module can connect to any other module and in any direction. So you could have a large, a small that is connected to another small in a straight line with a Medium module connected at a 90 degree angle to make a corner desk.

Got to do some fidgeting but it's in.

LOVE THE FANS!!!!

Not very clean, but that is due to my lack of understanding on how to use those big cutting cylinder things. Apparently you are supposed to use a drill bit with them as a guide and NOT with the force of all my might to try and keep it centered and in place by hand. But hey, could be worse.

Build Log for the screen wall mount is here https://imgur.com/a/GwG0L

And I stacked them, again.

I decided that the best solution for leg mounting would be threaded inserts. it might have worked, if it wasn't at the "end grain" in an MDF.

Right after taking this picture, one leg fell. But at this point I am so num to problems with this desk I don't even contemplate fixing the scratch. It at the top and not visible. so all good.

Here the pocket for the bolts was misaligned and bolts didn't fit, on ALL front and rear panels. Some were worse than others.

Also, my PSU cables also barely made it.

Start the sealing process.

A few more coats!

Aliment on bolts is OK. Some sank a little more than I wanted to.

Another part of this is modding. I love the idea and love to tinker. However, the fear of ruining a desk, or any other thing you are modding, has prevented me from following through with ideas. (I am not going to cut a few wholes in my desk to make retractable speakers if I know that a clumsy slip up will result in purchase of a new desk). So, the desk needs to made in a way that I could just make modifications and in case I mess up, I could just get spare piece to replace just a small part. On the other side, what if I want a special part. For example I got a new xbox and need to opening to be just right, or bigger fans, and need bigger fan ports. This should all be done in a cheap, fast and efficient manner.

here are covering plates.

The bottom one is green and it flickers.

Trying to organize the wires.

Progress.

As stated before, I came into this without any prior experience with computers or design software. Over the next 2 years, learning everything from scratch and about 7 digital prototypes later, I came up with the following:

This project was great! I learned a lot and spent the last year applying what I learned to create a V2. It is a lot more modular, easier to work with and cheaper to mod. It is currently in the (Garage Painting Stage) and I hope to have another log with in a few month.

The color is very nice in person and the finish is beautiful.

Used the long bots and nuts to hold the wires in place.

The first time my vision is in a physical state.

DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The amount of storage though!

Meh.

In goes the modem/router and the Apple wifi extender thingie.

The aliment is surprisingly good and the overall fitment seems spot on, with the exception of a few places, but with in reason.

except it isn't sticking.

The aliment of panels is great!

Starting to assemble the whole thing see how it all fits.

I lucked out with my design. The AIO's hoses barely make it.

The second set of parts had their share of issues and I had to re cut them for the third time. I ditched the original guy. u/bespokenumerics reached out to me on Reddit with their services. Couldn't be happier with their work. The new parts are the un-primered parts. At this stage I realized that i have to mess with them too much and it is would be a waste of time to primer as it would be scratched and dented by the time It would need to be painted.

I got a small 3d printer and printed these very functional, low profile LED holders. Let me know if you would like a link to the file for these.

OK, time for front I/O to be done.

As you can see I am missing the spots for fan exhaust and paths for cables between compartments and out of the back to the monitors, speakers etc. We will get back to that later.

I am NOT touching another label. This one stays.

Here is the idea behind the design of this panel.

For example, look the bottom part. See that white streak? Yup, from standing it up.

Holes on top are there in case I wanted to move the PC module to the right side. I would just flip the side panels and would have my PC on the right side of the desk and console on the left.

Smooooooth.

It is up! Looks great too. Problem? Yes. Non of the legs in the picture are actually securely connected. This is because I have decided to use threaded inserts as mounting points and one through hole in the bottom part. This being MDF, which is basically wood dist glued together, caused all of the inserts to pop out with legs from the slightest pressure. The desk was flipped onto the legs with 3 people, and only rested on the edge of the legs for a second, and even then it was supported by a pair of hands. No matter, they all cam out. After everything to this point, I was about to give up. I was literally going to scrap this thing and go back to the drawing board.

Acrylic sits very nicely.

This is why you don't use an orbital sander on the edges.

I can't describe my excitement and happiness. 2 years earlier, I didn't own a PC, haven't touched any software other than Windows didn't know CNC machines existed. I learned everything as I went along and after hundreds of trials and errors I was able to bring an idea in my head to a physical functional object.

and it works.

Yes, all of these panels went every which way they wanted. The side effect? when spraying the upward facing edge, I consequently over sprayed the bottom part, and so, no pictures of my embarrassment, the bottom had imprints of white spots from the foam. To make it worse my brain didn't click to say, don't do this with the already painted stuff, and I used the same foam flipped the painted part on it and painted the other side with the same exact effect. I thought it would just paint over and all will be well. This time though, foam sucked up paint and left glossy imprints of the foam on the the paint.

Test fitting the xbox compartment.

Had to use standoffs. Otherwise the USB part falls through to the front.

So that's what these holes are for!

Tape also came off and I decided to make it right.

The gap between Radiator and MB is a happy accident. Could have been screwed if it was any closer.

Finally after about 3 weeks i am ready for a transplant. By the way do you notice how I set every panel on it's edge? Well, now most of those edges have paint stripped from them in some form or another.

And here you can barely see that it pushed the side panels way out. This is an issue because at the final assembly there would be gaps in the front. This would also cause gaps in the top panels.

Test fitting the PC compartment.

THE IDEA:

Additional errors were, completely wrong shape and size acrylic window and quite rough misalignment of holes on the inside of front and rear panels. I will show that a bit further down.

Until... See that huge misalignment on the top right? That means that The xbox cut out was cut too low and small. If I leave it like that, the xbox will be shoved in there at an angle. A picture of that issue is a little further down.

These while lines one the edges that you are seeing is from my hands rubbing it off while drilling holes.

Done! Looks ok. the wires on the right were later adjusted to be less noticeable but overall not too shabby.

This was the plan. Only 1 cable out of the desk and that is a power cable. Needed to use an extension here and move the power strip to the center compartment.

The idea was to create something that I could grow with and adjust as needed with very little effort. I want something that can hide all the mess, show all the goodness, bring function over form, yet be as pleasing to the eye as possible.

Here all the bolt holes were jagged and the USB ports had "dog bone" cuts that weren't necessary. They were also jagged.

Used bigger washers for added piece of mind.

The whole desk is made from MDF.

A much closer look.

Artsy Fartsy attempt with water cooling ideas and painted instead of natural wood.

Not toooooo bad. I'll take it.

Love the open fan design.

Decided to primer the parts at this stage.

Another thing to note, is the closest panel was made from plywood. Got it commissioned as a test piece to test the differences between ply and MDF and to decide on the materials for my second desk. Main things I was looking for are, durability, difficulty in prepping and if the paint will show grain.

At this point it was looking soooo nice and smooth, i was contemplating on making a white desk. Thankfully my wife was there to tell me what I really wanted.

duct tape it is then.

Here you can see the construction assembly. The side panels fit through the neighbor side panel and screw into the neighbors bottom. This makes for a very sturdy structure.

Time to rethink my SSD placement. But first, let's peel this sticker.

Fortunately it is not too visible and I just didn't feel like repainting it.

XBOX in and is looking mighty good.

looked like crap during the day.

Absolutely love the open fan design with a thick wall.

EXECUTION:

This was the simplest solution.

Problems 2 and 3 have not yet become apparent to me at this stage.

Priming and sanding. Again, I primered until you couldn't see anything behind it, which took a lot of primer and time. I was later told that that it's not the way it works. Apparently i should have a applied a very light coat. Still not sure which is true.

Here is the other issue I talked about. You can see the misalignment of holes from the original piece. Fortunately the misaligned holes were there for dowels and I decided to not bother with those and just use the bolts.

same thing for the reset switch.

Assembling of the sections to get a feel for the size and to see how well things fit together.

used double sided tape to keep the ends put.

Every panel is structurally connected with bolts, dowel nuts and threaded insets. The side panels bolt into a bottom part and where the modules connect, they connect by screwing a side panel of 1 module, through the connecting panel of the neighbor and into the bottom panel of that neighbor. That eliminates the possibility of sag in such a long unsupported hang and removes any flex.

and done.

Not too shabby.

IT LIVES!!!!!!!

Solder and put a shrink tube.

All looks great.

time to wire manage!

fan controller mounted surprisingly easy. These corners from Home Depot were perfect size to make it sit more or less flush.

Again, this appears to be the only good way to assemble the thing. Also, notice how I put the heavy overhang part on top. I am just full of surprises.

I used epoxy to try an glue them in. But all id did, was dissolve the MDF and them solidify the dust as separate lumps

This was my most "brilliant idea! Sooo, I figured that I want to paint all my parts at once and that the parts need to be off the ground. Now that I look back at my ingenious idea, I think there were many, many, many, many, many better options than what I went with. So this little things on the ground are foam cut outs. The foam is from an old memory foam mattress..... Now I didn't realize this at first, but memory foam tends to take shape of object laying on it. So try to look through the next few images and see if you can tell what was happened.

In 2013, out of boredom, I decided I wanted to do some Photoshop. Turns out my laptop couldn't handle anything more demanding than paint. So I went out and bought an HP ENVY laptop. I soon, after 2 hours, realized that it was full bloatware, and didn't run nearly as well as I thought it would. I returned it and after some research decided build a PC by my self. By the way, everything in this desk is still from that original build. After building everything, getting a desk, track IR, joysticks, headphones modems, routers, xbox, etc., I realized that not only was I lacking real estate on my desk but also that wire management was a nightmare. But it was great never the less.

So 3 weeks later and I am now in a house with an actual garage and space. My solution to the leg problem was to make holes for dowel nuts and assemble the same way as the front panels connect to the sides.

Assembled and actually better then expected. Feels sturdy.

Painting legs. Looked beautiful at nigh and low light.

this wire mess is a mess.

Treated my self to an RX480. Now I CSGO at a billion FPS. Yes a BILLION!!!!

Don't know about you, but I wish they used this glue on LED strips. This stuff does NOT come off.

Let's get the last of the wires managed!

See the gap between the compartments? That is cause because there was a lack of tightening screws at the ends and MDF warps under pressure.

All done. Finally. Took me about 2 weeks all in all. Mainly, because I could only do one side at a time.

Took the front I/O cables from an old NZXT source 210 elite. A closer look at the front I/O a few pictures down.

By the way, remember how I said about shiny spots from the foam thingies? Look at the upright panel in the middle. See the off color squares on both sides? That is not shadows, that is there to stay.

at least something fits!

In the 2 years I didn't learn photography, so this is the best shot I made from the whole build. As in, don't get your hopes up.

Cut off original power buttons and stripped the wires.

The fit was super tight, but I didn't have to modify the plates at all, well, for now at least. Once the primer and paint added thickness I had to sand it.

After taking the below pictures i found the above mentioned issue and literally abandoned it for a few weeks out of frustration.

Some parts done.

Here is a corner that was botched.

It is NOT small, but everything seems to fit.

THE POINT:

To elaborate on the above mentioned. I decided to go with acrylic because it is not exactly .25" thick. So the window portion of the desk had the grove cut out to size and this portion had it cut to regular .25" depth. I wanted to see the difference between the two.

Not much room under MB but workable.

Result? not very flush but this is not too bad either.

The two legs with small holes will go under the xbox compartment. The holes are threaded and will face each other when installed. The idea here is to have the ability to add the shelves, hangers, wire management etc. If you look at the render you can see the possibilities. You can add fans, leg stands, radiators and water cooling. Basically imagination is the limit. I have printed xbox controller holder and headphone hanger that bolt onto the legs.

Made from off the shelf materials.

The finished project. Sorry for potato iPhone quality.

yes it's a mix match of things, but that's not the point of this build.

Also useful if pc is idling and I want to reduce dust accumulation.

That hole on the vertical right panel is just a slip of a tool that is still there to this day. That thing inside is a Dowel Nut. Thankfully it's pretty hidden.

You can see the edge it was sanding on in this picture in the back.

Ended up not using them. Still have the holes open.

These gaps are giving me all sort of OCD problems.

Perfect fit!!!! Did that hole by hand.

About a year later, I stumbled on L3P desk and dove deep into the PC desks, water cooling, modding, etc. I got so taken up by it, I decided I wanted to do something of my own.

Durable and Stable.

And that is that. This was my setup for a few weeks, while I waited for switches and made sure everything is running cool and I am not igniting wires in the back.

The original person I commissioned the job from, made quite a few errors.

Every panel on desk can be removed by unscrewing just a few bolts. This makes it easy to replace, adjust or mod anything on the desk. Lets say I want to add 140mm fans instead of existing 120. I would just get a new piece cut to accommodate that. I would unscrew just that part, without disassembling the whole desk and make the effortless swap. Or what If I wanted to get rid of the console and instead make a drawer. No problem. Get 2 rails and a new blank front panel, that's it. New functionality with your same old setup.

Another picture of the crooked xbox.

We will come back to this.

USB Port cover. Made in acrylic to test the inset height difference for acrylic.

Overall that's the gist of it. Now to the actual build.

final part of the puzzle.

Easy to Mod.

The fans sit perfectly with my original calculations and cnc cuts.

I had to drill out holes and use sex bolts to bring the two portions together.

top left hole. The legs changed from the design, but I forgot that the bottom part had holes pre-drilled for the original design. Unfortunately the change was very minor and the adjustment means that both holes are nearly at the same spot.

RGB time.

Pretty spot on :)

Configurable to any type of setup I want now and may want in the future.

u/bespokenumerics was also commissioned to create the legs. These came out great. To save on cost and make it simple, they were made from common structural steel and standard square plates that were tacked on to the top.

Can spray paint came out very nicely.

Solution for tops. NOT ideal but best I could come up with. I will use threaded inserts and will make similar pocket holes as on the front to have the bolts sit flush.

So the original idea was to put a platform on raisers and then mount MB on it. well, I didn't have a platform, and the old MB from NZXT didn't look the part and took up too much space, so I drilled mounting points right into the desk and put MB on very long standoffs.

Aliment is quite spot on.

The SSD's are not there forever, that was just me experimenting with placement.

YAY! legs installed and looking good.

Also, my great booth was great in theory, but in practice.... Not only did it become the biggest trap for dust and dirt, but it also started raining and the closest most panels had water droplets on the fresh paint.

Made with off the shelf and readily accessible hardware. - Simple parts that can be made at home with simple tools.

looks perfect!!!

Adhesive it cam with didn't do it, so I used electrical tape.

A while back I saw a guy build a desk with a built in PC, this was way before the L3P desk. That desk was covered on top with special vinyl for better mouse control, had built in speakers etc. I was absolutely blown away by the ingenuity. Then came the L3P desk and I thought I wish I could some day do some thing like this, just for the cool factor. Up to about 2013 I hadn't touched a computer, other than to do homework. I gamed on consoles and didn't get the whole PC scene, for all the viruses and problems with installing games along with running them. This was of course memories from the past, when nothing worked as you expected it to, or at least I couldn't get things to work.

Little did I know how big of a pain in the ass it would become.

Funny enough, upright, seemed to be the best way to assemble it.

Test fitting a complete box. And my first error in design is not giving any tolerances. The bottom part, with addition of primer barely fit. It was actually Too big.

the bottom right leg broke me. I nearly cried. I literally couldn't get 1 bolt in for about 45 minutes. remember how I said the dowel nut is inaccessible? Well that contributed to it.

I had a few choices on painting. Brush, roller, spray. Roller looks like crap, pain brush would leave strokes, and spray, well I need a paint booth. So here is my home made paint booth.

Only problem? If the controller gets out of sync, there is no way in hell to push the sync button, without taking the top off.

The paper towel stayed for a few weeks until the paint dried.

Having to sand the sealed edges anyway, I bought an orbital sander and sanded off the stuck on paper. On that note, don't use an orbital sander on the profiles.

Affordable.

Ok, the blue masking take has it's purpose. Without it, the parts stick to each other like crazy. Dam near impossible to take the tops off.

I left securing tops for later. As you can see, the tops are warped, so they can't just lay on the top, but need to be secured. And so I left that problem for later.

I used regual double sided tape and lit up the back of the desk and hardware. Couldn't be happier.

It starts!

Looking good.

Also, the sealant was showing through the primer and I had no idea how that would affect the paint.

The idea was to make this desk as modular as possible with simplest possible hardware and the ability to recreate any parts in garage environment with most common tools possible.

nice.

Also part from the same NZXT case.

That tissue in the corner was there to protect the paint :) Slightly not cured pain and tissue don't mix well.

Solution familiar, use orbital sander to sand the edges. The sides of the box screw into the bottom piece and make a very sturdy construction.

The guy was kind enough to re cut all the faulty parts. They came out better but still with errors that he was unable to fix. More on that later.

Finally I don't have to see the brick and the spiderweb of wires.

30 minutes and lots of rubbing alcohol later.

I could not have done it without the helpful people of reddit! Thanks you guys.

That big bundle is USB extensions.

yup.... As long as it's not drugs, you good little buddy.

there is literally .125in between the top the hose and bottom of the Acrylic.

Test fitting.

Fixed the Xbox opening by filing a layer at the top. You can see it was hand done by hand by the way it is.

Rough

That wire cluster is a cluster, but at least it's out of the way and if I don't see it, it doesn't exist.

THE BACK STORY:Thanks for looking at this build. Here is a little history and reasoning behind this concept.

And here you can see the issue with the xbox fitment. At the front you can see the angle and in the back you can see it hovering.

#amazing workspaces #desk setups #desk setup #workspaces #desk #desks #setup #setups

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brianculmo · 6 years ago

Text

My Hardboot Splitboard Setup

After a lot of research and pondering I decided to switch to a hardboot splitboard setup last April. Unfortunately there has turned out to be very little information on the subject, and diving into this whole hardboot world has proven to be quite the experience in tinkering and problem solving. I try to be an intentional as possible with my gear purchases and decisions, and building out my current setup has been exactly that. I realize that there is so little information out there regarding all this stuff, I figured I would share some of my thoughts on how I ended up with the setup I have now.

The obvious first question was why hardboots? This is a complicated answer and the reasons are many. My personal reasons are as follows:

- Uphill efficiency, significantly less weight swinging on feet each step

- Walk mode comfort while skinning, longer strides

- Lateral stability on the uphill for sidehilling and skinning confidence

- General weight saving

- Speed of transitions

- Crampon compatibility, mountaineering ability

- Lack of suitable suitable/appealing soft boot options

- Downhill sacrifice vs uphill sacrifice

- Never extremely impressed with downhill comfort of normal split bindings

Once I decided on hardbooting was the way to go, it has been a very long road to actually getting to a point where I can see the advantage. Things have finally come together after months of research, modding, setting up, testing, more modding and more adjusting. Here is my setup as it is now:

My Current setup includes:

-Arc’teryx Procline Boots (lite version, the non carbon ones)

- Spark R & D tech toes

- Spark R & D canted pucks

- Spark R & D Dyno DH bindings

- Jones Hovercraft 156cm

-Jones Pro Skins

- Phantom Heel risers

- Phantom Hercules Hooks

The Board/skins:

This is the least unique part of the setup. It’s simply a rad board that rips and is playful. The skins work great and didn't need to be trimmed at all. Jones has a nice proprietary tail clip/hook for the skins which is really simple to use and is lighter than a lot of other ski tail clip options out there. The only complaint I would have is that the skins don’t grip quite as much on really steep stuff compared to other High traction skins that I have used.

The Boots:

Upon first thinking about hardboots, I tried find as much info as possible about splitboard hardboots online; there was not much out there. I quickly realized my boot options were narrowed down to the Dynafit TLT6 and the Arc’Teryx Procline. The TLT6 has been a go to boot for boarders for a long time now, although pretty significant mods were needed to make them work better. I was able to go try on both the TLT6s and the Proclines, and my decision was pretty easy as soon as I tried both boots on. The Proclines felt significantly better in every way compared to the TLT6. The Proclines felt lighter, there was a much more free feeling walk mode, and the flexing seemed to be more beneficial to snowboarding. The boots split cuff works really well for snowboarding, with far less material above the ankle compared to the TLT6. Even out of the box, the boots felt in the range of being able to ride with. I knew mods would probably be necessary, but I wanted to ride in them to get an idea of the extent of mod needed. I thought about the carbon version of the Proclines, but they apparently weren't actually any lighter than the normal version. Plus the carbon version was apparently stiffer than the plastic version, and stiffness is the opposite of what I needed for snowboarding. Plus, saving a couple hundred dollars wasn't bad either. I also went with the “Lite” liner over the “support” liner. The Lite liner is thinner and less stiff than the support liner. Again stiffness is less important for snowboarding, so it was better to go with the lighter, more flexible, less stiff option.

I only had one serious concern with the Proclines, and it is a well established issue. The toe bail on the Proclines is very small and less than ideal for purchase with a splitboard binding. The general shape of the toe and its low profile has also been known to cause problems with certain bindings. There are some solutions out there to remedy this concern. I reached out to Phantom Splitboard bindings about the ability for Proclines to fit in their system, and they said it was possible with an extended set screw.

The Bindings:

Everyone in the hardboot splitboard world points to Phantoms as the go to choice. I was really interested in their system and did a lot of research on it. The shape of their toe bail connector was still suspect for me with the shape of the toe on the Procline boot. They assured me it would work, but from pictures and posts I saw, you would have to set the front angle quite high to accommodate the lack of purchase on the front. The security and confidence of that connection is super important, as it would be very bad if that failed. One more negative of the Phantom system is the inability to add a cant to the setup. Having a canted stance is something that was important to me with hardboots. With already limited flex, especially laterally, the ability to have a canted stance would really help with comfort and board control.

Enter the Spark R&D Dyno DH binding:

I was able to find some information on the 2019 Spark Dyno DH binding and the improvements and possibility made it a real contender for me personally. Spark had created a toe connector out of metal that was lower profile and fit the shape of the Procline much better than that of the Phantom. No odd set screw rigging was necessary. The Sparks are also compatible with their canted pucks. The bindings just slide in and click in just like the Tesla T1 binding system that I was previously riding. They are easy to transition and seem to clear snow well. Although every single ounce isn't super important to me and I am not sure on exact weight, but I remember reading somewhere that the Spark bindings are actually slightly lighter than the Phantom setup. There is certainly not a weight disadvantage in the Spark system. The setup for these bindings was also a process. The amount of adjustments to accommodate different sole lengths are a lot, but the instructions do make it pretty clear as to what you need to do. I was unfortunately right between 2 recommended lengths, so I had to do a mix of adjustments to get my boot to fit. Once they are dialed the bindings are solid, just don’t expect to rip right out the box.

Spark R&D Tech Toe:

It was rad to see Spark manufacture in house a splitboard specific tech toe. This is another step towards hardboots becoming more accepted in the splitboarding world. The quality of construction is great and it is nice to not have to use an adaptor plate in order to use a dynafit tech toe. This is truly the best option on the market for boarders as evidenced with Phantom partnering with Spark to make a co-branded version. I have the Spark version because the anodized blue looks cool and matched the Dynos and no other reason.

Phantom Hercules Hooks:

These hooks are super simple and really low profile. Having a static hook option is really appealing after dealing with other options flapping around and working to varying levels of success out in the field. I am all about the elimination of moving parts if possible, and Phantom came up with a bomber setup that just works. These things are super light and crank down the board great. The setup on these was quite a process of dialing in though. It took a lot to get the right tension for keeping the board tight vs being able to actually get the board apart. Once its dialed it is great and you don’t have to worry about it at all out in the field.

Phantom Heel risers:

These machined pieces are exactly what you want in a heel riser. They are well built, and solidly constructed out of metal. I can easily rise both levels with a pole. These things just work. The one wish I have with these is a simpler/ better solution for split skiing. They currently recommend looping a voile strap around the riser and your foot. While that would work, it does not seem like the kind of elegant solution that I have come to expect from Phantom. Hopefully Phantom or Spark can figure out something better there.

Boot mods:

I rode in the boots once completely stock and made some clear conclusions. They are great on the uphill. The walk more in the Proclines is leaps and bounds better than any snowboard boot out there and most ski boots really. The lateral stability while edging finally gave the splitboard the same stability that skiers take for granted and splitboarders yearn for. I left all the buckles loose on the way up which helped with more flexibility. On the downhill the boots performed better than expected with no mods at all. It was clear that the forward lean was way to severe for any comfortable riding. I ride my resort board with 0 forward lean, so the angle of the ski boots was aggressive on the calves and quads. The lateral stability was acceptable and the boots just rode like a really responsive soft boot.

I had to do a lot of thinking and staring at the boots in order to figure out how to decrease the forward lean as well as accommodate for forward flex. The Proclines have specific system for locking the boots in ski mode and adjusting the angle of this adjustment by even just a few degrees was going to make all the difference. The boot needed to flex backwards a few degrees while still being able to flex to a forward position about equal to where it sits stock.

Warning: doing any of these mods will void the warranty of your boots. None of this is approved by the manufacturer. This is what I did to my boots, but most people will find a solution that works for them. I just want to provide more info for people who want to get an idea of what can be done to mod the Proclines.

To achieve this I had to make a few adjustments:

1. Cut off/ grind down the rectangle on the inner cuff that sits inside the hole for the outer cuff when in ski mode.

2. Sand/grind down the top of the outer cuff on the top of the back. As the boot flexes backwards this part hits the strap/ plastic area above it, thus stopping the boot from flexing further back. I grinded down this area as much as I could before running into other functional hardware.

3. Dremel out the outer cuff hole to a larger size. Specifically the bottom edge of the rectangle shaped hole on both the left and right side. I took about a 1/4 inch of material off here.

4. Sand the lip down of the inside cuff on the side to allow the outer cuff to slide over it.

5. Drill out a larger hole for the wire to go through on the metal switch. This allows the spot where the boot stops going back to be further. This could be done by replacing the entire wire with a piece of paracord and lengthening it compared to the length of the wire. I did not want to go through that process and a piece of paracord would have much more flex in it (which might be better for flex, although I am not convinced). I might eventually go to a paracord for this piece, but for now this setup is working. I took maybe an 1/8 of an inch off of the hole. This might seem like a small amount, but it makes all the difference in allowing the boot to articulate further back.

6. Drill a hole on the top edge of where the old rectangle used to be on the inner cuff. I put a #8 bolt through the hole with about ⅜” sticking out the outside. I put a lock washer on the inside and a lock nut plus one regular nut on the outside. The space above the bolt will be the forward flex amount, and the space below the bolt will be the max the boot will be able to flex back. I found that I have to really weight the boot backwards in order to get close to the max backwards lean. I put a bolt on each of the inside and outside holes. I tried just one bolt on the outside and it actually provided a lot more lateral flex by doing so. I think it was actually too much lateral flex even, as it felt some control might have been sacrificed there as well as risk of the split cuff failing due to too much flex in a way it is not intended to flex at all.

As my boots are now I would say that the minimum forward lean is probably about 1 or 2 degrees, not the 0 I have at the resort, but well within the comfortable range for riding. This is probably compared to at least 3 or 4 degrees as the boot is stock. The flex amounts much better replicated a soft boot and high back. I think I would still like to be a little bit further back for the lean, but I can continue that evolution after some more testing. As mentioned before the lateral flex of the boot is quite good out of the box. This mod actually helps a little bit with lateral flex too. The amount of room the bolt has on the left and right side determines the amount of lateral flex. I didn’t dremel out the holes to the left or right at all, but the bolt is smaller than the stock rectangle, so there is a natural play in there which helps with lateral flex.

As with any new ski boot it definitely helped to break the boots in a bit and get the liners heat molded. The fit is getting more dialed now, and I can start to use the buckles more often on the up and down to lock down the fit a bit more without causing significant pain.

There are still some more upgrades and adjustments to be made with the setup, but for now this thing rips and I feel more confident than ever to get to new zones safer and more efficiently. I hope this information is useful to somebody out there.

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