If you ski more than a couple of times per year you quickly realize it doesn’t make financial sense to pay your local shop to maintain your skis (plus, why trust some other person with such a valuable possession?) Waxing your skis is the most frequent maintenance issue you will have and even basic base repair and edge sharpening is very simple. But you have to have a way to secure your skis in order to work on them. Setting them on a table or chairs will get you by in a bind but you really need another person to hold the ski in place. So, rather than pay $150 bucks for a fancy SWIX bench, make one for free from the junk in your basement.
You will need (more or less):
-(1) 8 ft. 2×4
-(1) 12 in. 2×8
-scrap of 1 in. material at least the size of your boot sole
-(1) C-Clamp
-(2) door hinges
The 2×4 will serve as the bench base, clamped to your work bench or kitchen table with 2 shorter lengths serving as tip and tail supports for the ski. These supports should be attached to either end of the base with the door hinges. Trace your boot sole onto your 1 in. scrap of lumber, cut it out, and screw it to a hunk of 2×8. Screw the 2×8 to the base between the tip and tail supports (this center piece needs to be a little shorter than the ends in order to hold the ski tight).
Boot sole template attached to base
Tip and tail supports swing up after binding is secured
Your binding should now snap onto the boot sole template and you can flip the hinged tip and tail supports up under the ski locking it firmly in place. Voila. (Note: To make the sole template Dynafit compatible, drill shallow holes on either side of the toe and notch the heel just like your ski boot.)
Binding locks onto boot sole template
Swing the end supports up and the ski is locked in place
Make it Dynafit compatible
All you need now is a rack for all your boards and some gear hooks made from old bindings and you have your own ski shop. For a few microbrews your buddies can use it too.
If you don’t know how to wax or tune your skis yet, stay tuned (haha). Or, learn everything you NEED to know from the Doug Coombs Q&P:
Cascadian Rythym 
Cool, I don’t get to ski but about one week per year two times a year if I’m lucky, but I have about five sets of skis. I like to get em tuned at least every year or at least every other year. Anyway thats about 50 – 60 bucks depending on which shop I go to. I can easily bulid this and save me the extra bucks and time of having to get em to the shop and all.
Thanks for the idea. Just what I was looking for. 🙂
Reblogged this on Mountains to Mats and commented:
Just what I was looking for! 🙂