When you change fin DEPTH how little do you move at a time.

[Horton]

The the very limit I might tweak to the 1/1000 but even I think that is B.S.

[SM]

3 thou is actually my number

[skibug]

Ditto .003" is what I will move it.

 

@Horton, .001" is BS except that your mind is a wonderful thing to trick.

[Horton]

If you think you are smart. Set your depth and then re-measure from the other side to the fin... that will generally make your brain hurt.

[skibug]

Adding variables is not scientific.....never measure from both sides of the fin

[Horton]

@skibug you will feel better if you do not know...

[skibug]

@Horton, Unfortunately the ever inquiring engineer in me discovered the dark side (other side of the fin) a long time ago. One time on the dark side and I was scared straight to never venture back.

[skibug]

Also, depending on the clamping mechanism and the sequence in which you re-tighten the three clamping screws, WHOA!!! Don't go there either. Fins do flex along there length based on the clamp. Let's just say that you may not want to lay a straight edge down the length.....

[Triplett]

Go big or go home, you can always go back, but then I should have voted .005. Face palm.

[Horton]

@Skibug

What is the secret? I have one fine that moves a ton in depth when I tighten it. Makes me so freak'n mad.

[skibug]

@Horton, trial and error; or a new fin clamp or mods to the one you have. There is no secret to the fix. It is all unique per clamp. All the clamping screws do is flex the metal enough to put pressure on the fin blade. What is probably happening is that as it clamps down; one side of the clamp is pulling more than the other and the blade actaully deflects one way or the other; meaning it is no longer true to vertical. So, when you measure after fully clamped, you are now essentially measuring the hypotenuse of a triagle.

 

I have a clamp that I know reduces the depth by .002" when I tighten it; so, I have to set the depth that much deeper to compensate. I would say play with the sequence you tighten your clamping screws and see if that make a difference. Get them all to a lightly snug position; then bear down on each of them in a different sequences and see if that makes a difference.

 

These issue are due to machining tolerances, wear, and cycle duty of the material. I have about (4) D3 clamps and they all act differently. I have actually found on two of them that the recessed areas of the adjusment set screws (the right hand part of the clamp that fits into the left hand part of the clamp) didn't have enough clearance when you tighten the clamping screws meaning that the material around the set screw body made contact with the recessed area before the fin was clamped tight. This meant that one or two of the screws had greater pressure than the others where they were holding the fin. I wound up using a dremel tool to open up those recesses more so that the fin was the hard stop and not the recess.

 

But.....does it all really matter??

 

 

[SkiJay]

@Horton I've also noticed on my last two skies (D3 & Elite) that the looser the fin is when the fin block bolts are loose, the more the settings change when I tighten the bolts. I loosened the phillips screws that mount the block to the ski, tightened the allen bolts through the fin, then retightened the block onto the ski. It didn't solve the problem but it reduced it.

[DanE]

2.5? Why the 0.0005" tolerance? Calipers normally used for fin measuring cannot be used for measuring such a tight tolerance even if the resolution is there.

I consider a measurement ending in a .0005 as mission accomplished even if I ment to make a .004 move.