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Plastic Gummy Worms – Melting Ski Boot Pebax

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Mister Science rides again. I’ve been doing some fit punching on my new pair of Dynafit ZZero. Master bootfitter Mark Rolfes does this by feel and it seems to turn out pretty good, but he does find the Pebax plastic to be trickier than the usual polyurethane of most boots. Since I’ll be doing some of the punching myself, I figured using my trusty infrared thermometer could prevent me from over-heating and thus ruining a pair of expensive boots.

I did some web research and found that Pebax is supplied in different varieties with different melt temperatures. Since I don’t know what variety Dynafit uses for their ski boots, some direct observation was in order.

Backcountry Skiing

Pebax after the heat gun.

Above are buckle straps from my older pair of ZZero. Top one in photo was malleable at 200 degrees F, while the bottom one melted at around 300 degrees F. I’ll experiment more today while punching the actual boots, and report back, but it appears that the safe temperature for Dynafit Pebax boot punching is probably just over 200 F.

Another thing I discovered was that my variable temperature heat gun is useful, but the temperatures shown on the settings buttons are way off from what the gun outputs. So, thermometer required.

Posted by Lou on December 10, 2008 | Filed Under Boot Fitting, Technique 

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Comments

4 Responses to “Plastic Gummy Worms – Melting Ski Boot Pebax”

  1. Terry December 13th, 2008 7:33 pm

    Great idea with the infrared thermometer, Lou! Do let us know how it goes.

    Am wondering how useful that thermometer would be for snow pits and avy forecasting. was reading about some remote weather stations that use them for recording surface snow temps.

  2. Ron January 27th, 2009 11:05 am

    Lou,

    Just read about your boot heating experiments. How did the punches turn out?
    I ask because I’m about to have my new Radiums punched and I’m looking for a little ressurance.

    Ron

  3. Lou January 27th, 2009 1:12 pm

    My punched Zzeros are still fine, though when I punched them it did take some of the rocker out of the sole because I got pretty aggressive with the length punch.

  4. Nick Matyas January 14th, 2010 3:45 pm

    It’s an awesome posting.
    It is also very useful for many people like me.
    Your writing is always fabulous.
    Wishing that u will deliver this type of post in future also.

    Webroyalty

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Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information and opinion website. Lou's passion for the past forty years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about backcountry skiing and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the Fourteeners! Books and free back country information here, and tons of Randonnee rando telemark info.

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