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DIY $20 professional grade footstraps

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Johnny Rotten
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DIY $20 professional grade footstraps

Postby Johnny Rotten » Thu Jan 01, 2009 5:19 pm

Foot pads are easy but I noticed a lot of people are looking for a good cheap set of foot straps, for their homemade boards, $100 new for pads and straps is a little ridiculous I thought I could pick up a good used set of pads and straps but after losing most ebay auctions at over $60 (w/o shipping) I gave up on that.
Now I know Real kiteboarding sells a set of JL straps for 40 bucks but by the time I factor in shipping duty and exchange it's at least 60 to the door step.

So here's how to make a damn good set. All in cost me $24 bucks Canadian. and was able to pick up all the supplies easily.

Here's what you need
2 x 10"x2" piece of Velcro the grippy side (hook side) (available at Canadian tire or walmart) âINDUSTRIAL STRENGTH 2" STICKY BACK VELCR€ 4 FT = $12
Image
2 x 5"x2" piece of grippy Velcro
4 x 9"x2" piece of fluffy(loop side) Velcro
2 x 21" piece of seat belt (Available at Auto scrap yard.....dirt cheap)
2 x 13" piece of seat belt
2 x 3.5" piece of seat belt
1 x set of "kuny™" foam knee pads (Available at rona/homedepot) $10

5/16" grommets (walmart $2)
Image

2 x 2" Rectangle ring don't know where to get these, Use stainless steel "king chain" harness rings 1-1/4" and crush them in a bench vice. 1$ each
TOTAL COST $24

1. Clean the seat belt really thoroughly and allow it to dry. You will be applying sticky back velcro to many portions of it. If you can clean all the grease and crap off you will get a good bond and not need to sew throught this stuff too much
2. Cut seat-belt to length 2 x 21" , 2 x 13", 2x 3.5"
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3. Burn ends of seat belt to prevent fraying
4. Put the 21 inch and 13inch length of seat belt together line the ends up and using a soldering iron burn a hole through both pieces of belt roughly 1/2 inch from the end at the mid point in the width
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5. Install a grommet into the hole you just burned to attach the pieces of belt together.
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6. Sew a reinforcing square around the grommet using sail repair thread V90 (you should already have this stuff) If you don't buy it you will use it to fix EVERYTHING, From kites to harnesses to bindings
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7. Take a 3.5 inch piece of seat belt fold it over 2 inch Rectangle ring. Burn a hole in it using a soldering iron, install grommet and sew a reinforcing square around it.
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8. Remove strap from knee pad, and pull off crappy felt liner.
9. Clean the top of the knee pad between the strap holes with isopropyl alcohol, allow it to dry, then stick 5 inch  piece of grippy Velcro between the holes for the straps
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10. Orient the the 2 pieces of seatbelt you attached in step 3 so that the 13inch piece is on top.
11. Route the 21inch piece through the knee pad as shown
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12. Adhere a 9 inch fluffy Velcro strip to the end of the 21inch piece of seatbelt on both sides.
Image

13. Adhere the 10inch grippy Velcro to the bottom side of the 13inch piece of seatbelt
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14. Sew the Velcro on as you determine is needed. This is good adhesive if applied in 1 shot on a clean belt, it should hold well, However, even with a perfect bond, At minimum you will have to add reinforcement to the end of the fluffy Velcro as shown or the
Velcro will tend to peel itself off in these areas
Image
Image

15. Install on to board as shown. (be careful to do it as shown doing it the other way will cause your pads to fall down, making board off's impossible and getting in the bindings difficult
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16. Shape for comfort as desired,
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Ready for board offs.
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Repeat for other side

Notes
These bindings are made too big intentionally so there is a large error margin and it will fit all feet and boot types with all foot pads. If you have small feet and or thin foot pads you will need to cut the end off the 21" piece of velcro to get it to fit right. Once you tighten it you'll know what I mean.

If you find the bindings are sagging too much for you liking, ensure they are installed as per my directions. If they are, add some velcro to the 21" piece of velcro close to where it grommets to the board, (right side in the above photo) this will stiffen it and hold the top of the binding up better.

Feel free to cut out toes if you think they are too corny looking, I actually find the toe caps comfy

If you really wanna get fancy, sew some neoprene to to the underside of the knee pad where the strap crosses your feet. and sew a patch of your choice to the top of the 13" foot strap making it look like factory bindings with your own custom logo. (I'll post pictures when they are done)

for the seat belts I went to a pick you own scrap yard cut them out with a pair of scissors and then went to cash asked em how much they want for these and they said 5 bucks I pulled out my credit card and they just told me it's on the house. seat belt at full length will be enough

Obviously a sewing maching makes life much easier and your stiches a bit more professional looking.
Last edited by Johnny Rotten on Tue Mar 10, 2009 3:11 am, edited 3 times in total.

Johnny Rotten
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Re: DIY $20 professional grade footstraps

Postby Johnny Rotten » Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:56 am

Ok so have done a bit more testing on my el-cheapo binding design and have the following recommendations,
1) forgo the eyelets, they're crap, bolt the seatbelt down using big washers.
2) The board tends to fall off doing Raley type manouevers, cutting out the toes is a MUST and shaping the ankles will prevent some blisters.
3) Good foot pads are key to keeping the board on.
Here's how I made mine: (step 8 was the eureeka moment)
1. lay up 24oz of fiberglass. (This is the board builder section so you've got lot's of off cuts for this)
2. Cut out pad base plate outline from fiberglass
3. Mill out 3 slots to bolt them down.
4. Cut foot pads out of foam tiles (home depot) $5 per sheet
5. Cut out second heal pad from foam tile, form it into a wedge shape using a wire wheel glue to bottom of foot pad so you have 2x thickness in the heal only.
6.Glue foot pad to base plate using contact cement.
7. Adhere 2mm foam to bottom of fiberglass baseplate to prevent it from wrecking your board and to get grip
(available at michael's craft store for $1.29 per sheet. need 2 sheets.)
8. Use a wire wheel to form a small section of foam tile into a fulcrum shape. stick it to the top of the foot pad right where the strap crosses using contact cement (This will keep your feet in the binding) cover with tear aid to prevent the wedge from delaminating

Here's a visual aidImage
Since the foam is very soft, this is not uncomfortable.

Here's the finished bindings. $35 bucks all In
Image

Hardware $4,
decorative patches $2
Foam tile $5 /sheet
2mm Foam $2.60
Tearaid $2

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Re: DIY $20 professional grade footstraps

Postby zob » Wed Feb 25, 2009 2:12 pm

Good work Johnny!
But is it realy worth it?
You can find factories which make pads, straps, handles and fins for BIGER kitesurfing brands. They are realy hard to find, but they have wonderfull prices. I paid 35€ for one set of pads and straps (and no work involved).
If you are such a capable handyman it is a shame you play with this kind of projects.
It's not all about R&D, SCM is important to! :D
Keep up the good work!

BR,
Zob

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Re: DIY $20 professional grade footstraps

Postby frankm1960 » Wed Feb 25, 2009 6:53 pm

Nice work but is it all necessary?

I used a set of old windsurf straps on my home made plywood board and they work fine. I just screwed them on using the same hardware that came with the straps. Could double up on the straps if they're to narrow but I didn't bother because I'm only using the board for light winds.

For pads I used some old windsurfing boom wrap and glued it on.
Works good for light wind boarding :)

This shop as some pads, straps and boom wrap.
http://www.hydrodynamix.com/

I'm looking at my higher wind kiteboard straps and they're not much different than a set of windsurfing straps (just a bit wider is all).

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sflinux
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Re: DIY $20 professional grade footstraps

Postby sflinux » Wed Feb 25, 2009 11:43 pm

Footpads are pricey too.
The best foot straps I made were out of webbing (like yours), then I sewed 2 tubes of neoprene so one goes inside the other. The webbing goes through the neoprene tube. These are the most comfortable straps I've ever tried. The neoprene was from an old wetsuit. The cost was minimal.
Kevin Salter made a nice post on how to make comfy footstraps out of urethane.
For pads I use antifatigue 12"x12" gym mats. They cost about $1 per square, so $2 per board. They are very comfortable, but not as nice as the pricey contoured foot pads out there.

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zob
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Re: DIY $20 professional grade footstraps

Postby zob » Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:44 am

I payd 13 € for pads, 15€ for straps, 4 € for handle (my boards would be without it if it wasn so cheap!) , 20 € for post and here's the best part -> 5,5 € for fins (4 pcs). :cool2:
Yeah, what can I say!? Cool factory prices :thumb: .
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Johnny Rotten
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Re: DIY $20 professional grade footstraps

Postby Johnny Rotten » Fri Feb 27, 2009 3:31 am

Was it worth it?
It's the same as building your own boards, It's a lot of work but when you're done you have something that is truly yours, Something forged from your soul, and even if it's crap you love it.

There's lots of steps But seriously, other than curing the glass and sewing which i did in front of the TV, nothing took a large amount of time. I'm fairly confident I could reproduce them in under an hour of actual labour.
If you are such a capable handyman it is a shame you play with this kind of projects.
It's not all about R&D, SCM is important to!
Zob,
These two statements are so ironic it made me laugh my arse off, In the workplace I have been promoted out of R&D and into management and HATE IT. Now instead of building cool $hit. I build bull $hit.

Board building is something I started just to get my hands back into the building/prototyping I don't get to do anymore. So given the choice to go into the garage and build the bindings or pick up the phone and suck hole until I got a good price, I chose the garage.

It just feels good to make it yourself.

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ScottM
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Re: DIY $20 professional grade footstraps

Postby ScottM » Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:55 am

cool stuff, funny how it all comes togther, one minute random bits, the next actually looks like a regular setup!! :D

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Re: DIY $20 professional grade footstraps

Postby zob » Fri Feb 27, 2009 12:44 pm

Johnny Rotten wrote: These two statements are so ironic it made me laugh my arse off, In the workplace I have been promoted out of R&D and into management and HATE IT. Now instead of building cool $hit. I build bull $hit.
This statement made me laugh MY a$$ off! I can understand you now.
I had a bit different situation but it also has an ironic finish. I started building 4 kiteboards (my 1.st ones) just before x-mass. Every day I wanted to do as much as possible. Now I have my boards finished, but the weather is still too cold and will be for some time.
One thing I don't have experience with is sewing. So it would be imposible to make straps like yours, although I have a month or two of time.
Good work, again!

BR,
Zob


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