Cross Country Ski Heel Plate

thingiverse

This thing was designed specifically for my dad, an avid cross country skier. His heel plates were badly worn out, making it a straightforward task to reproduce the geometry on our FDM 3D printers. I intentionally made the spikes more aggressive than the originals were when new, but they have yet to be tested, so adjustments may be necessary in the future. To achieve optimal results, I printed it at 0.06mm layer height using a stock 0.4mm nozzle, which allowed each layer to bond together nicely and produced smooth slopes. Since it will be used outdoors in cold conditions, we thought PLA would be worth trying, as long as it doesn't become excessively brittle and shatter, but since it's meant for something that wears down over time, it may still be suitable.