Binding ideas/strategies for homebuilt figls?

Anyone tried this before? I had some old skis that I sawed down mainly so they'd fit into a trash can, but then 'inspiration' struck.

The guiding principles here are fast, cheap and out of control (nonreleaseable). And should be light, otherwise may as well have real skis.

I'd prefer a solution that does not require rands on the boots, should be able to work with trail shoes.

I made an initial attempt where the model was to attach small-profile bars to the ski sidewalls at positions where they'd facilitate/mimic a standard two-strap crampon attachment, using semielastic straps like those Voile straps so you could get em fairly tight. But drilling into a ski sidewall proved too tough a job for my crappy drills; the material binds drill bits like crazy and snapped off the bits (grrr). I also fear that even the small profile sidebars could catch when you go onto the edges.

I also (briefly) considered wakeboard bindings and stuff like that, but seems awkward and not tight enough anyhow.

Larry_R once posted a photo of some commercially made shorties that used some sort of strap system. Maybe he can be convinced to give us a link or a new picture.

How about screwing some sort of plate (or maybe a couple of small plates) on top of the ski and run straps between the plate and the top surface? It would be equivalent to the 1920s technique of drilling a mortice sideways through the ski, but easier to do and probably stronger too (on a thin ski tip). I bet this would work pretty well.

Way back in 1975 I made myself a pair of shorties out of some old wooden skis. I cut the tips off and put screws through the sidewalls and used coat hangers to make toe and heel wires. I had a "step-in" heel made of wood that flipped up like a modern step-in crampon. I used them to climb Sahale Mountain with Gary Brill. (I wonder if Gary has any pictures.) They didn't work all that well, mainly because the bindings kept falling off. But my fascination with shorties goes back a long way...

I have a set of "skiboard" bindings that I took my ski boards -- these would work directly with any boot compaitible with step-in crampons. -- if you want them you can have them.

For lighter boots than that -- I think some straps taken off a pair of strap type snowboard bindings could do the trick combined with either the skiboard bindings or a set of telemark binding risers.

Wacky idea -- cut-off / grind down the wheel attachment bits off an old pair of roller blades and screw/bolt/glue them onto the old skis.  Hike up in trail runners -- ski down in these freaky rigs.