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I have a pair of 1979 Asnes cross-country skis with Rottefella 75mm NN three-pin bindings that I plan to upgrade to NNN. The toe piece of the binding is held on with three screws that are easy to remove. However, I can’t see how to remove the heel plate. It only appears to be a short steel post through orange plastic with no visible screws. Full binding Heel plate, plan view Heel plate, oblique view

The plastic appears to be held on by the post alone (like a rivet) –I can rotate the plastic around the post with my fingers. Do you just pry off the post with a screw driver? Or drill it out? Or what?

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That looks like a rivet. Pulling up on the rivet might damage the top sheet of the ski but if you are going to cover it with a new plate that might not matter to you. Still, if it were me I would gently remove the plastic by breaking it away. Then see if pulling up on the rivet with pliers is damaging to the ski. If it is set in there tight, get a dremel tool with a cutting wheel and slice the rivet off with the surface of the ski. Epoxy the hole to keep water out of the ski core.

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  • OP here. I cut off the plastic with utility knife, and it looked like the top of the post might be press-fit over a screw head. I dremeled off the top of the post to see if there was a screw there, but it was solid. Unfortunately, the friction of my grinding wheel scorched the wood within the ski, so I wouldn’t do that again. The good news is that then the post then came out relatively easily with vice grips. I scrapped out as much charred wood I could, then filled the hole with epoxy. Should be okay.
    – Michael Zuschlag
    Commented Jan 5, 2021 at 3:37
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OP here. The post was held in a 3.6mm hole by friction and white wood glue, enhanced by circumferential barbs on the post.

Post necks does to a narrower barbed shaft to insert in a hole

I removed the post without apparent damage by rotating it with needle-nose vice grips (see the teeth marks in the post edges) to break the hold of the glue, then the carefully prying it out from multiple sides using a flat-head screwdriver with the orange plastic as the fulcrum.

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