Shop won't remount bindings on my skis, say they require 7mm away from old holes. Is this legit?

[Hard]

Brought in a pair of Line Blends I bought used from a friend to get mounted. I had an old pair of Armada skis that still worked but were in rough shape. I wanted to switch the bindings from the Armadas to the Blends. The Blends had been mounted once previously, so there were holes in the skis. The holes were plugged properly. The shop took off the bindings from my Armadas, only to realize the bindings needed some new parts. $70 later they went to mount the Blends and after two days with no call I called them and they said they cannot mount the bindings because there is no mounting point that is 7mm away from any previously drilled holes. I've never heard this 7mm rule before or any number for that matter. I've heard don't reuse the same holes, but never that you have to be a certain distance away from the old ones. So now I have two unmounted skis and shop fees to pay.

I'm upset about the whole experience from the shop, but moving forward I'm curious if anyone knows if I can bring them to a different shop / have a buddy mount them or whatever. Is their rule legit? Do I just need to find a better shop? Can I still mount these skis without much risk?

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[sijbot]

This happened to me once. I ended up buying new skis on clearance but later ealkzed I could have just gotten some demo bindings, mount them far enough away and then adjust the heal to get the boot center on the ski.

 

[No.Quarter]

How many times have they been mounted?

Do you have a binding that is the same mounting pattern as the old holes? If so, you may be able to convince them to re-use those holes with helicoils or inserts.

 

[Hard]

How many times have they been mounted?

Do you have a binding that is the same mounting pattern as the old holes? If so, you may be able to convince them to re-use those holes with helicoils or inserts.

Skis have only been mounted once. And unfortunately no, the bindings were look pivots and I'm trying to put on Salomon STH

 

[No.Quarter]

Skis have only been mounted once. And unfortunately no, the bindings were look pivots and I'm trying to put on Salomon STH

Huh, that's kinda fishy that there is no where that the STH will fit with only one other mounting pattern. The 7mm rule is pretty common but I've heard of tests that you can go a little closer without much issue. I'd recommend finding a new shop as well as seeing fore yourself where you might be able to fit the bindings relative to the old holes as well.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0SnAf18fUXAN09pUmhOVmQ5ZGM/edit

Here is the salomon paper template. What i did when I was in a similar situation was to cut out some windows around the mount holes in the paper so that I could see where the existing holes are relative to the new hole pattern. Or you could drop a few bucks at a print shop and have the template printed on a transparency like for the old projectors.

 

[No.Quarter]

Oh and additionally, you may be able to convince a crafty ski tech to overlap some holes with helicoils. Like say you can fit the toe pattern so that two of the holes overlap while the others two are a good distance from the exiting holes. You might need to sign a release waiver or something or bribe them with beer or weed

 

[No.Quarter]

Skis have only been mounted once. And unfortunately no, the bindings were look pivots and I'm trying to put on Salomon STH

I'm a lil bored at work so I just printed out both templates to compare and was doing some measurements of the pdf

You should definitely find a new shop or have the shop they are at prove to you that they wont fit. Under the assumption that these hole patterns are mounted for the same bsl (i know they probably aren't in reality but I had to hold this constraint for the sake of curiosity) you should be able to mount the Salomon toepeice with the front two holes centered bewteen the existing 4 pivot holes with a wiggle room of about 2 cm fore and aft. The heelpeice does cut it kind close, but you could see if they would mount them for a different bsl that satisfies the 7mm rule while leaving room to adjust to your bsl.

I hope that makes sense. It can be frustrating to deal with shops that seem to lack basic problem solving skills, but I am almost certain that them claiming that there is nowhere to mount the bindings when there is only one other hole pattern is just someone being a lazy dumbass.

If they cant physically show you that it wont fit, find a new shop or learn to mount bindings yourself with a paper template. All it takes is some attention to detail and confidence with a drill. measure twice drill once.