Cheapest binding mounts?

It's been a while since I've had skis mounted, but the going rates published online by various local shops have definitely gone up. Where in Van or on the North Shore should I go to get some bindings mounted for a reasonable price?

Van Ski Services or MEC worked for me ymmv.

Many skis now come with pre drilled plates and are pretty easy to set up at home. I just bought new skis and bindings yesterday. Mount in was included and the skis and bindings were on sale at 50% off. Now Whistler, where I live is closed. Home mounting even if you need to drill is always and option but you need some skills and tools. It’s not a difficult job with a jig. How much do shops want now?

I use the binding for the jig cuz its always correct, roll of painters tape, tape measure, T -square, 5/16th drillbit, PZ3 driver bit and a bottle of wine

I ended up doing the mount myself with paper jigs. I’ve done several pairs of skis myself now and I don’t mind, but it’s probably a 2 hour process once you measure 8 times and drill once. I was thinking of paying a shop to do it but ended up not bothering.

A quick scan of local Vancover shops puts a binding instal at 50$ + tax and it could be higher for AT bindings, so lets call it 25$ an hr to mount a ski binding ,

Can you make >25$ an hr doing something you do instead of trying to save 25$ an hr ?

An important question might be is the shop you are going to give the 50$ to any good ?

Unless i buy a ski and the mount gets thrown in I mount my own, Tele/ alpine/ AT mounting a ski binding is in fact just good layout,

I don't use templates but here is a link to a bunch of templates for download,

https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php/153971-Binding-Mount-Paper-Templates

make sure the scale is correct after downloading

Posted by: XXX_er

An important question might be is the shop you are going to give the 50$ to any good ?

Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m under the impression that mounting skis with a proper jig setup, as a shop would have, is really not rocket science. It requires a moderate attention to detail, but the jig makes things pretty easy.

I’ve mounted at least 10 pairs of skis over the years using the paper jigs you linked (I have Sollyfit plates on some skis, so I couldn’t even get a shop to mount those if I wanted to). I have ended up with the odd set of holes being slightly crooked, in spite of my best efforts to be careful. In contrast, I have never had a shop mess up a mount - though I know it does happen from time to time.

Its not even rocket biology without a jig but there are still things to fuckup when buddy is high or on the 12th pair of skis that day, so we just hear about some guy on the internet who had a bad experiance with a shop and think all shops suck, its been a long time since I paid a shop to do binding mount

I always just use the binding for the jig, draw it out on painters tape drill the holes couple at a time in case i fuck up its easier to fix, the bigger question is alwasy where exactly do the toe and heelpiece go in relation to ski/ boot center ?

A wine bottle cork will make a handy drill stop, drill thru the cork slip the bit in the chuck to leave the right amount of drill bit sticking out so I don't drill thru the ski

For AT binding mount by 1 hole, clip the boot in, lockdown in ski mode, drill at least one other hole and the boot heel will drop into the heelpiece

tele I do kind of the same thing to center the boot heel on the ski

Just don't slip, or drill in the wrong spot, or forget to put on some sort of stop mechanism. ETC ETC ETC............

For $50 to have a shop guarantee the work, how f'n cheap can you be.  You can but a mounting drill bit about $30, then you need the right glue, then you have the chance of getting it crooked (thus the binding jig). None of this matters if you are just doing touring crap or tele stuff, the equipment (boot and binding) are so likeley to be inacurate, that you can go ahead and drill wherever and be fine. If you are mounting alpine, where you are trying to ski at speed on groomed surfaces, one crooked toe piece will make you ski suck.

I have free mounted or paper jig mounted hundreds of skis over the years. All I will say, if you are confident and have some experience (like some of the people above), you will have some success. If you are unsure and don't know all the tricks, you are more likely to screw you new equipment up and it will end up costing you more than the $50 in the end.

Oh yeah, the reason the retail shops are charging so much more to install your bindings  (upards of $50), is because you either bought all your stuff on-line, or you got your Salomon/Atomic deal through your Arcteryx job. The cheap binding intallation was based on the retailer selling you the equipment to start with, they don't need your $30 for a binding install if it is not based on them making at least a little profit off of the piece of equipment they sold you (ski, boot, binding).

And for the how hard is it, well it's not hard for somebody with some knowledge and experience, but if you have knowledge and experience, are you willing to work for $15 an hour doing seasonal work (4-5 months a year). 

Every shop in Vancouver is looking for qualified and experienced ski/binding techs in October, none of them can find anybody, so it is managers/owners/lead sales people that end up doing the work. These are the people who can make the business more money doing their job on the sales floor, in the office, etc...

Sorry for the rant, but people wanted to know why the prices have gone up for this work and I have some personal knowledge of the reason and I just couldn't stop.

Posted by: TonyJ

Just don't slip, or drill in the wrong spot, or forget to put on some sort of stop mechanism. ETC ETC ETC............

For $50 to have a shop guarantee the work, how f'n cheap can you be.  You can but a mounting drill bit about $30, then you need the right glue, then you have the chance of getting it crooked (thus the binding jig). None of this matters if you are just doing touring crap or tele stuff, the equipment (boot and binding) are so likeley to be inacurate, that you can go ahead and drill wherever and be fine. If you are mounting alpine, where you are trying to ski at speed on groomed surfaces, one crooked toe piece will make you ski suck.

I have free mounted or paper jig mounted hundreds of skis over the years. All I will say, if you are confident and have some experience (like some of the people above), you will have some success. If you are unsure and don't know all the tricks, you are more likely to screw you new equipment up and it will end up costing you more than the $50 in the end.

Oh yeah, the reason the retail shops are charging so much more to install your bindings  (upards of $50), is because you either bought all your stuff on-line, or you got your Salomon/Atomic deal through your Arcteryx job. The cheap binding intallation was based on the retailer selling you the equipment to start with, they don't need your $30 for a binding install if it is not based on them making at least a little profit off of the piece of equipment they sold you (ski, boot, binding).

And for the how hard is it, well it's not hard for somebody with some knowledge and experience, but if you have knowledge and experience, are you willing to work for $15 an hour doing seasonal work (4-5 months a year). 

Every shop in Vancouver is looking for qualified and experienced ski/binding techs in October, none of them can find anybody, so it is managers/owners/lead sales people that end up doing the work. These are the people who can make the business more money doing their job on the sales floor, in the office, etc...

Sorry for the rant, but people wanted to know why the prices have gone up for this work and I have some personal knowledge of the reason and I just couldn't stop.

Good perspective. I've never had an issue handing over $50-60 for a mount from a shop I trust. Last couple setups were Tom @ Intuition, had good experiences at Comor Kits but the tech there I trusted seems to have moved on. North Shore Ski & Board did a good alpine mount for me a couple years back.

Compared to bike service costs, $50-60 is chump change, and I am only getting skis mounted up every few years now anyway.