Mounting Telemark Bindings to Skis

The process detailed below was part of remounting a pair of Rossi 9X 183cm GS race skis I bought to participate in the masters races this year against the alpine racers, except I'll be telemarking (hopefully I might manage to beat one or two). Before I started work on this article I sold the alpine bindings and I had a two pairs of skis with holes in them ready to be remounted (a pair of SL skis as well). I recommend Tognar for workshop supplies throughout this article due to the excellent service and prices they have offered me. Telemark Phat does not receive any advertising revenue from Tognar.

Step 1: Plug Holes

Go to your nearest ski shop or Tognar and get some plugs. There are other methods out there to plug skis, like mixing epoxy with saw dust or using golf tees, but plugs are so cheap it's foolish not to use them. I use ski glue like every professional workshop in the world, you can epoxy the holes but I think it is a waste of time and effort as I have never pulled a binding from a ski (however I have sheared the screws). I get my glue from Tognar as well.

Skis to be remounted

Ski Glue and Binding Hole Plug

Ski glue and binding hole plug

Fill the old binding holes with ski glue and put a plug in each hole. Hammer in each plug until it can be sunk no further into the ski.

Fill the holes with binding glue

Hammer the plugs into the ski

Use a hammer and chisel to chisel the little bit of the plug sticking out from the ski off. Be careful, it is easy to remove a lot of topsheet if you are too aggressive with the chisel. Once you are done the surface of the ski should be nice and smooth. Your ski is now ready to be mounted with bindings.Fill the old binding holes with ski glue and put a plug in each hole. Hammer in each plug until it can be sunk no further into the ski.

Chisel away the tops of the plugs

Plugged Ski

Step 2: Mark out the ski's centre line

I've described two methods in this step. The paper method is nice and fast, but I find it to be up to 1mm out on occasion, so I check the centre line using a square ruler.

Lay some masking tape down the length of the ski, so your marks are easily removed. Also you can remove the tape and start again if you make a big error. Wrap a sheet of paper around the ski, creasing it where it wraps around the edges of the ski. Make a couple of little marks on the ski and the paper so you can realign the paper easily. Fold the paper in half so the two crease marks meet, the new fold mark will be the centre line of the ski.

Wrap paper around the ski, making creases at the edges

Fold the paper in half so the edge creases meet.

Put the paper back on the ski, using the little marks you made earlier to make sure you are putting the paper back on the ski in the same place. Mark out the centre crease of the paper onto the ski. Check this mark with a square ruler; make sure the distance from the centre mark is the same to both edges. For this pair of skis I had one mark 1mm out and another 0.5mm out.

Mark out center line on ski

Mark out centreline on ski

Check centre line mark with a square ruler

Repeat the process until you have at least three centre line marks on each ski covering the length of the ski the bindings will occupy. Use a ruler to rule out a centre line on the ski using the centre line marks as a guide.

Ski with its centre line marked out

Step 3: Measuring Binding Location

Deciding where to put your telemark bindings on a pair of skis has no hard and fast rules. If the skis are telemark skis they may have a pin line marked, or if they are alpine skis they will have a boot midsole line on the skis. I find if the manufacturer’s recommendations are available they tend to work out best. However it is fun to measure our more than one position and move the boot around on the ski until one fo the positions looks best. I did this in the process below, and I'll explain my decision making process below.

If the ski has a boot mid sole making the first thing you need to do is to measure your boot midsole. To do this measure the sole of your boot from the end of the duck bill to the end of the heel. From this number subtract 15mm (for the duckbill) and then divide the remainder by 2. The boots below were 317mm long from duckbill to heel. Minus the duckbill they have a sole length of 302mm making the midsole 151mm from the pin line. I like to mark the midsole on my boot for later on in the process.

If you want to measure out chord centre measure the ski from the tip of the ski to the tail, if the ski has a square tail. If the ski is a twin tip measure from the tip of the ski to the end of the running surface instead of to the tail of the ski. Divide the chord length of the ski by two to calculate chord centre.

Measure your boot midsole

Measure chord from the tip of the ski

down its length

to the tip of the tail, or the end of the skis running surface

Now with these numbers you can measure out some mounting positions. For boot midsole measure your boots midsole length forward of the centre line marked on the skis. This is the boot midsole pin line you will match your template up to if you use this method. To measure out chord centre measure the chord centre distance back from the tip of the ski to make your pins on chord centre marks. Measure the marks on each ski from the ski tip and make sure the marks are on the same position on each ski. Finally stand your skis against a wall to make sure your markings are on the same position on each ski.

Midsole, Pins on chord centre and pins on midsole markings

The markings line up

After measuring and checking your pin lines it comes time to decide where to put the bindings. Most of the time chord centre and boot midsole will work out putting your binding in roughly the same position. If there is not much difference I normally yield to the manufacturer’s recommendation. With these skis there was a large difference, midsole was 5cm forward of chord centre. Before removing the alpine bindings I put my old alpine boot into them and the manufacturers mark matched the midsole of my boot well so I went with the manufacturer's recommendation. If there is a big difference you can cut your losses and go in the middle, or chose a point in the range of measurements. As a general rule putting the binding a bit further forward will improve hard snow performance and putting the binding further back will improve soft snow performance. Remember to check one more time your chosen line is on the same place on each ski.

Step 4: Mark out screw holes

Once you have chosen and checked the location of the pin line you want to use to mount your bindings against put your template on the ski and line it up with your centre line and your chosen pin line. Use a hole punch and a hammer to tap a little indentation in the top sheet of your ski for each hole. The indentation will help you keep the drill steady when you start the hole.

Reader Tip: Ziggy, a poster on the ski.com.au backcountry forum suggests,

One tweak I do is to photocopy the mounting template onto an OHP transparency. Use that to mark the drill points just with a compass point and follow that up with an automatic centre punch. The template easily lasts over several skis.

Line up the template against the centre line and your chosen pin line

Line up the template against both the centre and pin lines

Use a hole punch to mark your holes in the top sheet

Next remove the template and draw little circles around each hole punch mark. This will help compare skis and check your holes later. Use the hole punch again to make sure you have made a good indent into the top sheet.

Draw circles around the hole punch marks

Use the hole punch again to make sure the marks are deep enough

Hole punch again to make sure the marks are deep enough

Line up each ski next to each other to check your holes are in the same location on each ski.

Check your holes are on the same place on each ski

Step 5: Drilling the Holes

Now it is time to put your money where your mouth is and get your drill out. There are 4 standard drill sizes; 3.6 x 14.5mm; 4.1 x 9mm; 3.6 x 9mm; and 3.6 x 7mm. The 3.6 x 14.5mm bit is for Nordic skis. The 4.1 & 3.6 x 9mm bits are for adult skis and the 3.6 x 7mm bit is for children’s skis. If you’re reading this guide you'll probably need one of the adult bits. I recommend purchasing a ski mounting bit from Tognar, since they have a collar to prevent your drilling through your ski. Some people have success improvising a collar with tape, but I much prefer the peace of mind a good bit gives you when your drilling into an expensive ski.

As a rule of thumb you use a 4.1mm bit when drilling into a ski with a metal top sheet and a 3.6mm bit when drilling into a ski without a metal top sheet. Sometimes the ski top sheet will tell you which bit to use, or the manufacturer's website may have some information, however this is unusual. The ski I remounted for this article has a vertical sidewall, sandwich construction and the metal sheet is visible on the side wall, however this is unusual. The best course of action if in doubt is to use the 3.6mm bit first, if no metal shavings appear you can continue, if they do appear switch to the 4.1mm bit.

Standard ski drill bits

Be sure to drill straight down into the ski

When you drill be careful you are drilling straight down into the ski. Once you have drilled each hole in the ski hold the ski upside down and tap it to get all of the debris out of the holes. Once you have drilled both skis line them up and check all of your holes are in the same place.

Metal shavings like these mean you need to use a 4.1mm drill bit

Check your holes are on the same place on each ski

Check all of your holes are in the same place on each ski

Now remove the tape from the area of the ski the toe piece of the binding will cover. If the ski had metal in it you will need to tap it with a #12 AD ski tap. Only turn the tap 2 or 3 times. You only want to make a thread in the metal top sheet, not the core of the ski.

Remove the tape from near the holes

Tap the topsheet

Step 6: Screw the Binding toepiece into the ski

Before you do anything the first thing you need to do is make sure your binding screws are not too long. If they are too long they will make little mounds form on your bases or go right through the base of your ski. Screw a screw all the way into one of the front holes on your bindings toe piece. Place it by the side wall of your ski, next to one of the forward holes you have drilled. The screw should reach no lower than the top of the edge. If it is any lower you will need to either file down the screws or get shorter binding screws, Voile is a good source of ski binding screws. Next fill the holes with ski glue.

Make sure the screws are not too long

Put a dollop of glue in the hole

Screw the toe piece of your binding into the ski using a #2 posidrive screwdriver or bit, not a Phillips head screw driver or bit as they are more likely to strip the head of the screw. Make sure if you’re using a power drill to set the torque setting. On my drill 12 or 14 are good. If you use the drill or hammer drill setting it is very easy to strip the hole (If you do this I have an article on helicoils in the works). Finish tightening the screw by hand with a #2 posidrive until you feel the screw.

If you used a manufacturer's midsole mark put your boot into the binding to check if the midsole mark on your boot matches the midsole mark on the ski. Assemble your heel piece and line it up underneath the heel of your boot. Once you have it in the right place mark the front of it on the masking tape. Some bindings give you instructions on where to put the heel piece, as a rule it is best to follow that advice.

Check your midsole marks line up

Line up your heel piece and mark its location on the tape

Measure out the heel piece marks on both skis and repeat steps 4 to 6 for the heel piece of your bindings. Line up your skis and admire your handy work.

Heel piece location marked

Freshly mounted bindings

If you have any questions about mounting your own skis don't hesitate to send me an email or ask a question in the comments box.

Workshop

Telemark Phat

Telemark Skiing in Australia