Figuring out hole overlap issues before buying used skis?

[summit]

Again it depends... are you 6'4" and 210lbs? Or do you charge like a competitor in the extremes?

Or are you an average 5'11" 170# skier who send the occasional 25fter in pow or <10ft to hardpack?

Are you skiing normal woodcore skis or are you skiing titanal/reinforced or real deal carbon skis (not just a stringer)?

[DropCliffsNotBombs]

10mm between holes for standard mounts.
That's an overly generous amount of room IMHO. In practice, this method will most often end up forcing the binding to be mounted way forward or way back from factory spec. And that is unacceptable.

15mm between holes for inserts.
You can actually get even CLOSER with inserts. I have literally put inserts so close to each other that the outer threads interlock. It's bomber.

Avoid having old holes in front of your toepiece if you are the type that breaks skis (I'm not and don't worry about it).
This is sound advice. But it's not as relevant with today's bigger (wider) skis built with better materials. I haven't seen many broken skis come through my shop at all in the last 15 years. Skis just don't break that much anymore.

If you are using the exact same bindings, and mounting the boot center at the exact some location on the ski, the old BSL will need to be at least 20mm larger or smaller to yield 10mm between holes.
(For example, old mount is for 300mm. New mount is for 320mm. Toe goes 10mm forward, heel goes 10mm back.)
This is a huge problem since most alpine bindings don't have 20mm of forward pressure adjustment range. It would suck to find out after you drilled (another set of holes) that the binding won't adjust to fit the boot.

Best way is always to overlay paper templates.
Indeed. But I've learned that getting really close to old screw holes is less important than how well the screw actually tightens down.
In other words, a screw isn't stripped until it is stripped. If it tightens down snug, then it doesn't matter how close it is to any old holes. Unless contaminated by water, 100% of binding screws strip during mounting, not during use. "Tight is tight" and that's all that really matters.... Even if it's overlapping an old hole plug. My method is to mount it right where it should be mounted, regardless of old screw holes, and then helicoil any spinners.

Of course I could be wrong...

[Spyderjon]

10mm between holes for standard mounts.

15mm between holes for inserts.........

Unless it's a crappy cored ski I go closer than that: 10mm centre to centre for standard mounts & 16mm centre to centre for inserts. Never had a problem. And if the ski has a meaty top sheet (ie Mantra/Bonafide etc) I'm happy to go closer if it's just on one pair of holes etc.

Agree with the caveats above re skier size/aggression/ski construction etc.

[adrenalated]

Unless it's a crappy cored ski I go closer than that: 10mm centre to centre for standard mounts & 16mm centre to centre for inserts. Never had a problem. And if the ski has a meaty top sheet (ie Mantra/Bonafide etc) I'm happy to go closer if it's just on one pair of holes etc.

Agree with the caveats above re skier size/aggression/ski construction etc.

Good catch, center to center is what I meant.

[galibier_numero_un]

Good catch, center to center is what I meant.

Now that makes sense!

I've also felt comfortable however with inserts nearly touching each other (which would also be roughly 10mm center to center).

... Thom

[smooth operator]

Unless it's a crappy cored ski I go closer than that: 10mm centre to centre for standard mounts & 16mm centre to centre for inserts. Never had a problem. And if the ski has a meaty top sheet (ie Mantra/Bonafide etc) I'm happy to go closer if it's just on one pair of holes etc.

Agree with the caveats above re skier size/aggression/ski construction etc.

Jon, since you mentioned you drilled a lot of VWerks/BMT skis, does this also hold for those?
I'm trying to solve the puzzle of what to put on a pair of Vwerks katans (drilled once for DukeEPF), and a lot of bindings are out because of hole conflicts. Looks like i may have to go close and i am hesitant because of the porous woodcore.