Not-So-Legally Binding

Its time to glue in binding on the edges of the guitar. Binding serves many purposes... It hides the braces that go thru the ribs, it can protect the guitar if it is dropped, and it, along with purfling, can make the guitar very attractive. Binding is usually made of plastic or wood. I am using plain, cream colored, plastic binding and no purfling because it is quicker and easier and I am on a time limit.


First I route a slot in the sides of my guitar for the binding to sit. I Want the binding to sit at a near perfect 90 degrees to the top. So I place the guitar in this sled that holds it at such an angle.



Then I use this laminate trimmer to route into the sides of the guitar. It has a bearing on it that routes the perfect depth and it sits on this jig that holds it to the top of the guitar




This was probably the scariest thing I have done so far. Not only am I putting a very aggresive tool on my beautiful guitar... but I am attaching a very LOUD tool to an acoustically honed box...so if was very loud and scary.... luckily I made it out disaster free... unlike my friend Isaiah's guitar which had a large piece of his rib ripped out...

Next I am going to route a slot for my end graft. End gafts can get very complicated and beautiful but once again I am going very simple because I am on a schedule and this will not be the last guitar I build. First I use this router jig to make the slot.



It clamps on the top of the guitar and then rests on the table

and between my legs as I route.



The result is a straight slot just the right size for a piece of my binding.

Before I move on I just want to express how cool my school is... not only can I buy guitar strings in the bookstore but my teachers jam out during lunch...


Next I used a vinyl glue to glue the plastic binding onto the guitar. Because it isnt a wood glue, I put a sealer coat in the slot and let it soak in for 15 min before gluing the binding in. I put the binding in gluing small sections at a time and pressing them in with strapping tape to put pressure vertically and horizontally.



Once that is done I put 3 cam clamps to hold down the ends of the binding.


Once that is dried I carefully remove the tape and fit some binding into the end graft slot.



But instead of strapping tape I used a caul and 3 cam claps.

So thats the work that I did this week... Now I want to take this time to talk about my friend brian.

Brian has a problem... a big ugly problem in the form of a beard.


I hate Brians beard

Luckily he has a job interview tomorrow and has to shave....finally. So he has granted me the honors.


But I am a luthier and I dont work with tools like scissors. So I used my japanese water stones to hone my chisels as sharp as I could get them.... I safely put a bench hook down and proceded to chisel off brians beard

gross



yuck



It turned out to be a pretty nice Fu Manchu


Just another round of MSIR tomfoolery