Official Luthiers Forum!

Yet another in a long string of stupid questions...

What's the best way to cover binding/purfling when spraying a sunburst? I can see two options - taping or covering the binding with shellac or something that the coloring wouldn't permeate. Are either of these viable/common?

Thanks,
Andrew Wright

most common way is to tape off. you can also spray and then scrape it (the
color) off with a razor blade, but that's a bit more tedious...

_________________
John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

What is stupid about the question?

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Hesh I figured you would say " The best way to protect binding and purfling on a burst is >>>Let Tony do it" MichaelP38898.5753819444

gee I wushed I could spale

Hookt on fonix wurked fur me (insert grinning Mike Tyson here)!!!!!

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

[QUOTE=John Mayes]... off with a razor blade, but that's a bit more tedious...[/QUOTE]

Unless your really good at it. Gibson Montana had a guy that did just that and was very quick and clean.

_________________
Scott Thompson
Port Townsend,WA

"In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room"
-Billy Bragg

Thanks for the replies! Had another question about reamers, but checked the archives and learned what I needed to there.

Andrew

[QUOTE=Scott Thompson] [QUOTE=John Mayes]... off with a razor blade,
but that's a bit more tedious...[/QUOTE]

Unless your really good at it. Gibson Montana had a guy that did just that
and was very quick and clean.[/QUOTE]

true true... I guess if you're doing 30 a day it helps speed the learning curve
eh? :)

_________________
John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

[QUOTE=Scott Thompson] [QUOTE=John Mayes]... off with a razor blade, but that's a bit more tedious...[/QUOTE]

Unless your really good at it. Gibson Montana had a guy that did just that and was very quick and clean.[/QUOTE]
How about the old-school guys that could shape a neck in 15 minutes?

My expreience with spraying stains or colored finish is that it always manages to get under the tape somewhere. This can be a disaster for wood binding. So I now do both. I brush on shellac to the wood binding, then tape. The 3M fineline pinstriping tapes seem to work the best, they stretch a bit for going around curves and corners. Believe it or not, black electrical tape works well if you aren't spraying serious solvents like acetone but it is kind of the wrong size for most stuff. If I need to scrape I like to use glass microscope slides for the scraping process, just feel a bit more secure and less flexie than the razor blades.

Alan D.

I do both...taping and scraping. Like Alan said, it always manages to creep under the tape. I use the old tan masking tape in 1/8" width. It turns the curves much better than the wider tape. The plastic pin stripe tape will stretch and pull away from the inside curves when the lacquer hits it. Most of my sound hole purfling rings are 1/8" wide, so the tape fits perfectly.

It is important to remove the tape at the right time. If you wait too long the lacquer is brittle and tends to chip. If you don't wait long enough the lacquer will pull away or string a little bit. I have found that the best time for me is about 2 hours after spraying the last color coat.
James Burkett38899.0394907407