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Today I decided to make a binding jig. I've been looking at everyone's different jigs for a while and I like the Williams style jig best. Mario's adaptation, in particular, was influential.

I had some UHMW sitting around, so I decided to make my bearing from this material instead of using a lazy-susan type.

First I attached my cheapo 24" drawer slides to a piece of 3/4" ply. The size of this doesn't really matter that much, in fact all of my dimensions were based on the components I used.


Next I cut the UHMW stock up on the bandsaw. This leaves fuzzy, stringy edges that you can see in the pic.


UHMW does not sand well at all, and I've found that I have to shape it, the best way to go is to use a knife. Here I'm just cleaning up the edges.


Next a drill bit larger than the screw heads I'm gonna use makes a quick countersink for the plates. These plates are going to be threaded together on a bolt, and will ride on top of each other to make the "bearing".


Here's the plates screwed to the slides and the other plate behind screwd to the end of the bench that will hold the jig. The bolt has been threaded through.


Now on the other end of the drawer slides, I've attached a stack of blocks the right size, capped off with a UHMW plate. This will be the shoe that the tower will slide around on.

Here's the tower attached on top.

The parallel arms are now attached with ball-bearing door hinges. These have practically no slop, very solid.

Ok, here's the head of the machine. A Bosch lam trimmer mounted so it is square with the front plate of the parallelogram.

And here's the full machine. I placed a thin sheet of melamine material under the UHMW shoe, so it slides real nice. Action is nice and smooth up and down, and the trimmer stays vertical. I don't like these drawer slides though, and I will replace them I think. Tomorrow I will build a cradle and test it out for the first time

I also want to say thank you to all the folks who freely share their jig and tooling ideas. You guys that have been at it for years have solved so many problems so we newbies don't have to. We are all standing on the shoulders of giants here, and I'm grateful for the boost

Love the hinges!

I've had trouble with the bolts holding the parallelogram square while retaining the ability to stay mobile. The nuts always come loose, or can't be tuned up just right.

Using the big hinges would solve that issue.


Great Idea.


Dave

Thanks Dave, but the hinges idea came from Mario's version of this jig. I'm wondering if anyone else has had a problem with the tower being top heavy? I think I might counterweight the head on this thing...

On mine, the tower stays put and rotates above the lazy susan, then a light weight arm on the drawer glides slides out of the tower. This eliminates the top heaviness of the tower.

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Reguards,

Ken H

In this version, the tower moves by sliding along a level surface so as to eliminate any potential up and down or side to side play in the drawer slides or the lazy susan. I think I'm going to improve it with a bag of sand in the tower and a counterweight on the router head.

It looks like the lower arm of the parallelogram is well below the bottom of the trimmer base. You will want to make sure this is corrected before you drag it over a guitar for the first time.
-j.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

I haven't put mine together to use yet, but I've got locknuts (y'know, with rubber gasketing locking material built in) for the hinge bolts that let me set the tension accurately, and things don't move once I have.

Photos can say more than words:

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Howard,

Does UHMW work well as a thumb then? Nice graft work

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010