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I've had most kinds of binding cutters over the last 40 years. The micro depth adjustable donut on the new LMI jig is one of the best innovations ever! Some of their jigs are so over engineered as to be vertually unusable, but the new donut is an exceptionally good idea.

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

I like it! My background is in engineering and I love to see clever but practical solutions to problems.

Dave

Thanks Dave

That was all my design and I built one in scrap wood to test principle and size.

But I've seen others including one on a guitar forum. But they are used for all kinds of manufacturing, some really huge and more complicated. Used to keep tools aligned and most often to reduce the stress and work fatigue required of people doing repetitive things.

Mine does both, and it was fun to make.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Not too far off track I hope, here's how I hold them in the process. 2 stationary padded "chairs" one end of the guitar fits in. And 2 adjustable padded chairs for the other end, attached to a hinged piece of Lexan that goes up and down to level things up running on a thumb screw.

Works surprisingly well and hangs on the wall when not in use.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

I’ve literally used every popular setup other than the Stew-Mac. I’m getting ready to whirl up my new LuthierTOOL jig next week, but to date my two favorite have been the LMI for a tower type setup, and the Canadian Luthier Supply for the Kett-type. I had the Elevate but didn’t actually use it before getting the LuthierTOOL.

I loved the donut on the LMI. Aside from what’s been mentioned so far, it also had a very smooth travel into he cutter head. The donut on some others could be a bit abrupt. I also loved how smoothly the router travels up and down. I’m not sure what the mechanism is called, but there’s a steel ribbon that serves as a counter weight, and the router always felt perfect as it moved up and down.


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I would prefer to hold the router in my hands and closely watch everything that's happening while the guitar is locked in place. I think the arm design is what I'll ultimately go with. I've been using the Dudenbostel method for years with OK results but never perfect. I hate cutting blind.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I like this. Easy to store on a shelf. The only thing I would change is using more plexi for better view of the cut.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I'm not understanding the mechanics of this thing. I'm guessing there are some slots not shown that allow the arm to expand and contract and somehow the router stays vertical. Do you have a parts sketch you would share.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Hutch

I did shoot a short video during construction that shows my wonderful wife (goofing around) running the assembly through the range of motion. But dang, she'd shoot me if I put it on the internet. It is about 1.5MB. If you PM me with an email address I could send it to you if you need more visualization.

I took a a dozen or so pictures and even did a spreadsheet of parts and vendors. I made it intentionally so no machining needed to be done that wasn't done with table saw, drill press and hand tools. That part of the design was the hardest part. Using off the shelf parts available in small quantities from places like Online Metals or Speedy Metals or McMaster Carr.

Here's a link showing similar arms in action. Check the first video to get the idea. Mine is a bit simpler in that the first section from the bench mount swings back and forth horizontally but not up and down. Then mine swivels again at what would be the elbow joint and again at the wrist joint where the router resides.

https://www.ergonomicpartners.com/zero-gravity-tool-balancer

Here is the original concept sketch where I was thinking of mounting to a wall, I mounted mine to a piece of 2x8 and in use put that in a bench vise.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

I ripped that piece of binding off this morning and started building a new router fixture. Not the one above, that's too complex and will take too long to build. I'm going with this one by Ed. I got as far as cutting the large guide block and radiusing the edge. I think it's going to be nice to be able to see the cutting action for a change and easily maintain the angle.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I was confused too, not seeing how the router would maintain the same height given that the inner arm is fixed. But in reviewing the pictures, there is a hinge between the inner and outer arms. So the outer hinged parallelogram arms allows the tool to move up and down, while the hinge between the inner and outer arms allows the tool to move in and out. Clever.

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Tony Thatcher
Bozeman, Montana

I've been holding off on fixing this as I keep getting different ideas. I'm considering re-cutting with bearing router bit. I already own a rabbiting bit and was wondering if the SM bearings are standard size that would fit this. My bit is 1 1/4" so I would have to go up 1/4 in in size when ordering. My bit isn't a down-cut but I think for cleaning up these ledges it would be fine.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

You really need to look into the size of the inner diameter of the bearings sold by StewMac, to see whether those bearings will fit your bit.

The Ultimate Binding Jig by Elevate Lutherie is simply amazing. Total game changer. I've tried the towers, the arm jigs and just about whatever else I could think of. This jig cuts the channels nearly perfectly every time and it intuitively adjusts to the thickness of your material so there is very little scraping. Binding was always one of the most frustrating steps for me because I could never quite get it right. Now I look forward to it. Also, Chris happens to be a really good guy.

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PMoMC

+1

I have The Ultimate Binding Jig by Elevate Lutherie and it's awesome!

I've used everything from the Dremel, archtop Stewmac attachment, to various router configurations as shown. They all worked fine with a lot of operator input. Bought the Stewmac jig and all the bearings quite a while back. They work very well as I know many other similar ones do. No complaints.

I went back to my original Dude setup on the router table. I know I've made good ledges in the past so I made some adjustments. 1. I put the down-cut bit in it, I'm not sure why I didn't do that in the first place. 2. I reshaped the lower portion of it, gave it a little curve so the height doesn't change if I tilt a little to the left or right. This is not my original jig that had that feature. Once I added it and reran the cuts, they needed very little cleanup. I still would rather move the router and watch the cut so I will be ordering the bit and bearings before the next time.

I manage to get one piece of binding on and noticed after the glue dried that I had left some snipe right at the end graft . I'll be cutting that off and making new bindings for the back only as I had to go deeper and wider to clean up the mess. The new bindings will be made up of multiple strips of cherry on the bottom to match my end wedge and a combination of rosewood, cherry and rosewood for the main pieces. I found I can make these so easily with my drumsander and bandsaw and what I found when making a few cherry strips, I could easily get them down to .020", maybe less but I didn't try, I may need a carrier. That's all.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

A simple laminate router attachment can be used with a homemade "donut" to cut binding ledges. It allows you to hand hold the router and see the cut it is making. The attachment adjusts in and out and up and down and in conjunction with moving the router base up and down adjusts the width and depth of the rebate.

I think any of a number of router jigs/holders/towers/tables will give good results once the operator learns to use it. No tool substitutes for experience and familiarity.

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Peter Havriluk

for banjopicks ,,,, Stew Mac bearings are for their bits and I haven't found any like them elsewhere. The inner race has an O.D. of 0.25" and uses a screw that is about 0.163" O.D. thread. Some of the bits you get elsewhere have a inner hole dia. of about 0.190" and use a screw 0.115" and will clearly not work with the Stew Mac stuff. Personally would like to get away from the rabbit bits with all the bearings but I'm used to using a "tower" that I built from pictures I saw and that's what I use and I'm sticking to it I think. My weight reduction compensator for the weight of the router is a couple of pulleys with string and a bag of old lead wheel weights. Works good, looks ,,,, ?

The SM bit is in the mail and it will be my new method. My wife bought for my birthday after telling her the trouble I was having. I forgot to tell her I need bearings as well so that will be another order. I'm looking forward to cutting with the router in hand. I'll start there and see if I need a tower.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

They sell these bits on Taobao, sized exactly for binding/purfling (this is assuming a binding thickness of 1.5mm) and there are various bits for various purfling width:

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a3 ... 2697394141

They're just expensive as hell...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Lots of great looking jigs. I tried a bunch of the different jigs that adjust depth of cut by moving the router and thus the bit in reference to the side index. While generally getting OK results, I ended up with inconsistent results due to the 2 dimensional alignment required to keep the router and bit perfectly aligned with the side index. If the alignment was not perfect the channel was inconsistent as the side contacted different parts of the side index as one rotated either the guitar or router while cutting the channel. I went back to using bearings on the router bit as the bearings are effectively perfectly centered to the router bit. I use a Fleischman style binding jig with an LMI router binding jig/ bearing set and have started to achieve more consistent results.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Just want to mention that I did one guitar "free hand", using the StuMac bits and bearings and a home made domed base on a trim router. I really like the Ridgid TR for it's ergonomic feel, balance, and good adjusters.

The bearing and base take care of most everything except vertical position of the router. Hard to monitor that in 360 and monitor feed and cut at the same time.

I had some little bubble levels for other tool setup so stuck one on top of the router with double stick tape.

Along these lines - https://www.amazon.com/s?k=round+bubble+level+indicator&link_code=qs&sourceid=Mozilla-search&tag=mozilla-20

Helped a lot. At a glance from any direction I could tell if I was starting to tilt the router, correct it and back up a bit if necessary. Requires a little more familiarity with your router and practice but doable.

Practice runs to develop muscle memory can go a long way.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Lessons learned.

Use the proper down cut router bit and bearings.
With wood bindings, thinner is better. Maybe install two thinner bindings, .060 and .020 rather than 1 thick .080.
Break the inside corner before bending.
Tape in place for perfection and use thin CA.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!