Official Luthiers Forum!

Currently I'm using the LMI Tower for binding on ukes and guitars. I have had earlier versions, as well as the Fleishman style jig, and some early shopmade ones of my own. The current LMI Tower is well thought out and has a really great micro height adjustment. Still it is more tedious to use than I would like. I had a builder/visitor from the Mainland yesterday who uses the Elevate binding jig and really likes it. The process of free handing the body against a cutter always looked iffy to me. He said it is really easy though. Chris at Elevate makes great tools, and I have a number of them. Expensive, but they generally work well. I know there was a posting on this topic some time ago. If you use the current Elevate binding jig, please give me some feedback. Positive responses will help Chris make some $!

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

I love mine. At the end of the day, we're talking about routing a simple rabbet around the perimeter of the guitar. I think the allure of tower style jigs is having more control during that process, but I've personally just struggled with getting bodies set in the cradle in a way that lets me make an easy, fuss-free cut. The Elevate style jigs, OTOH, have been very simple for me to use--with the Elevate being the most simple of all to set up.

The fear here is tilting the body inwards toward the jig and skewing your cut, but as long as you're aware and mindful to keep downward pressure as you go, really not an issue.

I was never able to get the hang of that style of jig. As James pointed out, the fear is tilting the body inwards. I also used a Luthier Tool hand held cutter, but I never got really comfortable with that one either for the same reason. I just never got beyond that fear and went back to a tower style jig with the cradle.

I really like the concept of the Elevate style jig--I think it's probably the best way to go if you can get comfortable with it. I just never got there.

Dave

Love Mine and use it all the time . There is a learning curve . I have modified mine to sit higher up off the bench so I can watch the cut from below and not from above. That made it easier for me .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Thanks for the replies. The "learning curve" info was expected. No room in my schedule for "learning curve failures" right now, so guess I'll have to sit on this. It looks really interesting.-Bob

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

There was a previous thread on binding jigs and the Elevate type was discussed at length as I recall.

viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=55010

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I looked at that previous thread. In all the postings about the trepidations of the Ultimate Binding Jig, the concern seems to be the same. That is it seems like it might be easy to tip the body and get an uneven cut. To those using it, what do you think about that issue? The LMI jig does a great job, but it takes me quite a long time to get the cut right. Changing bearings and height adjustments to get a few thousandths different in the cut can be painstaking IMO. Could be just me, but after years of using the towers, it has not really gotten much faster. The Elevate jig looks much easier to dial in, but like many posters i wonder if I can control the body good enough. If you use one, can you specifically address that issue? Thanks, Bob

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

Tilting hasn’t been an issue for me. Every maker is different, but I connected with this style of jig immediately. It’s just like using a router table in that you set the guitar on the guide and push it into the cutter. Tilting is possible, but in practice, very unlikely.

I also start and stop the cut in sections. There’s no need to rotate the body around in one continuous cut. I could see it possibly getting wonky if you were moving the body through and repositioning your hands at the same time. For me it’s more of a rotate, cut, reposition, cut, reposition, etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I like that the Elevate jig doesn’t take up a lot of space in my small shop plus it’s easy to setup and use. I also like that I am not limited by bearing sizes.

The only issue for me is trying to get low enough to see what I’m doing when it’s clamped in a bench vise. I’ll fix that by making an extension mount for it; would only need about 18” to make it much easier.

Tilting the body during use is a worry and I do it a bit when I’m moving my hands around but I haven’t seen any issue with the resulting binding ledge. Next time I’ll try the cut, move, cut, move idea and that should eliminate tilting.

Even with my limitations my binding channels with the Elevate are as good or better than what I was getting with a tower and bearing bits. My first attempt came out fine although it does get easier with experience, not much different than with the tower/cradle jig.


Steve

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Its much easier than people "think" With the Elevate you can actually make the cut in several passes . The depth of the cut is based on being "squared" to the roller and cutter . Therefore if you are leaned left or right slightly you are getting a thinner depth. Once I have passed around at the slight angle I use a last cut to get my depth set by keeping it squared to cutter. The set up time is easy and fast and thus far i have had no "lean cuts" to worry about blending in.

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

By some coincidence, I have witnessed Claude Boucher use the Elevate jig just a few weeks ago. He had just bought it and although he was only using it for the second time, and he was very much smitten with the tool. He said he had been worried about skewing the handheld body and getting an uneven cut, but that he had no problems at all. He loved the ease and speed of setup and for him this tool was the best he's ever used so far. Says a lot IMHO… this guy has pretty much used every tool available in a production context as well as hand tools and jigs.

Not exactly my own experience, because I'm a repair guy and not a builder, but I thought the OP might benefit from Claude's opinion.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

_________________
Pierre Castonguay

I have not used the elevate jig, but I have a shop made jig that works the same way. Tilting the body is not really an issue, because if you tilt it toward you, the edge of the guitar lifts off the router bit. If you tilt it too far away from you, the edge of the guitar will pull away from the router bit. So, even if you don't keep it tilted properly, the biggest problem you create is a shallow channel. The next pass, with the body straight up and down will correct the shallow cut. It is the most stress free tool I use. The only problems I have ever had to deal with are the occasional shallow cuts, which are very simple to correct.

I know it’s not directly related to the Elevate jig, but here’s my solution to the tedium of adjusting the cuts in the tower style. Simply one router fir each cut. Set the depth once and then forget about it. All you need to do is change rollers from time to time. One for excess, main channel, top purfling, and back purfling.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Problem is that I use many different binding/purfling schemes. Many of the different species of Hawaiian woods I use bending better in slightly different thicknesses. I also would have to use more expensive routers than those Ridgid ones. Here in Hawaii the brushes interact with the router housing and eventually freeze in the router. I threw 4 of those in the trash not long ago. and went back to Makita's. The Makita Cordless Compact routers are a dream to use. I have many of those in various jigs to replace the Ridgids.-Bob

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

I also am always doing something different with each guitar and that is where the Elevate jig really works well.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I use different schemes as well. That said, while the thickness of my bindings and purflings may change from guitar to guitar, the height of them does not, and it’s always the height adjustment that takes time. To change the thickness of the cut is as simple as quickly swapping out the bearings.

While it was never my task to train people to route the binding channels, it was never a job that took too long for new hires to figure out. I really don’t think it would take you that long to master the elevate jig, especially as you are already well aware of what the channels are supposed to look like when done properly.

The Elevate jig is on it's way. So, I'm committed. I have had a number of disasters in the over 700 instruments I have made and bound. I'm over getting distraught about things that go wrong. Worst case, I can always make another one! In fact one of those worst cases happened yesterday. There are always new fun things waiting to ambush me in the shop. Usually they repeat every few years, but this is a new on. Has not happened in 40 years of spraying lacquer. I had a Brazilian tenor uke in the booth,and had just finished a coat on the body. I hung it behind me and picked up the neck to spray. As I was doing the neck, there was a very acoustic crash behind me when the body fell off the hanger and dropped 6 feet onto the cement floor. I have no idea how it happened. Had a really nice ring to it when it hit the cement, so I imagine it would have been a great uke. Unrepairable! Face and back split end to end. So it goes. The upside is now I have a completed body to learn on with the Elevate jig. There is always a bright side, after the pain subsides. A little Corona works wonders! I will be modifying my spray booth hangers!

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

Dang! There’s always a new and exciting way for it to go south!

Greetings all. My index finger is numb from cutting violin purfling channels on a mandolin. Obviously I wasn't using the correct technique. I'm thinking I'll cut channels by hand still, but was wondering whether this jig is the most foolproof out there for a relative novice? My anxiety skyrockets when binding and purfling channels are being contemplated.

Mandolin is done but I still have to put a varnish finish on it. Starting on a J185 now.

Thanks - Gary

I've seen videos of people using the elevate jig, if I wanted a jig that's what I'd get. I just did violin purfling, cutting the groove by hand with the body assembled. Worked great. I have used knives, not much fun. I have two markers, one inside and one out. Cut to depth. Dig out groove. I used a Dremel on the cello, and have used it on a violin, but the overhangs have to be right. I

Or else they aren't.

I have used markers and chisels on guitars, and It does work. Not very quickly, and not perfect. I used a Dremel.too, and it was faster. Not sure if it was.any better.

_________________
Why be normal?

My Elevate binding jig has been set up for a month. After trying it on scrap a bunch of times, I finally got up the courage to try it on a body. I started with a uke body because I thought it would be an easier first go. Kind of a scary looking rig, and maybe not for the faint of heart. I have never liked towers, so willing to give anything a go. Key to success seems to be balancing the work and trusting yourself. It took me 3 or 4 passes around the body, but I'm sure that will improve with time. Did a great job. I still have to cut the little step for the purfling and pearl tomorrow, so I'll see how that goes. Chris makes some great stuff!

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