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Another step done. I made the bindings myself. I also made the hide glue myself with a little salt to extend the open time. The herringbone purfling is from Stewmac. I used a couple of clamps for insurance in the waist, and another spot I didn't feel was tight enough.


This is my first time using wood bindings. I'll get it scraped and sanded tomorrow.

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Hutch

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

Looks pretty good to me.
I have a habit of always use cork lined clamps with cauls across the waist for binding, it does pay dividends.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I am using very light pressure as I didn't really need that clamp. Yeah, I need to get some cork to have on hand for things like this. Always jumping a step ahead and dealing with it later. Sigh.

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Hutch

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

I use cauls at the waist, they are not lined- but will be, thank you.
Even with the cauls, I still get small gaps there, cork will likely help.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Sorry, that should have read cork (4mm) lined cauls with a clamp at the waist, but I think you got that.


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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Having done this. I will definitely do it again. Hide glue is awesome when you don't have to worry about time. I can see closing the box with this mixture on my next guitar.

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Hutch

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

I use strapping tape-pulls stronger.

After removing tape and sanding the glue off, it looks pretty good. I have a couple of areas that need some attention, but overall, im happy with the outcome.

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Hutch

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

Me too. The stuff with the glass strands in it.

Too tired after sanding to do a good inspection yesterday. Looking closely, i see a lot of router tear out on the rosewood sides. I will have to shape some splinters to repair them.

I've never had that happen, and I blame it on the tower and giant 2 flute bit. Im going back to my old way of doing it on my router table with a 1/4" spiral bit. I may even route by hand next time.

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Hutch

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

Did you step through the bearings to final depth or take it in one pass? I use .06" binding and use two bearings to get there.

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No i didn't. I mean, yes, I did take it all in one bite.

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Hutch

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

I think you'll get better results if you go in two passes. I know, it is counterintuitive because everybody talks about the pucker factor with the binding tower, and you'll be doubling your chances of having an issue. I don't have any anxiety around it because I take it in smaller bites. Less violent.

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Brad - I rout my binding channels (typically 0.075") in one pass using the StewMac binding router bit and a tower and have not run into any problems with tear out even on highly figured woods. Based on that, I've not been inclined to do multiple passes since I figure the more passes you do, the greater the chance of something going wrong. For me, doing multiple passes would actually increase the pucker factor.

Hutch - In my experience, rosewood routs very cleanly so I'm surprised that there was tear out.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Good to know, Jay.

I have been doing two passes for the last 12 or so instruments because I have to cut a stepped channel of .040” to start to accommodate my purfling that sits below the binding. I then route a second pass at .060” with the bit raised up to cut just the binding height.

This resulted in a two pass for the binding.

There is actually a third pass for the purfling around the top.

Are you purfling full height? Trying to figure out how you get it done in one.


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Also should point out that regardless of passes, the direction is important. Follow the SM guidance - https://www.stewmac.com/video-and-ideas ... -bearings/

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I do two passes total for purfling and binding. The first pass is for the purfling which can range up to 0.200' deep depending on the purfling scheme. I've never had any tear out routing a purfling channel in one pass (knock on wood) with spruce or redwood tops. The second pass is for the binding which is 0.075" for binding that's 0.080" thick. I install side purfling (pre-bent together with the binding) separate from the binding since it makes it really easy to get nice miter joints at the end graft or where a cutaway meets the neck. My side purflings are ~0.085" so they fit in the binding channel. (I install the side purflings and binding slightly proud of the sides because I prefer to level the binding/purfling to the already leveled sides rather than level the sides to the binding/purfling.)

I also follow the rout downhill rule for routing the top and back purfling channels. For the binding channels I rout continuously in one direction all the way around the body since there is no uphill or downhill in the grain for that routing pass.

There are of course a bunch of ways to do this whole process that work. This is just what has worked for me.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I, of course, do the top purfling and binding in 2 separate steps.



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Hutch

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

Use a marking gauge to scribe the sides at the right height before routing. This will also show you where the router is not cutting to full depth. On really cross grained stuff I like to glue a strip of paper along the side. You can use any sort of glue, since you'll be scraping it off later; I favor either Titebond or CA. Paper is amazingly tough stuff, and does a really good job of holding things together. I learned my lesson when I had a Pernambuco side blow out for about 1/4" down from the rabbet once. There was a lot of run out, and it just went to dust for a few inches. Fortunately it was on the back, and I was able to remove it, re-line the sides, and glue it back on without losing much depth, since it had started out a bit deep.

Alan - is paper and glue superior to tape? If so, why?

Thank you - Gary Davis

I'll try the marking gauge next time. Thanks.

This may have been due to the guitar falling into the carriage as well. So i have to make sure my lifters are locked in place better.


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Hutch

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