Binding

July 20...After the binding ledges were routed, I made and glued the white plastic binding insert for the neck edge. This will serve as a continuation of the body binding. I had to laminate two pieces of plastic to make a strip wide enough for the slot between the neck end and the top. I glued it in with Duco cement.

Below are some photos of the beginning of the binding process. So far, I have glued the binding on all the sections of the peghead except for that one section from the inside of the little scroll to the top point; I have also glued two small sections of the top (from the inside of the scroll to the tall binding strip at the end of the neck, and from that tall binding strip to the first point). This took me from mid-afternoon to late evening. Tomorrow I will continue.

In the process, I discovered a few tricks:

* As you can see from the photos below, I've used various methods for holding the binding as the Duco cement dries ----- masking tape (the green kind sticks better!), rubber bands, and popsicle sticks as wedges. Whatever works!!!!! * I also discovered that a regular old hairdryer works well to soften the ivoroid plastic binding for easier bending. The .090" ivoroid body binding is particularly thick and hard to bend. I just warmed up the binding for a few seconds on a low, warm setting. This makes it bend easily. * Finally, to fill gaps in my mitered corners, I mixed a little acetone with a binding scrap. The acetone melts the binding; I take a drop of the melted binding and fill the gap. Voilà --- invisible miter lines!