Thursday and Friday, July 1-2, 2004:
I glued up the binding today -- first the back binding (ebony binding with w/b/w plastic purfling), then, in the evening, the top binding (ebony binding with abalone purfling between two b/w/b plastic purfling strips). For the back, I glued the binding in first with Titebond, with the plastic purfling dry; then I glued in the plastic purfling with Duco. On the top, I did it slightly differently; I used superglue for the purflings and abalone instead. Using the superglue worked better than using Duco, as the purfling didn't swell up and I didn't get the messy Duco all over my fingers! Here are some photos:
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TO THE LEFT: When I glued the back binding on, there was a slight gap between the binding and the purfling at this spot on the upper bout. What I did here (which the photo doesn't show too clearly) was tint some epoxy with black stain and use that to fill the gap, a little above the surface. Later, I scraped it all down, and look (BELOW) --- you can barely tell there was a gap! |
Another "boo-boo" --- at the top of the end graft miter area, I was using the router to trim the top of the end graft wedge and managed to also deepen the ebony binding ledge a little on both sides of the wedge. I felt so distraught about this! But epoxy came to my rescue once again!!! I mixed up some rosewood dust with epoxy and filled those two gaps, resulting in another "no gap" fix, which you can see to the right. Even if you look closely, you can't tell there was a gap! Whew!
Before I glued in anything, I sealed the purfling ledges with some shellac, because I'd read that helps keep the superglue from wicking into and staining the spruce. Here's the top, after I have just glued on the ebony binding with Titebond. The plastic purflings and teflon filler strip are inserted here, but not glued.
After the Titebond was dry, I then glued in the purflings and teflon strip with superglue, then later pulled out the teflon strip and fit and glued in the zillion abalone pieces.
