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Hi

I am now at the stage of installing bindings onto my guitar. Thanks for all the helpful advise and materials to make the completion of the project possible. The problem with wooden binding is that unlike plastic where you could melt a piece of binding to blend everything together, it's just not always possible with wood. I glued the back binding in and I was left with a really small gap of about .005 wide, and I was just wondering what can I do to make them disappear?

I ended up routing the channel on the back (I installed back bindings first because it is easier) with the router base right on the back. The angle would complicate things so I routed the channel smaller than the binding itself and I would actually have an angled binding channel and I would just glue the binding in and sand/scrape everything level. It was really not as hard as it seems unless one was looking for the ultimate consistency (helpful for manufacturers) expensive/complicated binding machine is really not needed.

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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
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Tai, look here for a tutorial by Hesh for filling gaps.

Also, one doesn't need anything expensive or complicated to make dead accurate and consistent binding channels. Take a look at my binding jig which is almost as simple as it gets for a jig. Cost was about $5 in material, the laminate trimmer (which it sounds like you have) and the spiral downcut bit (about $25). I'm going to revise it with a fine adjust feature as well as adding 1/2" diameter bearings for the body to ride on instead of the UHMW. But it really doesn't need to be difficult or complicated to be accurate and consistent.

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I mean the gap you get when you glue the two pieces of binding together and where the pieces comes together sometimes there's a gap.... I was wondering what method do people use to join them?

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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

Most people just use a butt joint. You are gluing one piece on at a time, then butting the next piece up to it yes? Dark woods is much easier to hide any gap, same method as in Hesh's tutorial. Pictures of what you're talking about would help.

Make the joint as seamless as possible, 0.005" is a very very small gap (almost not noticeable) so filling by Hesh's method will work just fine.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

You could plane a shaving off from some excess binding and glue it in the gap and then scrape/sand flush. I am assuming that the gap is where two bindings butt together such as the butt wedge area or the neck heel area?

If you are talking about the binding joint over the tail block I use a scarf joint there. But either way the glue and sanding method will definitely hide it.

You can handle a bad but joint much like you handle a crack in a top. take a firm razor knife and open the gap ever so slightly and at a shallow angle to insure all glue residue is gone from the gap. Next take a scrap of the binding material and a very sharp chisel and make a wedge insert to fit the gap in the proper grain orientation. a tooth pic and place a fine line off HHG in the gap. Insert the wedge and clamp with wax paper between the clamp caul and the insert. Once set remove any squeeze out and lightly sand. on curly Maple, curly Eucalyptus, curly Koa, curly Walnut and many others this makes an invisible patch. on binding with distinctive long grain color variants it not as practical but will work most of the time.

A side note:

When paring the wedge from the scrap binding material you will have a bout a 50% failure rate (the wedge falls into pieces while paring from the scrap binding). A good sharp chisel and persistence and it is not that difficult. The wedge will be smallish and carful handling is required.

One more thing on this that I forgot to mention. To make this in visible on top edge as well as the side edge you must have the old glue residue cleaned out all the way to the top purfling and the wedge insert must bottom against the top purfling and fit well to the clean out opening. It is not hard just work smart and methodical.

I use a scarf joint on my binding joins. Far easier than trying to get a super tight butt join.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
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