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I'm using HHG on my latest - so far so good - am using a hot air gun to keep the materials warm so that it doesn't set too fast while getting the pieces lined up. No catastrophes yet.

I'm about to attach the binding - ebony (haven't bent it yet - hmm - not looking forward to that) and wondering if you HHG aficionadoes use it to attach the binding to the binding channel? Any tricky dribbles to think about if I follow that route? Would you recommend a sealing coat of shellac, as I would use if I was using CA to attach the binding?

Thanks!

I've used HHG for binding but I use CA now. No "tricks" for using HHG. It cleans up pretty good and doesn't stain.

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Binding with wood is a pain, don't make it harder. The qualities that make hide glue a good choice for some applications work against you on binding. The same is true of CA, in my experience -- the benefits are far outweighed by the drawbacks.

When installing binding, I want a fairly long open time, good gap-filling, and the thermoplastic qualities of Titebond or similar for dealing with gaps after the fact. The hardness/lack of creep of hide glue isn't an asset here; in fact, some creep might allow for differential movement without compromising the glue joint. Titebond will fill tiny gaps in a fairly invisible way; hide glue and CA leave them open.

One of the main benefits of Titebond is that you can carefully heat any problem areas (I use a heat gun) after the glue has cured and push/clamp/tape the binding into place. As the glue cools, it re-adheres and voila! Problem solved. It's a little more involved than that but not much.

Bending ebony can be fairly easy if you use lots of heat and work slowly (and are lucky!). It's hard to read the grain and some pieces will surprise you -- usually in a bad way. I put an extra piece or two in the bender as insurance (and sometimes that's not enough).

Totally disagree here. I've bound two instruments using HHG and it works really well. When I do it, I work roughly 6" at a time, squirting a line of HHG in the channel then pressing the binding down and apply some binding tape. I then move to the next 6" and so on.

The big advantage is that HHG is somewhat self clamping and allows for a super tight joint. The problem as I see it is that I haven't figured out a way to do purfling and binding with HHG. I'm thinking that perhaps the way to do it is to cut both channels as normal, glue on the binding then clean out any excess glue from the binding channels once the glue has gelled sufficiently then glue in the purfling.

YMMV of course...

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I've used HHG on my last 3 guitars. I don't know why I'd use anything else.

HHG is not gap filling, so, prep is everything. The channels have to be perfect, and the binding fit has to be on the money. When you've got a better-than-good fit, the HG process goes quickly - think "rub joint".

One of the features that I like is that HHG recharges with warm water, so that when you've finished taping a segment and are ready to start another, you can "recharge" the gel-ing HG with a little warm water and continue on. AR glues seem to congeal just a bit too fast for me here.

I can't think of anything that cleans off your fingers faster than HG, either. A dip in warm water, wipe 'em off, and you're good to go.

Don't like how a recent segment looks? - add hot water to release the glue - a palette knife is the secret weapon here - and do it over. I've even done this the following day, although you have to be careful not to mar the binding or channel.

Got a tiny gap on the accent side of the binding? - add hot water on either side of the gap - including on the top/back side - and clamp the binding into place.

I've certainly had good experiences binding with HHG.

For me, the tricky part - at least the first time - was estimating how much the binding (and purfling) will swell when wetted since you have to take this into consideration when routing the channels. Answer: wood purfling about half-again as much as with Titebond; hardwood binding, about the same.

Larry

BTW - I glue in [wood] purflings first, which is easy because they are flexible. Clean the binding channel of any squeeze-out with warm water, then bind.

Fish glue works well too.

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