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I have gotten a fairly good handle on router cutting body binding and purfling. I would really like to do a headstock like a Les Paul Custom, or high grade acoustics by some makers. Long ago, I was taught how to do a layup of a headplate with purfling held around the plate with an army of pushpins. It would then be glued on and then the headstock routed or "gramiled"(I've only done it long ago with a shopmade Sloane Gramil) for the taller, outer binding installed with mitering and cussing and sweat and tears.

Is there anyone here who now has developed a Dremel/ lam trimmer or Foredom method for routing the steps around the headstock? Perhaps this is the one task where the StewMac screw-on binding head would really work?

Thanks, Mike

Nuts. Just cut out the headstock plate and bind it. Sand flat and glue it on the neck.



It's the way I've done these for many years.

Haans: Thanks for that,so simple and easy.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

I simply use my Williams-style binding jig. You may have a lot of complicated bending and mitering, depending on the shape of your headstock, but cutting the ledges is the easy part:

I use the stew mac cutter set with the headstock face down on the router table ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

+1

Haans (or others pre-binding your headplate) ...what headplate thickness do you use typically.

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Dave
Milton, ON

I second Haans, no routing necessary. Binding & purfling the headplate before gluing it has always seemed the easiest/no-nonsense way to me.
I start with a .100" thick headplate/binding/purflings to come down to .070".

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Depends on the purf and binding. Sidebound (I'm doing one now) runs around 1/8" to start and I take it down after I get the inlay in. If it's just topbound, I usually go around .1"...

Okay, I've got to ask Haans and Laurent, how do you cut your head plate so that when it's bound, it fits your headstock? Would seem especially difficult on those fancy mandos.

Joe

I rout the rabbets on the headstock after shaping it. No jig needed since the surface is two dimensional; the laminate trimmer sits on the flat surface of the headstock, the bearing rides on the side.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

LIke this, Joe...



Cut off the scrap on the bandsaw after glueing and final trim with a sanding drum in the drill press.

Glue the finished headplate onto the uncut headstock, so simple.
You know when you're used to harnessing the horse a certain way, it gets hard to visualize an alternate method.

Thanks Haans,
Joe