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I'm working on my first full sized guitar and I had a little trouble with the binding on the back. The top went great, no trouble at all. I shot a little shellac around the edge for all of the know reasons. I glued the binding with Titebond. It's curly maple with Stew Mac .040 BWB purfling. When I did the back I didn't want to use the shellac so I did my first coat of Z-poxy, I was afraid the shellac would cause the Z-poxy problems. Well, I wound up with a few small gaps between the binding and the back. So here's my question, what should I use to fill the gaps, CA, Z-poxy more Titebond? I am going to Z-poxy again before sealer and Nitro.

Thanks in advance,

Scott

If they are small gaps, I fill the gap with some glue, then sand into the direction of the gap. This will fill the gap. I believe there is a tutorial by Hesh on this.
http://www.lenaweelutherie.info/page6/page14/page14.html

Glenn

Thanks for the quick replies. Yes I am going to pore fill with Z-poxy and the gaps are probably smaller than some of the pores. I think the wood is Paduk, I found it in an old barn. As far as the shellac I thought I read somewhere the Z-poxy wants to go on bare wood, shellac over would be fine, just not under. I wasn't sure about CA under Z-poxy either.

Hi Filippo,

Yeah, I didn't realize he started to pore fill (not enough coffee this morning is my only defense) - I do this method after the binding is on for very small gaps prior to pore filling.

Glenn

I fill the gaps using the heat gun/clamp method. In other words, heat up the binding, clamp it tight to the body using a long clamp and some cauls. If I can use small slivers of the same wood as the back is I'll try doing that.

todd, youve gotten quite a bit of mileage out of that picture, havent you?!

_________________
sweat the small stuff.

I don't see any gaps there so looks like you got nothing to worry about. I've never had any luck with the glue and saw dust filling method. It always seems to show too much. If I have a large gap I will try and close it with heat and clamps as mentioned before, it tends to work well. For minor gaps I use stick shellac, just melt it right in and scrape it flush. BTW I'm not sure you want to shellac the routed out binding channel if you are going to use Titebond. Titebond should be wood to wood contact.