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I would like to hear how you clamp the side purfling to the binding for glue setup for those of you who do this before bending the binding. I have some colored wood purfling from StewMac (I think it's maple) that is considerably wider than my binding is thick so it seems I should glue first, then put it through my drum sander to take it down to thickness of the binding, then bend. Maybe you have another way of approaching this and if so, I would like to hear it. Considering the width of the purfling, I don't think I can leave it straight and bend/glue it in place while installing the binding........I'm afraid it would break.

So what method do you use to clamp the long purfling strip to the long binding strip while the glue sets?

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

I usually bend the binding first, then glue the side purfs - although in the future I would glue the purf to the guitar first - so I can perfect my mitre joints at the tail. If the purf is wider - put the wider overhang on the side that you will be scrapping.


My method is here below - Todd's picture and method is below that one -

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

I glue the side purfling that goes 'under' the binding (so on the thin side) before I bend them. Actually before I even cut them on the band saw. I glue a stick of about 1'' wide of wathever wood the binding will be made of to a slightly wider sheet of veneer of whatever the side purfling will be made of (sometimes double sheet, when I want white/brown purfling).

To glue all this, I clamp this setup between two boards of plywood, where blue foam taking from a camping mattress is placed on the veneer side. This ensures there is sufficient contact throuhout the entire binding stick (the same purpose as Todd's feather board I guess). And since Titebond doesn't really stick to the blue foam, I don't even need to put wax paper!

Once the glue is cured, I resaw the bindings, pass them through my drum sander and voilà.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

I also use the SM purflings. I glue the purflings to the bindings with Garrett-Wade slow-setting PVA. Could use any glue, I suppose. Then I clamp the assembly in my bench vise, compressing 6-8" of the glue-up for about 5-10 seconds, then moving along to the next 6-8" until the entire length has been squeezed. You know the clamping is good when you get a bit of squeeze out. No jig required. After the glue is dry, I plane/scrape the over-sized purflings to match the bindings. I try to get one edge to match during the glue up; this edge is then the one that gets glued to the box. A perfect inside match is not required, & if a bit short, that's OK. What's important is to make sure that the purfling is not undercut on the outside (finished side), that's why I allow an overhang on that side. After trimming, I bend the bindings+purflings in a Fox-style bender, four at a time, with the purfling edges taped tightly together on each pair of bindings. Never had a delamination with this method and no blow-outs at the waist.

I have a jig similiar to the plastic one shown above but I don't use it any more. I just take a block of wood for the binding so that's about a 1/4 x 3 x 32in or so and glue sheets to that. Bl/wh/bl or what ever. Then I band saw off 32in slices and dress them up in the drum sander.

I orient the pieces so that they are with the inside faces down on a flat piece of countertop cutoff. This means any overhang will be on the outside. Then glue on the purfling with titebond/LMI white using binder clips and sand/scrape the excess flattish...

+1 except I don't have the blue foam.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Before bending, I clamp with paper clamps, then wick in CA glue. Works for me!



Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I think I got this idea from Dan Minard. Pretty simple. Just some large doweling with the hole drilled off centre to make locking cams. Sometimes I have to use wedges but no big deal. All the areas that might come in contact with the binding are covered with packing tape so glue won't stick. You can do 2 bindings at a time. I give them at least 15 minutes before removing. I usually Titebond 3 or something similar.


Hope this helps

Thanks for the repies everyone!

I probably would install the side purfling when I glue in the bent binding if I thought I could bend the purfling without breakage. The wide paper clips should be quick and easy.......but I like the idea of making a jig from UHMW as well.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

I do it like this, kinda..except I run a bead of titebond III down the binding, then use rubber band reinforced clothes pins. I scrape off the excess purfling with a razor blade when done.

I've been bending them with the bindings in my Blues Creek bender. I sandwich them between the binding strips just like if they were glued onto the strips already. As long as they are supported between binding strips when you tape everything together, they don't break and bend perfectly. Then I superglue them in before gluing in the bindings, which I've been doing with fish glue. So far, after everything is scraped down, they've all looked the same as when I've pre-glued them to the bindings before bending.

Matt

Interesting... am I in the minority because I either bend separated bindings and purflings or else bend the purflings when I glue up the bindings? Honestly I never really considered gluing them together first but this thread is making me think a lot of folks do.

This is what I do as well, except I use these......

Looks like a pretty #!$?!/#! nice purfling glue-up tool.

The hands down easiest method I think is to laminate a binding blank with veneer then strip it out.
I use my small proxxon saw for this then fine tune the bindings on my thickness sander.
LMI has veneer sheets which exactly correspond with the their purfling offerings (I use the .6MM Indian RW and Maple mostly). So everything matches (side purflings and top and back purflings) once they are completed even though the side purfling were derived from the veneer sheets and the top and back purflings were strips.
Once the bindings are stripped out with the attached side purflings they can essentially be bent and handled as if they were a single strip.
I do avoid going any thinner than .6mm with these. I've used .3mm veneer on occasion but this can buckle slightly when bent at the waist.

I just use titebond 3 and tape.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

I've never used laminated side purfling/binding. Would the heat from bending make the glue joint fail? Are there certain glues that should be avoided or recommended for gluing up side purfling/binding?

Some wood and clamps. Let it sit for 30 minutes and cut it with a sharp knife.



Best regards,



Edzard

In the cases when I bend a purf/binding combination, I do as David LaPlante. Glue a binding blank to the desired veneers, resaw strips, then thickness sand to the proper width. Granted, making the mitres on the tail wedge while mating the binding ends is a little trickier (especially since I join the binding ends with a scarf joint), but it can be done.

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michael propsom
www.propsomguitars.com