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I recently had a chance to get one of Chris's (Luthiers tool company) new binding router jigs I attached mine to a Williams arm and have just started setup. It looks like it will be very easy to work with. I will keep you all posted on the outcome of the machines abilities. attached are a few photos of the binding machine setup I will be using. I have not installed the bit in in the trimmer in the photos.

Thanks

Blake

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

Kewl!

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Any more pics?!?

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Old growth, shmold growth!

The bottom bearing pivots 360 around the bottom of the bace. Since I have taken these photos I have routed the Channel out and wow it looks so good I will take more photos and post next week. I have also been in touch with Chris and he is making a few attachments to the tool. One being a fixed vertical system and will be coming out with his own version of the williams arm system. So far with what I have done at this stage, the binding tool works absolutely amazing like all of his tools.

Blake

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

I couldn't understand this until I watched the video at the Luthier Tools site. Looks like a very nice design.

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jw ( o)===:::

Blake . I look forward to seeing more photos of this jig, and your thoughts and comments about it/s use . i recently updated my fleishmann style binding jig by replacing it with a ridgid rtr and umhw donut. I will see how it works for me, I would also seriously consider purchasing one of these luthier tool jigs for my PC 7301 rtr and try running it , to see if I can improve the the binding/purf cuts on my gtrs . I am using the LMI bits. Thanks .

From what I am seeing the luthier tool setup is very easy to adjust I will post some photos of my cut channels and give you an idea how easy and how fine you can adjust your cuts
Thanks
Blake

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

Thanks blake I just redid a small CL gtr binding with a makita rtr circa 1987 that I bought in Van, haha still runs . I was using a spiral downcut on the makita , and also redid a tenor uke binding.I wasn/t too pleased lots of chiseling and cleanup on the h mahog. kerfing .It seems the bit left abt a .003 ledge at the bottom of the cut. But the biggest problem with this makita lam, trimmer is adjusting the width, I like to creep up to the final width e.g. .100 or 2.5mm gradually and it/s vy hard to do it with this rtr. Look forward to the photos.

The Luthier tool system should eliminate this issue completely. So far I have not had any problem thanks Blake

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

thanks that was what I was hoping for, as I use a lot of odd sizes of binding on my ukes and not everything can be routed to accomadate the LMI bearing/rtr bit

Another disadvantage would be if you had and concavity or bulging to the side, but we shouldn't get that anyway. Side struts wold fix that.

Other than that, you have to make sure the sides register perpendicular to the tabletop all the way around, but that should be easy.

With my handheld unit, I use a piece of binding the set the height and depth, doesn't take more than 2, maybe 3 tries on a test scrap to get it EXACT, and even my handheld cuts a perfectly consistent channel all the way around.

I'm seriously considering getting this new base version for solidbody electrics.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Hi blake spoke with christian ordered the adj jig, he/s abt 2 weeks behind now.

It's well worth the wait. Let me know how you like it. I will be cutting my perfling on the top possibly this weekend. My day job is getting in the way of building

Thanks Blake

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

Blake thanks, that/s one of the reasons we left van,it/s a pesky little thing called freedom.Most of us are caught in that rut.Hope all comes out well. . I can get my wife to post some photos after I figure it out.Chris will have all his goodies at the next GAL convention, hope to be there.

It looks a lot like a prototype that I made several years ago.

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Rich S

"The inconvenience of poor quality will linger long after the thrill of a bargain has been forgotten"

Here are some new photos of the channels I cut. I am so impressed with the sharpness and quality of each cut. The beauty of it all is you can cut to any width and depth. I am so impressed in this sytem. Tt takes all the worry away from installing binding. I hope you all enjoy the photos.

I would like to thank Chris form Luthier tool company for his imput and John from Blues creek for the williams style arm. I installed the cutter on his system I purchased. It worked slick. I am so impressed!

Thanks

blake

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

RE: Picture captioned "Binding in place not glued"

THAT'S what I'm talking about, perfect fit! I LOVE it!
I get those results with my handheld unit, but I'm definitely gettingthis one for at least solid body electrics, but possibly acoustics as well.

Nothing beats the spiral downcut in my opinion for cleannness and longevity.

Great tool, and GREAT job setting it up and using it.

BEATIFUL BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL!

And a nice guitar too.

Blake, I must admit I'm quite impressed with your quality of work and attention to detail.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Blake thank you for posting those nice clean shots .I/ve got a ways to go with the binding.My problem is I like to use varying woods/widths , height/depth on my ukes . Hope this new jig solves my problem. Placed order on mon.

Thanks Ernie, and to all

This system will completely solve any problem you might have with sizing. I am sure you can cut any size binding and match with that ever purfling you may use. The cut is so clean it is amazing. No sign of tear out because you creep up on your final cut. Your setup may take a little adjustment, I.E spacers needed on the tool to the plastic router plate for clearance issues to the first pivot bearing. You may not have this problem depending on what trimmer you use.

Thanks and enjoy.

Blake.

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

Blake are you using the downcut spiral carbide bits ??. I was going to mount LTco jig on my PC 7301. Not sure of your explanation of the clearance since I don/t have the jig in my hand. I have some round machinests spacers marked out in decimal equivalents, this took me forever to visualize due to my familiarity with the metric which IMHo seems much simpler and easier to me.

Yes downward cutting spiral bit and talk directly to Chris at luthier tool company about your trimmer but I'm sure it will fit his bing cutter tool
Thanks
Blake

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Blake Dixon
Kelowna B.C.

Thanks blake, I did tell chris , no worries.

This looks very nice. I have their slothead tuner jig and it's great. Here's what I've been using for the last 5 years. It's a prototype built by Bishop Cochran and it works beautifully on very much the same principle, but it's handheld. It uses a downward spiral bit and is infinitely adjustable for both depth and width of cut.

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Jimmy Caldwell
http://www.caldwellguitars.com

Reminds me a lot of the handheld version of the cutter I have.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I also have a similar cutter but the only problem with it is if you let it tilt off the side, you get a wider cut at that spot. Really a bummer!

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Waddy

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