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This binding job has been a nightmare. What an awful ******* day. I was just routing the bindings flush when my stupid Freud flush cut bit decided to fall apart. The bearing came right off and this is the result.

I am so angry I could spontaneously combust. How in the hell am I going to fix this?

I can't offer any fix advice but I am trying to decipher what omfg is?

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jw ( o)===:::

Ouch This reminds me why I don't let power tools near a closed box unless absolutely necessary. A scraper will make pretty quick and clean work of leveling bindings like that.

If I'm understanding where it is, I wonder if you could retrofit an armrest bevel?

Could be a lot worse... unless omfg stands for 'ouch my finger's gone'

Can you re-rout and make the bindings taller to cover it up? Hard to see how far down the sides the damage is. If not, patch and dark sunburst.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

OMFG= "Oh My F****** God"

I was scraping when I got impatient. I left them to proud and it was taking for ever. I'm done with Freud bits for ever. I may even write the company a letter to tell them how much their router bits suck.

My first thought was an armrest but I have no idea how to do that at all, and the retrofit is likely to be a PITA. I suppose if that's my only option that's what I'll have to do. I don't know who to deal with the linings on the inside. I suppose I would have to cut that portion out completely and fit a piece of mahogany in there? Then shape it.

I don't have a good feeling about this.

I don't think so. Also I just finished all the mitering on the Florentine cutaway. Being my first cutaway and second guitar (after I gave up on the first) it took me all weekend days to make the binding and then bind the guitar with the florentine. It seems my whole weekend was a waste.

If it was me (and it was, not long ago) I would set up to that depth, route it all off to match, and put down new binding in the revised slot. And I would scrape it flush.

Trust me, Iv'e done 4 guitars! Well, actually two guitars, but I had to route off all bindings front and back on both and start over. This necessitated making the new bindings both slightly taller and thicker to cover up my goofs. So take a day off, relax, then redo. I'm glad I did, they both turned out much better.

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

...and this is why rotary power tools suck
**except for drills. drills are alright.

If it wasn't a florentine I wouldn't hesitate to route it off and redo. I hate to undo all this work though.

...i think Jaysus was angry with you for promoting firearms the other day, all i can figger.

Oh man, I feel for you. That is some very nice work. Wish I had a better answer. I would suggest giving it some time, and a better solution will come.

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

When tempted to use such expressions, I think of this instead: Jesus was a carpenter, what did he say when he cut the board too short?

Then I remember that Jesus was God; he never cut the board too short.

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

Thanks, but I'm not superstitious.

Was the mishap on the front or the back? From looking at your photo of the florentine, it looks like you have a miter joint on the joining piece. It might be very possible to simply cut a new channel, replace the binding, and have a but joint on one end. Fill the gaps well with glue and dust, and likely no one will ever know. That might be a good way out, as long as you don't chip the joining piece while routing. I would seriously consider something like that.

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

It's on the top of the front towards the tail. It's in a perfect spot for an armrest bevel, I just don't know how to do that. I suppose I didn't know how to make a florentine cutaway either prior to today, so I if I had some good instructions I'm sure I could figure it out.

The problem is that when the bearing came off the bit dug into the sides pretty good. Down into the sides and deep into the sides. So the binding would have to be much taller. I could probably save the purfling that way though. I'm dreading those mitre cuts though. That took me all friggin day. I'm done working tonight, I'm on the couch with several beers.

Here's a couple more pics. The ebony is gone in that one spot where the binding broke. Maybe I could graft a piece in and sand the maple flush. Might show under finish but at this point that's the least of my concerns. My time is valuable and I am most concerned with not losing hours worth of work.

The other issue is that these sides were cupped badly and I sanded it down pretty good in some spots so there is no way of knowing what the actual thickness is anymore.

OK, been there, done that too. I ended up with a spot so thin I could flex it with finger pressure. That was because of a cupped section, and I stupidly got too aggressive with power sanding to smooth it out. Ended up with what I like to call "an opportunity for a design feature. " Otherwise known as FAFU. Give me a few minutes to find my pics, and I'll show you my solution.

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

Sounds good. What does FAFU stand for? Pretty sure I got the FU part....

FAFU = Fix-A-FU

OK, here are some pics, I can give many more if you want but basically this is it. You can see where I sanded the side too thin, my best guess is it was down to about .010" thick in that spot. Yikes. So, I could either scrap it or come up with something. Since it was so thin, no point in adding material inside since I would sand through while finishing. So, my solution was to make it thicker.

Here is a picture of the problem:



I used some material I had left over from the head stock overlay, in this case zircote. Cut me a piece of venir, backed it with some white material just like on the head stock, and made a decorative piece that would cover the area.



Added another piece of binding in this area, which made it thicker the amount of the back plate, and it ended up looking pretty good, at least to my eye. I haven't finished this one yet, but it looks different, a bit unique, and folks seem to like it. best of all, you'd never know I did this to correct a mishap.



Hope this helps.

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

Thanks, that's an interesting solution that I hadn't thought about. Hopefully I'll have a game plan by tomorrow night.

You're welcome. I have gotten pretty good at figuring out ways to correct this stuff. I'm glad I can get it fixed, but wish I didn't have to, if you know what I mean!

Just wanted to show there are alternatives. Another you might want to think about is a form of lattice type stuff. I don't have any pictures handy, but if you search the net for bowl back mandolins, you can see some that have a decorative webbing feature on the end of the sound board. Nice looking stuff, very classy. maybe something like that could be adapted.

So just give it some time, don't get too caught up in the status quo, and the solution will come.

Let me know what you come up with, I'd like to know!

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

Oh man, that's a real drag but I can't seem to figure out why this is Freud's fault....I would suggest blaming your mother. ;o)