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A buddy is coming over tomorrow for some help with his bindings. His kit came with plastic bindings. I've never done plastic bindings before. When cutting channels for wood bindings, I leave them proud on the front to be scraped flush.

Does the plastic scrape nicely, or do I need to deal with them differently?

Thanks,
Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

And do we prebend the plastic?

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

I never had any troubles scraping binding (of course, it depends on what kind of plastic it is). I never did any pre-bending except for around sharply radiused cutaways, and some peghead shapes. Basic bodies were no problem.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I find for best results . all binding should be that you sand the side to the binding. When scraping down binding you often get them to look thin. Plastic is easy . I use DUCO cement and tape. If you have tortoise or Ivroid it may be an acetate plastic and use a scarf joint , it can hide them very well.
When taping thing one down one in . I lay in a bead of glue , use a rag and wipe in the binding into the channel and glue then tape. Work about 8 to 10 inch at a time.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Cool. Thanks, guys. And John, I do the same thing on the sides. But on the top and back, I bring the bindings down to the top. Plus, I find I have trouble closing the gap on the sides if the binding isn't poking up just a bit.

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

I used plastic bindings on my first build and applied it with duco; however, that didn't seem to work well so I re-performed the work using LMI white glue and had no problems. I left the binding proud of the top and back and used cabinet scrapers to make them flush.

Marc

I always round the edge that sits into the corner of the binding ledge. This helps the binding sit into the ledge a little easier. The scarf joint works well also.

Best of Luck,

Philip

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aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
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