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Hellooo,

I tried the CA glue technique for gluing bindings and purflings. It worked out ok, much less stressful than having to worry about titebond's open time for such a tricky operation. However, CA glue leaked on the sides here and there in pretty bad thick spots at some places and cleaning is being more difficult that what I thought. I'm mostly scared of removing side material especially at the waist. Is anyone aware of a good technique for this beside time and patience (which I know will be required anyways!)? I removed some of it with a chisel and a scraper is fine where it's thin enough, but it's very tedious. Also, I glued the top bindings and purflings only so if one have recomandations to avoid such a mess for the bottom I'm open to suggestions.

One of the reasons I like CA for binding is that it more or less disappears under finish. Some folks do use it for pore fill. Also the water thin stuff is much more controllable when wicking it to the seam. I scrape both plastic and wood binding,

Whatever glue you use for bindings, I find it useful to mask off the sides with blue tape that goes up pretty close to the binding ledge, like within 1/16” of the ledge. That way, when (not if, but when) glue dribbles down onto the sides, your cleanup effort is minimized.

There are folks who use the CA glue method and get the amount of glue just right so that there is no dribbling down. You aren’t there yet. Until you are, maybe mask off the parts that will suffer from too much glue.

Judicious use of a scraper works well here.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Hard sanding block, 60 grit, elbow grease. For the waist I use a 2 or 3” PVC pipe.

I would be concerned that masking with CA would just glue the tape to the sides. It’s fine with titebond but CA…not so sure, but I’ve never done it, so…

You can "blunt both ends of a single edge razor blade on a piece of sandpaper so they won't accidentally dig in to the wood and then use it as a "mini scraper".

All the above. Coarse paper, scraper. Better is just use much less glue. I do all my bindings with CA. Use a pipette and just put enough to see it wick in. I deposit just a drop at a time.

I’d probably go with a 4” sanding block with 60 or 80G and wait till you’ve bound the other side. Then use the sanding block as you would to level the sides before binding.

If you sand/scrape just in the area of the glue excess you may create uneven areas in the side.

I’ve used CA to spot weld miters etc. but never for full binding.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

CA glue doesn’t penetrate blue tape. If it did, we would not be able to use the blue tape and CA glue method of securing workpieces, a mainstay for CNC users.

Sure, but you’re not hitting the edges doing that, and it’s horizontal. Not worried about it going through the tape so much as under it. I expect thin CA would wick in the edges real good in a vertical plane. But maybe not…

I can definitely see wicking of thin CA glue under the tape as a danger to avoid by making sure the tape is firmly stuck down all along the edge. So, point well taken. Of course, The best prevention when using thin CA glue is being careful not to use too much. I was just offering the blue tape as a way to try to keep the mess contained until the OP gets the hang of it.

I use hide glue for wood bindings, and the blue tape has been very useful for faster and less traumatic cleanup.

I use hide glue as well, and the easy cleanup is one of the main things I like about it (along with being able to rehydrate and steam gaps closed). Shellac everything before cutting the binding channel so you can slop water all over it without expanding the wood.

In the early days of my building, I used the fiberglass reinforced packing tape for the waist and cutaway. I quickly learned that CA wicking under that stuff was not a good thing!

the more I do this the less I use CA
I am a big fan of Duco cement , CA on Mahogany will make stains that you cannot over come.

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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

A sharp card scraper and 150 grit on a cork-covered block (cork-covered length of 2" PVC pip or block) will clean that up. I would suggest that next time, put a coat or two of dewaxed Zinsser Clear Shellac on the body (to include the edge of the top) and on the binding channels. CA is happy to cling tenaciously to shellac, but avoids excessive penetration as Mr. Hall mentioned, so tacking in complex binding schemes may be easily done in steps. Start with taping everything in place (1/4" to 3/8" strapping tape works well), then LIGHTLY TACK with thin CA... keep the tacks an inch or so apart. Once the purflings and bindings are in tacked in place, remove the tape over consecutive 2"-3" lengths with changes to body orientation to allow gravity to be your friend.

For plastic binding, there's not much else to cover. For wood bindings, consider doing your prep (45 degree chamfer on inside corner; break sharp edge on outside corner to avoid cutting tape/fingers) then applying a coat of shellac to the binding. This does not work with Titebond or gelled acetone-based glues like Duco, but makes CA binding and purfling glue-up virtually free of drama.

For what it's worth, we usually put a coat of Zinsser spray on the entire top, then a second light coat over the binding channels... that largely eliminates binding, purfling, and rosette milling tear-out, fiber pulls due to bad decisions on direction of pull on tape, and keeps any errant CA from becoming an issue.

For repairs or rebinding of finished guitars, using BSI SuperGold odorless/Foam-Safe, which has much slower burn-in versus thin or super-thin CAs, and can often be applied and excess wiped off before much in the way of lacquer or varnish damage/adhesion occurs. We often can make a binding repair on a lacquer-finished guitar without further touch-up beyond a light wet sand and buff.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower