Official Luthiers Forum!

What type of binding machine are you using and why? The Williams or the LMI style are the types I'm interested in building.

Williams.........like to have my hands on the router (and the body securely held). But that's just me.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Why a William's jig but of course.... And mine has been autographed by D.E. Williams himself!

lmi is a tom ribbeke original design It is also overpriced . I sell the same unit $210 without the router and $315 with a porter cable 7310. The Williams binding machine is $410 with the router. Both work on the design of keeping the bit parallel to the sides. The williams allows you to handle the router and you work that around the body. The Tower is used with the guitar body being fed into the cutter.
Both work well but I like the feel of the williams but it will need some space
John Hall
blues creek guitars

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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

I purchased the Stew Mac True channel binding jig and am quite happy with it.

Fred Tellier

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Bosch Colt. Stew Mac bearing and cutter set.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Luthier's tool's binding base on my PC310

I have made both types of binding jigs and I really like the Williams jig...
Does luthier's tools still have a web site??

Gary

I built the Williams Jig (and used it without reading the instructions... there were none). It is a very nice machine.

Mike

Oh yea! http://www.luthiertool.com/index.html

Actually I don't use either. This does the trick for me...



And it folds flat against the wall when not in use.



What the heck, one more pic.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

Wes what wood did you use for the fixture. It kind of looks like white oak me

Actually, that's just plain ol' HD poplar. Works plenty well.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

wes, that is a cool binding jig. i just finished my williams jig or i might consider building that one. ive got over $100 in my williams jig with baltic birch ply (learned my lesson, total overkill) lazy susans, drawer slides, etc. this looks much more economical and quite easy to store. is the idea your own? good job bro.

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sweat the small stuff.

Wish I could take credit for the idea. Actually, it came from the LINT website. http://www.lint.org/index2.html It's Dan Fobert's original design.

Pretty shameless copy, in fact:



And, yes, it's very economical, can be built for the price of a couple of boards and bolts from HD. Plenty stable and I like the fact that it locks into itself and stores against the wall.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

I'm still using the LMI rig.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Wes, That's a great idea for a binding machine thanks for the link. That will work perfect for me in my small shop. Do you know if there is a measured drawing available? I liked the Williams jig but was concerned about the space it took up and even storage space but this would go perfect above on the wall over my router table. Can you tell us if there is any min. and max. distances from the wall that the guitar needs to be?

Wes, that is brilliant! Thanks for the pictures and the link, I'll be borrowing that one for sure. I had that idea in my mind but have not gotten around to making anything yet. Now I just need to copy Dan Fobert's design and I'm there. Now I'll go one step further with it and add the lazy susan bearing under the router so I can use a 1/4" down spiral bit for cutting the channels.

Saaaaaaaaaaaaaweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

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Chris, if I remember right the LINT website has a full write up on instructions and the measurements he used. The range of distance from the wall could be variable based on the design and the lengths of the arms. I could try to get some measurements if you'd like. You can see in one of my pics the overall reach on mine is 42" from the wall. It will go all the way around the body in one pass, but I tend to slide the carriage around so I can see what's going on.

Mine is a little limited on how close to the wall it can work freely because of some interference points where the outer, vertically articulating arms hit the top and bottom supports on the swinging carriage that's attached to the wall, but this could be alleviated with some strategic whittling in those areas. Hasn't really posed a problem, though.

This one is also a touch tight in operation but, again, that hasn't really bothered me. Everything operates extremely smooth on it. If I were to build another one (or rebuild this one), though, I might try some low friction tape on all the joints. I've bound two guitars with it so far, and I'm plenty happy with it.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

I did a quick scan of the artical and will give it a good read. But like you said about the arms hitting close to the wall was my concern being my table is only 32" X 48" I was wondering if it was deep enough. I'm also starting to wonder if I could use some of the Williams jig ideas along with some of this jig ideas. Well I got some time to think about it.

Chris, the interference problem could be easily remedied, I think, by simply making the swinging part that attaches to the wall a couple of inches taller so there is good clearance between the outer arms and wall supports. Leave the outer arms spaced about the same but on a taller tower that fits within the swinging section. Make sense? Viewing it closed like in one of the above pics, it would have an inch or so gap top and bottom. It could still lock into itself by putting a support block on the lower arm to hold the trimmer. For that matter, all the gap could be on the bottom, as that's where the interference is.

Hope that makes sense. And, thanks, Todd, the delrin washers were what I was trying to remember.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

Very nice! I was trying to build something similar using an old swing arm from a TV stand, but it wasn't working, I had scrap Ply, lazy susan was cheap, so I built a Williams/Fleishman style jig. Takes up a bit too much room, really, but it works wonderfully. I can also very heartily recommend vacuum clamps (a la LMI clamp, got mine from Vac-U-Clamp) for holding the body in place. Easy to set, easy to fix the body, works great.

Of course as I stated earlier, I use the Luthier’s tool base and hand route but I whole heartedly agree with Mattia here on the use of vacuum clamping in lue of a cradle. It is simple to level out. (not a biggie for me) and there is cradle stand arms to get in the way of my bearing guides. In fact I would be lost anymore without my vacuum clamps.

Has anyone ever tried to bolt 2 -16" drawer slides back to back or nestle two extensions arms on a Williams jig to save space. You know what I mean? The arm would telescope out to 32" but take up 16". That one idea I was thinking about and maybe mounting the end of the arm to the wall like the Fobert jig.
Wes I think I understand thanks. I think that maybe if I build one or even just the arm I'll get a better idea and may be able to figure out something to get it to work for me on my table.

I built a Fleischman/Williams jig (who are those guys?) a few years back, but have been wanting to modify it to mount on the wall to take up less space. I've had something in mind like that mount for awhile. I guess I'll just have to do it one of these days. I think I'll use a couple pillow blocks to make it nice and smooth. Not that it's overkill or anything...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
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