When I first went to the shop today, I wasn't really sure what I was going to do. I wanted to start the binding, but I didn't have the router bearings that I needed that I ordered from Stewmac on Thursday. I also didn't want to do anything with the fingerboard because I am going to bind it with maple, and that was also coming with the Stewmac order. So I decided I would cut the peghead to shape and bend the perfling. I went to turn on the heat and my propane tank was empty. So a quick run to get a full tank was in order. When I got back there was the mail lady with my Stewmac order! Hooray! Now I have something to do. I started by getting the perflings taped to a piece of oak I had laying around and put it in the bender to cook. After that I turned my sites to routing the bindings and perflings by setting up my router for the perfling ledge. I routed that with no problems. Then I set it up for the binding cuts and cut those. I had one small area where I had a bit of tearout but I was able to fix it pretty easily with a couple of slivers of wood and some superglue.
Did I tell you how much I love having a router station? I cut all of the binding and perfling ledges easily and in less than a half hour. Having a router station makes the job so easy, and almost worry free.
Anyways, once that was done I took my perflings out of the bender. They bent okay, but being so thin, they 'rolled' to the side. One of them was easily straightened out, but when I tried to straighten the second one out, it snapped. This typically would be a big deal, but for some reason, when I made my guitar parts list, I accidentally doubled the perflings needed. You guessed it, I had two spare pieces! So I came up with a better method of securing them so they wouldn't roll and put them in the bender to cook.
While they were bending I installed the back bindings. Other than getting good cuts where the maple ends butt together, it went pretty smoothly. When I did my dreadnaught, I taped the bindings and perflings in dry, with tape spaced approx. 1" apart with 1" gaps. Then I flooded the gaps with superglue. Then I moved the tapes over to the glued spots after the glue hardened, and glued where the tape had been. Then I taped everything off. It worked really well and I will definitely do it again if I build one using plastic or ivoroid bindings. I didn't want to do this with wood though. Instead I used titebond. It worked fine but it is pretty difficult to get the binding to sit tightly in the waist of this guitar because the waist is so tight. I ended up putting a clamp across the waist to make sure that it fits tightly. I think I got everything tight, I guess I will know for sure tomorrow.
Once the binding was all taped up and drying I took the perflings out of the bender and they were perfect! They sat nice and flat and they are guitar shaped! Hopefully the top bindings and perflings will go easily. I am a little nervous about the waist situation having two pieces of wood to work with. Before I do it though, I need to get some more tape. I ran out which gave me an excuse to head inside for the night. I have lots of pictures tonight.
First the picture I promised yesterday of the back braces after staining. They all but disappeared after staining. I am happy about that. The light colored specks on the braces are just some sanding dust.
A nice surprise from the post office. My Stewmac order!
This is how I bent the perflings the first time. I taped both ends to a piece of oak and sandwiched it between two pieces of sheet metal on the bender. Looking back, it was a flawed plan.
A shot of the perflings in the bender.
Here you can see the two small tearouts after routing the binding ledge.
They were quite noticeable with the binding against them.
Here is the binding that snapped. If you look closely, you can see where it rolled and twisted.
Plan B. This time I taped the two pieces facing each other together. That was taped to the piece of oak every few inches so it couldn't roll.
Back to the guitar. Here you can see the slivers of wood I superglued to the chip-outs. The wet stuff is kicker.
After some sanding you have to look really hard for the repair! Much better.
Just another view of the repair.
Here it is all bound up in tape and binding. Sorry but I don't have any pictures of the process. I had my hands full!
The perflings after the second go-around with the bender.
Much better!
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