My "simple" binding jig worked great!

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dzthings
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2013 10:50 am

My "simple" binding jig worked great!

Post by dzthings »

After much apprehension, I finally took router to guitar to cut my first binding channels. It went so well, that I figured I should share what I did - maybe it will help someone.

Like many on this forum, I obsessed about all the different gizmos I could buy or make to do this task. I really spent so much time thinking about it, it's sort of embarrassing. In the end I decided to buy a Bosch Colt. I thought I would build one of those guitar hold down cradles, but wounded up simply using tool drawer liner (non-skid), and a bungee cord:

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I had to move the bungee slightly when I got to routing the waist, but it wasn't an issue at all. The guitar hold was rock solid.

For the jig, I used only components that came with the Colt kit and some scrap wood. I took some of the accessories apart and put them back together like this:
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The baseplate is maple, and the lexan is just to apply even force to hold it down. I made the baseplate to contact the guitar top surface as little as possible, but wide enough to clear the perfling channel.

I had to put some masking tape under one of the brackets to make the dowel perfectly vertical. What I found was that by holding the tail end of this jig with one hand and the router with the other hand, it was very easy to control. I quickly found that if both the dowel and bearing contacted the sides, this cut a perfect channel. If there was a space between the bearing and the sides, then I needed to align the router so that it was touching. Like I said, really easy to control - and I really had almost no touch up to do. I was kinda shocked, to tell the truth. I also think that wearing earplugs helped keep mytension down a notch :D

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I've been keeping a blog of my first guitar build - a stewmac dread - you can check it out if you'd like at
http://www.dzplanet.com

BTW - this forum is fantastic, what a great community!

Joe Dz
dzPlanet (My Blog - currently documenting my first guitar build!)
 

Re: My "simple" binding jig worked great!

Post by   »

dzthings wrote: BTW - this forum is fantastic, what a great community!

Joe Dz
Joe,
Welcome aboard. Posts like yours contribute to making this a great community.

-tommy
Kbore
Posts: 299
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2017 3:58 pm
Location: St. Louis area

Re: My "simple" binding jig worked great!

Post by Kbore »

Four and a half years later, this was a very useful post! Thanks to the author, where ever he may be!
Measure Twice,

Karl B
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