Re-doing stew mac plastic binding glued with weld-on

[chimpotle]

So…

I routed the binding channels and ruled in the first section of binding. I foolishly chose to glue the top side first (binding and purfling), and i foolishly did it before chiseling out the tail wedge. I can carefully do the tail wedge without removing the binding, but i'm not that happy with the binding job i did. I didn't get the feel until about halfway through, and the purfling is no bueno in spots.

My questions are:

Is it worth it to remove the binding?

Is there a recommended technique for getting it out of there? I would probably rerun the laminate trimmer to clean up the channels of glue and flotsam, but i couldn't find anything about a solvent or use of heat to remove weld-on and plastic bindings. I don't want to recklessly start prying it off and get some tear out.

Lastly - i test fit the neck in the body, and to my dismay once i seat the neck tenon (bolt on) in the pocket, there's uniformly about a .05" gap between the cheeks and the body. Since its uniform (all the way around), i don't believe its a problem with squareness, i'm hoping theres sone slop that the tenon is jamming on. I'll try to get some pics up if i can't sort this out, but in the meantime, anybody have a similar thing happen?

As always, thanks in advance.

-Chuck

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Chuck,
I have never done plastic bindings, but I do wood bindings, and have routed off a couple. I would think this would be the cleanest way to do it in your case. Be sure your sides are clean and flat, and don't rout any deeper than you originally did. If there is any of the plastic left, you can file/scrape that out of the channels so you can have nice clean channels to start over with.
On the neck, it may be that your tenon is hitting somewhere in the mortise...perhaps in the back. Check that. You will also want to relieve the cheeks toward the tenon all the way around alittle, about 1/8" in from the edges to minimize the contact surface area. You can do this carefully with a really sharp chisel. This will make it easier to get a nice tight fit of cheek to body.
Put up pictures of what you have and the experts will chime in too.

Kevin

[chimpotle]

Thank you Kevin. I checked out the product bulletin for weld on No. 16, and also sent a message to SM - i should be able to warm up the binding and get most of it off with little trouble. then clean up with a file and maybe rerun the router. I'm leary of routing the binding of straight away. I update this paost with my results.

As for the neck, i found a tight spot where the rosewood side wasnt flush with the pocket. Helped a little but i think i have some more investigating to do. And i need to improve my lighting. Regarding removing material around the tenon - of course! I should have remembered that! I'm looking at a gap on the outside of the cheeks. I'll check that out when i get home.

Thanks again Kevin!

[tippie53]

routing off plastic may cause damage to the sides as this may pull out and bring wood fibers and grain with it. The best is to use a cloths iron on low heat and keep it moving , you can get the binding to lift. Also score the side at the binding joint to help avoid damage.

[chimpotle]

Thanks John - its always reassuring to get additional persepective!

[tippie53]

I just had to do this so it is fresh in my mind

[Zen]

Is there an alternative to weldon 16 cement that you guys use--I cant seem to be able to locate a seller in Europe and Usa stores will not ship it

Thanks

[tippie53]

I use DUCO cement

[tnt2002]

Regarding the binding before the tail wedge, I did the exact same thing last week, I'm on my second guitar and wasn't following my 'bible' to the letter, because I'm such an old hand. So I open up Corey's book to see how long I should let the binding set and (hand slap to forehead), forgot the tail wedge. Luckily I found out before doing the top binding.

I was able to rout it out (the wedge area, not the binding) with my Dremel the next day, and got pretty close to the binding, and used a chisel to get the remaining wood out, it turned out pretty OK.

Hope it turned out allright.

Tom

[chimpotle]

Thanks for resurrecting this thread, TNT. It turns out i have some follow up questions…

To answer your question, it turned out kind of sloppy, but i can live with it. It's definitely the worst part of the guitar so far. But all things considered, i'm not gonna sweat some amateur cosmetic stuff.

Now, for the follow up to my issue with the .05" gap between the heel cheeks and the body, heres a pic:

IMG_1663.jpg

I checked out the tenon and the pocket with my calipers, and the tenon is longer than the pocket. Slightly longer at the top side, and more so at the bottom.

Its hard to see in the picture, but the darkness where the neck meets the body on the top side is actually shadow from the cheek.

My first thought is to route the pocket a skoshe deeper with a flush cut bit and my laminate trimmer, but before i went and did anything rash, i was hoping to get a second opinion. Thoughts?