Cherry parlor guitar, project #2

[MaineGeezer]

Here's a photo of the first strip of binding being glued on.

The cat's assistance was not requested but i got it, anyway.

[Diane Kauffmds]

Glad it was the back and not the top. LOL We have several cats, so I do my gluing in an "animal free" room. If I didn't, it would be my luck that one of them would do some break dancing on one of my guitars.

[Danl8]

I'm glad John keeps his full grown lion out of his workshop. :-)

MaineGeezer, I guess that is a new twist on gravity clamping: dynamic feline clamping, a pawfect addition to the armamentarium of tools.

-d.

[MaineGeezer]

Here's a photo of the binding on the back , mostly sanded down flush, and a picture of the last partial fret, the same as I did on guitar #1. I like the look, and it echoes the shape of the headstock.

[johnnparchem]

The bindings and the fret board looks great. Looks to be coming together nicely.

[MaineGeezer]

Well, there are a few gaps between the body and the binding that I'll have to fill. I'm hoping the old sawdust-and-glue trick will be sufficient. The blackwood binding is extremely springy and even though it was pre-bent to shape it did not want to cooperate very well.

For the first strip I used only tape to hold it, and that wasn't enough. For the second strip I used a couple of bar clamps in critical spots in addition to tape and glued the binding in sections, letting the glue dry on one section before moving on. If I'd had more bar clamps I could have done longer sections, but I'm not in a hurry.

[ColestineGuitar]

You seem to be developing a recognizable style of your own. And the use of cats as clamping weight was brilliant, if unpredictable. I must look into getting a shop cat.

[Diane Kauffmds]

A video for you and your cat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7udUxofdBIE

[MaineGeezer]

Today Carter and I cut the purfling channel in the top. Total width (counting the binding) required was 0.270". Carter's setup will cut 0.250" max, so there was 0.20" or so that i had to cut by hand with a gramil. The depth turned out to be a bit shallow as well, so I had to shave about 0.020" off the bottom of the channel.

I was rather pleasantly surprised by how easily it could be done with the gramil. I'm not sure I'd want to hand-cut a full channel in hard maple by hand, but taking 0.020" off width and depth in a spruce tap proved to be quite easy.

I've glued in the purfling (3 strips) on one half of the top. After I do the same on the other half, and glue on the binding, I have to fill the Purflex with black epoxy. Before I chisel/plane/sand everything down flush, I'll probably shellac the top to keep the black dust from getting into the spruce top.

[John J]

I like the look of that purflex binding. Elegant.