Official Luthiers Forum!

On my next guitar I'll take my first stab at side purfling (all wood), and I want to make sure I'm following an appropriate procedure for gluing and bending the purfling. Please let me know if this is the right way to go.

First, I machine the purfling and the binding. (How thin do most people get the purfling?)

Second, I glue the purfling to the binding. Does titebond III work best for this? (That's the only one I don't have in stock. Guess it's time for a trip to the hardware store!)

Third, bend the binding in the side bender with the purfling attached.

Is this the plan? Anything else I need to know?

That will work. I will also sometimes just tape everything up tight and bending the purflings between the binding strips loose and glue everything up as individual pieces.... either way works.

I usually buy my purflings premade... from LMI usually.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Sounds like you are on the right track. I use titebond 2. I don't know about 3.

Josh

_________________
Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

If you are starting with a block of binding material and a sheet of veneer,
Titebond is fine but be sure to have complete coverage -- any voids will
ruin the piece. I often work with binding strips and a sheet of veneer,
using CA glue for the bond. Then I separate the strips with a knife,
thickness them, and bend with the pieces taped together. The CA seems
to be more heat resistant than other wood glues.

Some CA's are heat resistant; some are not. Super T is good if you need heat resistance. Jerry Hossom38562.4165393518

I like to glue the side lines to the binding before cutting the strips. Start with a piece of binding stock about 1/4" thick and 1" wide or so (depending on your saw) and glue it to the appropriate purfling veneers. I use T1 and my go-bar deck. I find it helps a bit to spritz the wood very lightly with water before spreading the glue, use lots of glue, and be sure to hit both surfaces of each joint. You'll get _lots_ of squeezeout.

Once things have dried for a _full 24 hours_ I saw out the bindings. Since I use a bandsaw I get a narrow kerf, but need to plane things smooth between cuts. I dress the binding+purfling strips to thickness with a drill press planer, smooth up with hand plane and scraper, and bend them. I tape them all together and do them in one go on a form. Be sure you make 2 lefs and 2 rights.... ;)

The best thing about rolling your own is that you can use all sorts of stuff in all sorts of thicknesses. I like to make 5-line (W-B-Koa-B-W is nice)using a wider piece of curly wood for the center line.   

I guess I don't understand gluing the purflings to the bindings before bending/installation. That makes no sense to me. I count on having them seperate just in case I mess up a miter on the purfling, or screw up the binding. I don't want to attempt to try to match up the purfling and binding all in one shot, especially in the area of the end graft.

_________________
"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.
Only badly."

Don's comments make sense to me, although I've pretty much always glued the side purfling down to the binding before bending. More recently, however, I've tried Rik Middleton's approach. He glues down little pieces of purfling material in the binding channel, so they act like spacers, and then glues the binding in place. Then he chisels out the little purfling pieces and installs the purfling into the open slot.

I find that this actually works pretty well, and it does give the luthier some wiggle room in case the mitre gets trashed.

Best,

Michael

_________________
Live to Play, Play to Live

Don, I'm with you on this BUT there is one advantage to gluing them to the bindings. that is that it helps prevent the purfling from "rolling" in the bender. Lately I've found that if I sandwich the purflings between two bindings and tape them very tightly, I have good luck.

Wow! Thanks for all the awsome responses!

This gives me a lot to think about. I'll probably try it both ways on this next guitar (i.e., gluing before and after) and see what works best.

Thanks again!

I think Don's point is a good one. If you are mitering around your end graph it might be wise to do them as separate glue ups.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

[QUOTE=Brock Poling]
I think Don's point is a good one. If you are mitering around your end graph it might be wise to do them as separate glue ups.
[/QUOTE]

On occasion, I have a decent thought. Rare, but it does happen.


Paul, I always bend all my bindings and purflings for a guitar together all taped up nice and tight. Often times, if I'm working on more than one guitar of the same body type, I'll make a big sandwich of all the bindings and purflings and bend them all at once, as if it were just another side. Of course you have to remember to alternate the purfling lams so you don't end up with all rights or lefts.

_________________
"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.
Only badly."

[QUOTE=Don Williams] Of course you have to remember to alternate the purfling lams so you don't end up with all rights or lefts.[/QUOTE]

Just use b/w/b purfling like me and you can't botch the job.

_________________
Dave Rector
Rector Guitars