Plastic Binding and Your Favorite Glue?

AFAIK, but I'm just a wood-dorker:

Acetone dissolves/welds the plastic binding material.

Acetone glue is presumably referring to the practice of dissolving some binding material completely in a small amount of acetone to make a more "glue-like" material that does not completely evaporate and require getting the binding itself either perfectly fit together or managing to perfectly mash it while it's melting, as straight acetone does. It should have the advantage of a perfect color match, unless you are trying checkerboard.

Considering HD, I wonder if the all-purpose plastic pipe cement would work, but have no idea. That's for ABS, PVC and CPVC pipe. That seems to align with some of the types of plastic bindings.

 

I bought Sig-Ment from Allparts and it's a specific binding glue. I haven't used it yet, but it may be one avenue to check. They sell it for $11 a tube and it's an arm and a leg to ship, but I found it cheaper elsewhere.
SIG Manufacturing SIG-MENT Model Airplane Cement / Glue 4 oz SIGMENT SM002 | eBay

 

I’ve used Duco cement before. As the directions say, put a light coat on the body where the binding is going to go. Let it partially dry to seal up the wood. Put a coat on the body and the binding and press and tape away. That’s worked ok for me. There’s probably methods that work better for other people.

 

I usually use sig-ment...

 

I have very little experience with binding myself, but my buddy Keith Horne does a lot of it. He uses Acetone. Applied to the binding strips, it makes them soft and sticky. They bend and stick right to the wood. He forms the strips into place, clamping it all up with packing tape and sometimes string. Little gaps are fixed by applying some more acetone and pushing the gaps closed. That's about it. The binding is formed and permanently glued in place by its own chemistry.

 

I used just straight acetone with ABS binding and it works fine.

 

I tried the Stewmac binding glue, works fine,.but leaves a lot of residue on the bass you have to scrape or sand off. Same with CA glue, plus its nasty stuff that will glue your fingers to the bass. I found acetone worked best, you have to.work pretty fast, it evaporates, but it gives you just enough open time to adjust the binding a little as you go. I used the Stewmac binding tape, which really is better than standard masking tape, and wicked it in with these little Stewmac pipettes:
http://www.stewmac.com/Materials_an...esives/Applicators_and_Pipettes/Pipettes.html
You don't need a lot of acetone, just enough to wet both the wood and binding. If you flood the joint, you can melt and distort the binding (personal experience) Get a little baby food sized glass jar with a little acetone in it, put some tiny bits or shavings off the binding and it turns into a perfectly color matched plastic glue for miters, works amazingly well.

I'm usually a Stewmac sceptic based on their blatant overpricing and ridiculous P&H fees, but these binding slot cutters are worth every penny. You can buy the cutter head and just the guide bearings you need, I just got ones for .040, .060, and .070 deep cuts. I found the Stewmac .060 binding is actually around .065, and it swells a little when glued with acetone, so I ended up using the .070 bearing.
http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tool...ers_and_Bits/Bits/Binding_Router_Bit_Set.html

 

I am not a huge Stew Mac fan either and you don't have to go to them for these binding cutters either, those bits are just rebate/Rabbet cutters. You can purchase a cutter as good if not better for about quarter of the price and different sized bearings for next to nothing. Grizzly also make a set which is half the price and comes with bearings, but there aren't as many size options as the SM set.

Just in case your cutter ever wears out .

 

I think LMI has them too, but around the same price. The only advantage on the Stewmac set is the cutter head is shear-cut blades instead of straight cut on most rabbet bits. In my experience the shearcut blades get less chipout, they cut a perfectly clean, square slot in maple on my build. Always looking for cheaper alternatives to make this expensive hobby affordable!
@Manton Customs , if you have a link for good cutters, please post!

 

I'm using Trend cutters, which have a very good reputation over here, but they are a UK based firm...so that probably doesn't help too much! There's the Grizzly set I mentioned, but I can't vouch for the quality of those. I believe my Trend ones have the down shearing thing also, it copes with figured Walnut without any problems, so Maple is no problem.
I was just pointing out to anyone who may read the thread that the SM is a rebate cutter. You knew that though .

 

regarding cutters, i use LMI's Schneider Gramil:

Schneider Gramil

for bindings and purflings. imo, less risk and fuss then router set-ups and jiggery and it's fast for two step rebates. use feeler gage to set cut depths for binding and purfling.

regarding binding being non-uniform thickness, make a binding sizer. basically a old plane blade, a block of wood and a large wooden dowel. mount blade to wood, adjust to desired thickness, mount tool to a vise or clamp it down and draw the binding through the gap to scrap down the sides to dimension. works really well when you want binding and purfling to be laser sharp and clean under finish.

 

The pipette was used to wick acetone into a section of binding that had been “tacked” in place first with binding tape. The capillary action draws it in, then you tape the snot out of it and move on to the next section, about 1-1/2” at a time.

 

Nice Job! I havent tried anything that tight radius yet, gotta love a bound soundhole. Ric style build? 4005 maybe?

 

Love binding!

A friend made this semi hollow body w/ for me using mother of toilet seat 3 ply binding. He said every time he heated it to make the corner bends it would catch fire and he had to start over again. Said he would never work with that stuff ever again.

I tried my hand at binding as well but the results were less than optimal, uneven and didn't do the tightest bends very well. Decided to take it to a shop I had available to me to have it done right.