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This looks like it could be a handy jig for guiding the router by hand when cutting bindings. I think I'd be more comfortable with this than just having the small base of a trim router. Unfortunately I can't seem to find any reviews (other than a few on his site). Has anyone tried it?

https://www.jsbguitars.com/shop/guitar- ... ent-plans/

Thanks,
George

George

Looks much like this one I have been using for all 9 instruments (including my first) without a boo-boo yet. A little fussy to adjust, but works fine. The concept is sound and easy to use. This one was from KGM about 2012. Scroll left and right

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/44739649051/in/album-72157695592839060/

The extra "handle" sticking out the bottom in his picture looks very handy.

Ed

The jig made by Chris Ensor looks like a well thought out and put together design:
https://elevatelutherie.com/product/ult ... nding-jig/

I just use the commercial guides the router manufacturers make and add the donut sub - base. I am usually using it one handed because the other hand is steadying and turning the body. Having a longer guide bearing against the side might have some advantages, so I may knock one together and see how I like it.

Iput my bogdanovich rtr jig away. Too fussy on the measurements. I/m using a john hall die grinder reconfigured to a stew mac rtr base for larger rosettes for smaller radii I use a dedicated fly cutter from HF. That my machinest recut for me.

An interesting aside. I had a kid who was a Red Wing grad and had spent two years in the binding department at Santa Cruz guitars hang out in my shop for a while.

Their approach was to use a bench mounted jig like the very nice one Chris makes for the binding but switch to a tower mounted design with the guitar in a cradle for the purfling. The concern was an inadvertent tilt of the guitar scalloping the channel and they felt the tower jig was a little more foolproof.

That makes a lot of sense to me for a number of reasons one of which is that an interchangeable bearing guided bit is expensive whereas the bit for Chris’ jig is relatively cheap making it less painful financially to be sure you always have a sharp bit.

By just using the bearing guided bit for purfling on softwoods it should last a lot longer.

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I would really like the convenient storage of the handheld jigs or even the Ensor fixture. But the potential for fatal error at the point of binding would worry me. I find the tower system much less prone to cutting errors due to handling a router by hand. I also like like efficient dust collection and many of my operations including binding channel cutting are designed with dust collection in mind.

With a tower mounted jig I can collect about 98% of the trimmings for binding and perfling channels. Use of a hand system appears to scatter the trimmings and dust all over the place and in the air/lungs.

I connect one 6" dust duct (reduced to 4" at tower's entry point) to the rear of the tower and one 4" dust duct to the chip throw side of the tower. This works well to collect about 98% or more of routed wood from this operation.



Routing can be messy. Here's a shot Immediately after routing. Notice the lack of chips.


The guitar is adjusted and fixed in a cradle and checked with a machinist's square to insure the sides are square to a machinist's flat granite block and therefore parallel with the router. The tower is clamped to the same granite block and the cradle rides on the same block at all time when turning the cradle/guitar during channel cutting.

I’ve been really attracted to the LuthierTool self-guided setup for similar reasons. Not only would the spiral bit leave a great cut, they’re inexpensive and readily available when you need to replace.


You’d be surprised how easy the Kett style jigs are to use. I found mine just as easy to use as my tower jig. As long as you don’t tip the guitar forward into the cutter, you’ll be fine. I’ve only used mine on one guitar so far, but I rested the rim on both dumbbells, then slide it forward into the cutter.



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The luthiertool self guided design has always looked very appealing to me, primarily as mentioned, from the standpoint of always having a sharp bit for few $$$.

Surprisingly I have not seen much discussion of it. Has anyone here tried it?

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Thanks for the inputs, but I was hoping this wouldn't turn into a discussion of the tower type jigs (since there are already tons of posts about those). At the moment I only plan on making this one guitar and am trying to keep all the extra investment to a minimum. I'm following Cumpiano's book. It looks like he uses a large handheld router. That seems like a bad idea, so I thought a simple jig to hold a trim router would be better. Any inputs on simpler, handheld options would be most welcome.

George

Also I'd be interested on any thoughts on using a router table for cutting bindings. I have a router table with a nice router. Seems like that could be a good way to go.

George

But there's always room for more discussion.

If you have a dremel, look into Stew-Mac's dremel setup for minimal investment. It works. Just not quickly.

LuthierTool also has a handheld jig for $195 that you could use and resell: http://luthiertool.com/binding-cutter.html

here is what I can tell you
I have been doing this for a long time and used about every design out there. Understand the variable of each design. The top is simple and can be done off a straight router. If you don't want to invest in the binding cutter and bearings you can use a self made stop so you can control how far in you cut.
Set up so that you will end up sanding the sides to the binding rather than scraping the binding. This can make the binding appear thin at spots,

the back is a bit more problematic in that you have to deal with a taper and radius and here is where the jigs are needed. I know a few guys that can free hand a router with the donut and bearing set but this takes years of practice.
So no matter what design you choose the area of the upper bout on the back is where the difficulty lies. The taper of the back and the radius will tend to lean the cut so it looks thin when you look down on the back. The units that don't use parallel designs are more prone to this pinching off the binding so be aware of this and step cut the area across the upper bouts on the back and clean up with a file. Again and I can say this enough , set up that your a few thousandths under the sides and sand to the binding for a more even appearance. Just take your time ID the variables and work with what you need. Lots of little cuts are better than a bit boo boo cut. Use tape on the sides for fine tuning and I suggest make the first cut with the tape to support the grain , remove the tape and do a cleanup cut.

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

If you’re only planning to make one guitar, a shop-made gramil, a sharp chisel and a long quiet afternoon could be the best way to keep extra investment to a minimum.

On my first instrument I used a laminate trimmer with a tilting base (hitachi M6SB) and a rabbet bit+bearing, freehand, stopping to change the base tilt regularly when negotiating variable the upper bout curves of the back. Cut under depth and clean up with chisels and files. Risky and finicky.


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I'm really starting to like the router table route. Given the choice with other woodworking tasks I always prefer to use the table. I wonder if more people don't use it is because they don't have a router table? Generally it's a lot harder to mess up when using a table.

I needed to redo the top on my table anyway so I put a larger top on so most of the guitar can be supported during the routing. Other than that I think all I have to do is make a few shims to support the guitar in a few places and make a collar to go around the bit to support the guitar in that spot.

George

Actually, plenty of builders have router tables. They don't use a router table for cutting binding channels because it is not an ideal tool for the job. Guitars have non-square shapes in three dimensions. Router tables rely on indexing some flat part of the workpiece off of the flat router table. But there aren't any flat parts of the guitar that you can index off the router table. Your idea of using shims would work if the channel to be cut would remain equidistant from the table. But it doesn't. The channel undulates, because the edge of the guitar undulates, relative to any flat surface.