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I dont have a heat gun, would placing the binding in hot water help me bend it without it cracking? alternatively I could use a soldering iron, thought those things heat up quite fast.

If you, or someone you know, has an electric hair curling iron, those work quite well for bending bindings. Easily adjusted and can be returned to owner with no evidence of their use as a binding iron (if you pad the vise used to hold the iron to avoid marking up the handle).

I assume you are talking about plastic binding - you almost don't need any heat for the big curves however it does help around really tight curves like cutaway horns. A hot pipe is best, a heat gun is good, a hair drier gun is OK. I've never tried my wifes curling iron, she'd kill me. You could also use a clothes iron on low heat I suppose, and I suppose if you soak it in boiling water for 15 minutes or so it would help soften it, but how are you going to control that? A soldering iron is a bad idea - you'll probably discolor it. Either build a jig to work the binding into as you heat it or tape it into the channel in your guitar.

This was adequate prebending for this LP, however I do not recommend trying to glue plastic bind with CA by just putting the glue in the channel and trying to tape the binding in place.



If you are talking about wood binding you need a hot pipe or a heat blanket just like bending sides. Bending the horn on wood binding can be very tricky. Also if your binding is multiple thin laminations it is much easier to bend that one piece of 60 or 90 thou.

Im going to try with a hair drier, will use acetone and maybe superglue if i have problems in some areas.

A home made hot pipe is pretty easy to make with a piece of pipe and electric BBQ lighter. First, heat the BBQ lighter and then gently squeeze it down with a vise or vise grip plyers so that it can be slip into the pipe. Mount the pipe (actually, do that first).

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

I used an acetone type of glue (Duco) on my first guitar, had some separation that had to be repaired later with CA. The LP in the picture was a complete cluster including gluing my blue latex gloves to the binding. Since then I have done all of my bindings by dry fitting very carefully and tightly using tape and clamps, tacking the binding in place with tiny drops of water thin CA. I pull the tape and go back and wick the CA all the way around using a pipette. If you are careful there will be minimal glue on the wood (its a good idea to shellac the wood next to the binding.

My hot pipe is similar to sdsollod's except I use a small propane torch to heat it. I've bent a lot of binding, both wood and plastic with it - in the fore ground is a jig for bending a wood binding for an LP style guitar

Freeman - I use a similar template to tape my bindings to after they are bent and leave them there until I'm ready to install them. That way they keep their shape and are safe for storage until time to install.

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

When I'm building an acoustic I always bend the bindings at the same time that I do the sides. I have a Fox bender that I use for them, the hot pipe remains for tight bends and things like electric guitars where I don't want to set the Fox up. When I take the Fox apart to put it away I just tape or clamp the bindings to the bending form, like you say that maintains the shape and keeps them safe.