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I have now made a note to myself to check that the bearing is tight between each session.

I'm working on #2 tonight and while cutting the binding channel the bearing came off. If there is a positive side to this I would say that it's the location in which it decided to come off. I would think something could be done to make this not look so much like a mistake, but I'm looking for suggestions.

My thoughts so far are to stack up and fill the area with EIR and then come back and route out a design of some sort to inlay over the mistake.

Any thoughts on what I could do? This guitar is for me so anything goes.

Thanks in advance for all comments.

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."

Time for a cool inlay! Do something neat there, then continue with the binding.

Wide purfling lines for the whole back?

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I'm with Grumpy. Come up with an inlay, a design element.

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Aoibeann

Yup, Just even it out so it is centered and make a cool inlay. Don't overdo it. You may want to do this more often

Grant

Here is what I did with the exact same thing that happened on my SJ.  Not a perfect solution but it worked.  I also did the same thing at the tail so both ends matched.  The only thing I would have done different looking back on it now is I would have removed the small section of maple binding between the heel and inlay and replaced it with another piece of the box elder so it was a solid pink piece with no white line in the middle.

Here's an idea. If you have the cutoff from your back still laying around, find the exact grain match, square up the curve with a chisel. The cutoff is probably thick enough already because likely you cut it out before final thicknessing, if not, build it up, then carefully patch lining up grain, re-route the channel, sand flush with back. After finishing EIR darkens and it will be so small, i doubt it will be very conspicuous.

Herringbone back purfling.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Yeah,I like the idea of using some wood or shell purfling around the edge. I think it looks really good like that.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Blain sorry that this happened to ya buddy.

If it were me and the cut is not to far onto the back I would do this:  Make a filler piece out of mahogany and glue it into the entire space.  You need to at least fill part of the space so that the purfing has something to sit on and be glued to.  Route a purfing channel for the purfings in the pic below or what ever will fill the gap and that you want to use.  Route the binding channel, purf and bind (sorry Howard...) and forget that this ever happened.

This is Mahog-O-Lam and Maple -O-Lam purfing from Uncle Bob at RC Tonewoods.  It's beautiful, a nice alternative to shell, and bends easily in a bender.  It is also fairly wide and may fill the cut out area that you have.

I wish I could say I've never had that problem but I can't.  It is frustrating.  I would say you've been given some pretty good suggestions and they would each work.  If you go with some kind of inlay here, I think the idea of matching it at the opposite end of the back makes sense, it gives some proportion and looks like you intended it.  As we all know, it's not the mistakes that count, it's how you deal with them.  You could place an inlay there and carry the theme over to the heel cap as David said.  Being an inlay fanatic, Grumpy's suggestion is probably the way I'd go.  If you are really adept at cutting and fitting rosewood, you could probably get away with fitting some of the original wood ( assuming you have some left over) back in play, it is pretty small.  I'd look at it as an opportunity to do something unusual.

Not to hijack this but it does bring up the question, what do most of you use to rout binding channels?  Can you point me to an archived thread or threads on this?  I'm looking to change from the old StewMac router base and dremel, I just feel I'm not getting a great result with it and have to do too much work afterward.  I'm also using their down-cutting bits.  They work alright but I'm not that happy with them either.  Couldn't be the operator, could it????

Bruce

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Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

Todd, I remember this pic of your binding Purfling scheme, Wow.

Good luck Blain on your "upgrade".

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Thanks all for the suggestions.

I've got some great ideas to go with now.

I'll have to see where the bearing would want to ride if I wanted to cut wider for purfling. I know it usually works best to cut that part first because of the bearing needing to ride along the side, but I'll see.

I do still the scraps left over from the back so I'll have to see if I can find the matching piece to see if that will be an option as well.

Otherwise, I think I need to get creative and come up with some sort of inlay.

Bruce Hermann, I use the Binding Jig that John Hall of Blues creek guitars sells, and I use the Bit with bearings that LMI sells. It works flawlessley Well, that is if I remember to make sure the bearing is tight. Seriously though, it really does work great and now that I know to make sure the bearing is tight between each session I'm sure I'll not have this problem again.

Thank you all again for the suggestions!

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."

Thanks Blain, I've heard others use the same routing set up and like it.  I'll give John a call, just bought a form from him, should have ordered the router at the same time..

BruceH]

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Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

I have the exact same thing going on right now. Here is how I plan on solving the problem:

I also made another oops on this guitar, but I am going to leave it like it is. I have asked several people to pick out the mistake and so far nobody can see it, so it isnt that noticable. To solve the tearout problem, I am going to inlay something in the pencil lines shown. I'll call it a feature.

It looks like the purfing doesnt line up?? well, on one side it starts out with black and the other side it starts out with white. So far nobody has noticed it...even the most anal nit-picker I know didnt spot it. I know it is there though.

Also, you will notice there is no tail wedge yet. I will route this out and inlay it with the same thing I inlay in the top. I may even get the pieces to line up with each other.

This is a curly cherry guitar (Dread)

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Reguards,

Ken H

This is exactly how Larry Robinson got his start in inlay.
Turn it into a feature. You are lucky that the mishap is where it is as you can do something that works with the backstrip/binding interface.

Another option would be to just make the channel an even length on either side of the centre line and make you binding wider to the channel width you now have and then curve it back to the original thickness. I think it would quite good. Another thing, but some locktite. The red stuff, and put some on your threads before you use that again. It will 'lock' in your cap screw and this should not be a problem again. Although the red locktite says "permanent" it isn't but does hold tighter than the blue stuff. You will still be able to remove it when required.

Shane

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Canada