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Hello friends,
I am working on a LP style guitar.
My top is only 5/16" thick, so I will only be able to carve a gentle slope, but I still need to cut the taper for the fretboard. My neck angle will be 4 degrees.
This will bring the top thickness down to 1/16" at the neck end of the body.
I want to make, bend, and install some Coco binding to match the fretboard.
My router bit and bearing will cut a 1/16" deep channel. I would like to use 1/2" wide binding so I end up will about 1/4" wide minimum binding after carving.

Can I bend 1/2" x 1/16" Coco around the horn (about 1/2" radius)?
Should I try bending the Coco wet, damp, or dry?
I will make a small diameter bending iron.
Maybe I can whittle out horn pieces from some solid Coco?
Any tips and advice are appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan

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I would recommend giving it a try with some scraps. You can try it wet dry and damp and see what works best for you. I personally found coco to be one of the more forgiving woods to bend (even around horns).


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You can also let the stuff sit wet with Supersoft 2 veneer softener overnight. I spray the bindings on a paper towel wrap them and let them sit. I made the mistake building a guitar with a venetian cutaway and using ebony for bindings. I had a few extra bindings and as Glen suggested I practiced the bend a bunch of times. Once I broke my first two bindings I had plenty scrap to practice with.

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Thanks for the encouraging tips, fellows!
Dan

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Dan, I just did a similar thing as I think you know - there is a thread over at Harmony Central. I bent standard LMI rosewood binding (which bends fairly well) over a hot pipe and used a MDF form to hold it. When I cut the MDF I made an "innin" and an "outie" and clamped the binding between them. Here is the pipe and "innie"



The binding clamped into the form. It is tricky to bend each part of the curve and not have the long straight sections of binding get in the way - I started with the horn because I knew that was going to be difficult but maybe the waist would have been better. There was a very tiny bit of splitting right at the horn, I wicked some CA into that and clamped it and it seems to be fine.



Because I wasn't ready to bind the body at this time (I was actually experimenting to see if I could bend it before cutting the channels in the body) I put it in the "innie" - "outie" sandwich and put it away until time to bind.



Also, like you, I my top was too thin to do a true carved top but I wanted to shape it some. I routed a channel which would become the edge of the recurve and then the binding channel below that.



I don't have a good picture to show the inside of the horn but I made a mistake and ran the recurve into the area where the neck mates - don't do that. You can run the binding channel all the way into the neck but stop the recurve somewhere back in the curved part - you'll need to finesse that later. You can kind of see it in this shot where I'm getting ready to bind the body - there is a little notch next to the pickup cavity that shouldn't be there.



Good luck, your guitar is looking nice so far.

Hey DZ, how about that? Wow Freeman has really pointed you to a foolproof, well though out method. Way to go Freeman! Thanks.


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Thanks Freeman!
The clamping jig is clever. I'll make one!
I already cut the binding channel all the way around.
My plan is to install the binding and then taper the top for the neck angle and then do the carving.
This is my first try at binding and carving.
I cut a 1/2" channel for the top and a 1/4" channel for the back and made some binding strips.
Dan

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Rather than trying to route a channel for the headstock, i'm gluing trim around the headstock veneer.
The "binding" will only be 1/16" thick, but I think it should look good.
Routing the headstock edge is too risky with the end grain.
Dan

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I went ahead and bound the headstock in the conventional fashion, but I left the little dimple out of the center of the top. That would be really difficult to both cut the channel and to bend the binding. Not trying to hijack your thread but here is how mine turned out.



Looks like we have some very similar ideas about our guitars, I'll be very interested to see how yours turns out.

Pretty cool, Freeman!
I'm leaving out that sharp point at the top of the headstock too.
I'm not comfortable using my router, the thing freaks me out.
I've ruined several necks due to blowouts.
I lowered the router speed and honed my bit and made three passes on the binding channels.
I consider myself lucky this time.
The top wood is from a backyard Ash tree.
I normally glue the fretboard blank to the neck before I cut the fret slots, radius, etc.
I may finish the fretboard before gluing it onto the neck on this build since the board will be against the body top.
I mocked up the bridge and I think 4 degree neck angle should be about right.
I need to cut the neck tenon and slot before I go much further.
Pretty neat that we are doing very similar builds.
I'll check you other thread for ideas and methods.
Thanks for the feedback,
Dan

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Dan, like you I normally (on acoustics, at least) fret and finish the board and glue it to the neck before I do the final setting. When I built my Les Paul I fitted the neck first, in fact when I made the neck pocket it was a hair below the top and I brought the top down flush with the neck extension. I had the fretboard fretted and clamped it and the bridge on to make sure the angle was correct. The last step was gluing the f/b on. I'm planning on doing the same here, my hardware hasn't arrived yet so I have done the final finessing of the angle.

Well, after many failures, I was able to bend one side.
I tried veneer softener, water, and ammonia.
None of the above seemed to soften the Cocobolo.
I soaked a strip in water and wrapped it with tin foil.
I heated the strip with a heat gun for several minutes and then put it into my form.
Ther's no way I'm going to bend the strip around the small horn.
I have tried kerfing before bending. My next try will be cutting narrow segments and mitering the edges to go around the horn.
My strips are 1/2" tall and 0.07" thick.
I may give up and go with plastic binding, but I'll keep after it for a while.
Dan

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So after many failures, I immersed my strip in boiling water, wrapped it in foil, and bent it around a heated pipe. I bent 1/2" wide, 0.07" thick Mesquite around a 1/2" diameter pipe with no problems.
I discovered the boiling water trick after I glued on plastic binding.

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I bound my LP with the cream binding from Stewmac & I thought that was even a PITA to get around the horn.

Nice job.

Kevin Looker

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I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

I've had pretty good luck using a hobby iron(what you use to shrink the fabric on RC airplanes) to bend the binding around the horn. I've bent the bindings as they went on the body, gluing with CA as I went. You do need to prebend the cutaway a little to keep it from getting in the way when you complete the horn.

I've bent 0.06" curly maple as tight as 3/16" radius at the soundhole end of the fretboard using this method. Having the wood supported on one side by the body while it's being heated and pressed into place by the iron works really well.

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Thanks for the tip, Rodger!
Dan

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