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Been doing some searching for the vinyl strips used for placing a purfling strip after gluing the binding. I bought soe herringbone purfling and I think I will need this to install it.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

You should be able to bend the strips after a quick hot water bath (very quick or it will fall apart.
It should fit into the purfling channel fine. Install at the same time as the binding.
There are Teflon strips to use as a spacer if you're doing a shell inlay, but not for herringbone.

Most of the herringbone I've used was not as thick as the binding, so you need a stepped rebate - one for the purfling and a deeper one for the binding.

Teflon, not vinyl. That's why I couldn't find it. And now I know I don't need it. Thanks

Clay, I am aware of that. Should be fun trying to get that right. I use a simple jig on my router table for binding ledges but have never done a stepped one. I also have the hand tool for final adjustments if needed or I may try to do the whole thing by hand. This step is a long way off so I have plenty of time to think about it and then change my mind at the last second.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Here is the teflon strip used to hold a channel for abalone purfling

Just a note regarding terminology: You can use Teflon (PTFE), but UHMW plastic works just as well for this application and is cheaper. If you buy what is labeled as Teflon from LMI in the already cut sizes, that's fine, but if you want to just buy larger sizes of UHMW plastic and cut it down yourself, you might get more bang for your buck. Just a suggestion. Oh, and I agree that it is unnecessary when dealing with herringbone. It is a shell thing. For Herringbone, just cut both channels and glue both the purfling and the binding in one step.

You can pre-bend herringbone binding to fit your guitar body shape by placing it in a large cookie sheet filled with hot tap water for 90 seconds and then taping it to the side of the body and leaving it overnight to set. This makes installing it at the same time as the binding easier. I've found that after soaking, taping the two purfling strips together and then taping both pieces to one side of the guitar prevents twisting of the purfling. When I taped one piece separately to each side of the body, the purfling had a tendency to twist because of its width.

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As suggested by others, not only is a plastic spacing strip unnecessary for installing herringbone, it’s likely a really bad idea. Herringbone has variation in thickness when straight and even more so once bent. You’ll have trouble fitting some areas and gaps in others.
Various ways to bend the stuff. I make sacrificial strips of maple the same “thickness” and bend a sandwich, together with any side purfling lines as I bend the binding in my Fox bender.


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I have not used herringbone for a long time but when I did here is how I bent it. It works well.

http://www.kennedyguitars.com/bending-herringbone.html

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

I like this method, no extra fixtures to make.

_________________
Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!