Achieving Gibson Binding?

[peach64]

I know you have to fret the fingerboard first, then carefully sand the frets smooth and even to the fingerboard, then glue on the neck binding, but does anybody have any tips on binding profile against the fret and board? Do you use a razor to cut the binding down, or sand it off the excess binding. How does Gibson bind their fingerboards?

Thanks

Peach

 

[sunday_luthier]

Hello,

First of all, don't SAND the frets flush with the fingerboard sides. Use a good FILE. Sanding will most likely create a rounded surface, which sucks for glueing.

As far as profiling the binding, I file down most of the excess, and file to round over the fret ends, then use a sharp scalpel to finish off the horizontal parts.

Cheers,

 

[nuance97]

Lifted from other threads....

Next it's time to trim it up. I run the whole thing through the tablesaw to trim the board, and remove the fret ends all at once.

And there we have it. The fretboard trimmed up ready for binding.

Now, I glue the binding to the fret board. I use the same binding and glue as the body.

Next, I take my dremel and flip the bit around (the one I used for the inlays) and wrap some tape around the end of the bit. This will protect the fret board while I am rough cutting the binding.

The rough cut looks like this:

Now I take a razor and carefully slice the remaining binding as close as I can to the fret board.

Then, holding the razor at a 90 degree angle, I scrape the rest down to the board.

When done it looks like this:

 

[bfcg]

These will come in handy for the fine tuning later.
70239

 

[peach64]

That was great information bfcg & nuance97,

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you,

Peach