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2009-03-12

Binding / Purfling Cutter

Cutting the top binding rebate
I finally had the chance to cut the top binding rebate after lazing around for so long.
Being able the work on the woods again, I felt really touched.
The sound of the guitar was really singing in my mind then.

Anyway enough of the crap, back to the session.
For this session, I managed to try both methods of the cutting the binding rebate:
- Using the trimmer
- Using purfling cutter and chisel

As the top was relatively flat at the edges, I decide not to built the trimmer jig.
The profile of the trimmer based wasn't too big.
The deciding factor was that it is simply taking too long a time to build the jig.
Often in guitar making it's always a dilemma in deciding to build jigs or just simply work on it.
Perhaps when I am at my #3 or so the jig(s) will come in handy.
For this case, I wanted to see some progress after lagging behind for so long, and so I simply use the trimer as it is.
But this time round I had some vanguard sheet to make sure the dust generated is sprewn onto the ground instead of all over the place.


The vanguard to make the dust dropped down instead of flying all over.

With the vaccum cleaner, the cleaning up process was much easier.

At first when I cut the binding rebate, the top sides were frayed... (forgot to get some pictures).
From what I read at OLF, this was due to the bit.
A down-spiral router bit would prevent such a problem.
Another way is to scribe the line first before the routing process.
And so for the 2nd side, I use the purfling cutter to scribe the top first before I use the trimmer.
The end result was much better.
Anyway the frayed sides were removed when I cut the top purfling rebate.

Here are some pics of the top binding rebate.



The only problem with the binding rebate was at the end near the heal region.
It is definitely high time to get a 2mm micro chisel.
In the end I had to use Xacto blade to cut and remove the excesss.
And it doesn't look pretty.



The purfling cutter
I wanted to try the old way of cutting the binding rebate.
Firstly I scribed the top and sides with the purfling cutter which I had made.
And then I removed the excess wood using the chisel.
When inverted, (i.e. bevel-side facing down), the chisel acts like a plane.
I was able to remove a thin slice using the reversed way.

The swan neck paring chisel by 2-Cheries was quite useful at the waist bend.
The other normal bevel-edged chisels which I used was abit too short, I think I would prefer a longer paring chisel.

I made the purfling cutter using some scrap basswood which I had.
I cut the basswood to size and glued it together using PVA.
The main body was simply 2 long pieces with a gap at the end for the bolt to pass through.
The blade end was glued with a T-nut within for securing the blade.

The blade was a skewed chisel which I had gotten it at Daiso.
To extract the blade, I removed the wooden handle.
The blade was held in place using a hex-bolt which was screwed into the T-nut hidden within the cutter body.

For the bottom piece, I use some more cylindrical wood which I got at Daiso too.
The bottom piece is attached to the top via a hex-bolt and winged-nut.
The round fence is abit long though.
I would shorten it someday.
Probably at about half the current length, the fence would be just nice.

Here are some pics of the purfling cutter.


Side view


Top view. The bottom piece is held in place using the wing-nut and the bolt.


Angle view. You can see the screw which I use to hold the blade in place.



Scribing the rebate


Another view. Here we are scribe the side. For the top we just turn the purfling cutter around.
The round fence is abit long though.


Chiselling the excess. The bevel edge is inverted.


Chiselling the purfling.

The #8 jointer
My new toy for the day...
I managed to get a Anant #8 Jointer Plane off Ebay.
At full 2' or 24" or 60cm in length, it's really heavy, boy.
The rear handle was abit loose but a few rounds to tighten the screw will probably remedy it.
Unfortunately I didn't have time to tune it.
That's a job for another day...

Here are some pics


Side view


It is 24" long


Angled view. Anant #8


The base. I think it looks flat enough. Not sure if I want to lap it or not.


The frog part.