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Friday, July 11, 2025

Binding

Hiya. The spruce top is on ans as I prömised I will bind it to protect the rather soft edge. A bit daunting as I haven’t done it in years, but I found the tools and the wee machine. Considered using the large trim router but opted for the Dremel with the Stewmac attachment. Sadly I forgot to take a pic of the setup, but it involves me sitting outside on a damp janky table clamping the uke between my knees and routing the channel slowly in several shallow passes. 

First pic shows the channel after a bit of cleanup with a file. 



The tortoloid binding is really stiff so I pre-bent it on low heat to get it to comply with the body shape a bit better. 



Doesn’t need to be any more precise than this although I suspect it could be. 



I used thick CA-glue. It works provided you rough up the inside surface a bit. I did that with a hacksaw blade, and I also chamfered the bottom inside corner of the binding strip with a knife so it doesn’t get in the wah of any microscopic pieces of crap in the channel. 

Low tack masking tape to make removal easier. It usually sticks rather well on account of the superglue. 
 


If you like it you should have put a string on it. I think.  



And after a couple of hours I dared remove the tape. Next up is scraping it flush to the top, then I guess I should start looking for a neck blank. 




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