Need a fix for botched binding

mzuch

UU VIP
UU VIP
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
596
Reaction score
1
Location
Westchester, NY
This build was going well until the binding went on. Scraping the binding uncovered a soft, mealy spot. I thought I could scrape/sand it away, but ended up taking off most of the binding in one spot. Photos below tell the story.

Is there any way to fix this short of routing off the binding and putting on new? This instrument has a Spanish heel, so that would not be a very easy process. I have dissolved some of the celluloid faux tortoise binding in acetone with the intent of building up the affected area. But I thought I'd check here for better solutions first. Any advice would be appreciated!

DSC00483.jpgDSC00485.jpgDSC00484.jpg
 
If it was mine they would be routed off and start again. I can't see it being any more difficult to deal with the spanish heel the second time around as it was the first time around. I build this way too, so speaking from experience.

I noticed the last time that I used plastic binding that it took a lot longer to fully dry out when using an acetone based glue. Next time I will leave it at least a couple of days before scraping back.
 
I would thin a piece of tortoise down and laminate it to the existing area with acetone. Let it fully cure for a day then sand it level. The nice thing about tortoise is that there is no pattern, like there is with rippled ivoroid, so its much easier to repair and not be noticeable. You can also simply cut out the bad area and splice a new piece in. Just make sure that you treat the ends with acetone to make it melt back together.

Also, that problem usually happens when glue is trapped underneath tape and has difficulty off gassing. I'd bet that you overlapped the tape in that area.
 
Last edited:
Cool. Thanks for the suggestions, Allen and Andrew. I will try the overlay and splice, in that order. If they don't work to my satisfaction, I'll just rebind the sucker.
 
Top Bottom