Binding rabbet......HELP!

Got the uke bug about a year ago and bought a couple. Fun stuff. But since I have a small wood shop that I have been making mostly expensive sawdust for over 50 yrs, I decided to try my hand at a uke. Knowing my limitations in both equipment and skill, I bought a Stu-Mac tenor kit. How tough can that be, right? Anyway, to "personalize" it I have decided to change the top and add bindings, etc. Now the adventure begins.

First challenge: binding rabbet. My internet search for wisdom indicates that I should go back to work and send my paychecks to Stu-Mac or LMI. Certainly a lot of bucks for 1 or maybe 2 home built ukes. Can't wait til I try to size the top thickness to .080 with only a Jack plane and a belt sander. Anyway, here's my question: Since the back has a slight curve it makes it difficult to route the rabbet squarely. With all the dozens of other things that effect the acoustic characteristics of a uke, how big a deal is this small crown on the back? If I leave the back flat like the top, I think with the proper rabbet bit bearing, I can route a binding rabbet on my router table. This would, probably save me between $5oo to a couple of thousand in new tools. I must be missing something, this $10 solution is far to simple.

Your thoughts would certainly be welcome. I gain more and more respect for you guys with every hour that I have been spending in my shop.

before stewmac or lmi

before stewmac or lmi we would use a rounded wood block and a table mounted router or a router with an edge roller attachment to cut channels for purfling.
the rounded wood block is the cheapest and most efficient method for your needs.
good luck
peter
also radius the braces before gluing.

If your good at holding things at a steady angle, for a cheap set up

buy this (or any laminate trimmer with an adjustable guide bearing- although they are all a bit dodgy):
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Trim-Router-Metal-Body/H7790

and put this in it:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Solid-Carbide-Spiral-Downcut-Bit-1-4-Shank-1-4-Dia-/C1696

If your NOT good at holding things at a steady angle, buy it anyway and build variable height contraption to hold it at a constant angle- ie straight up and down.

What I picture everytime I see this thread title:

...heck, it was so hard finding a related picture that wasn't completely inappropriate for the forum...

Sorry for the offtopic, I can't add more than a few laughs. I'm out of here again!

There seems to be a direct correlation between the money you spend on a binding setup and how short a time it takes to do good, consistent binding setups.

If you've got the time to learn, you can use a gramil and a chisel. You'll have to live with less than satisfactory binding jobs in the mean time.

I spent the cash on a stew-Mac set up and don't regret it.

Certainly for ease of use you can go with the flat back, and hey, it's your first uke and it's not going to sound like your tenth. So it's really not going to be that big of deal. If it doesn't worry you then it's sure not going to worry the rest of us.

Too many people get hung up about making their first few instruments "the best there ever was". And it's simply not going to happen. Get over that hurdle, and just build the bloody things. You will soon learn what's going to work for your level of skill, and more importantly the level of financial commitment that you and the other half are willing to invest.

And remember, there is always another way to do a task. Just because the luthier supply companies market a tool to do just about any conceivable job under the sun, doesn't mean that they are necessarily only way, or even the best.

I think that a better question would be "How do you go about cutting binding channels without dropping a small fortune on tooling"?

.I have $22 invested in my binding cutter setup. I used a laminate trimmer from Harbor freight and a jig that hold the router and has a rest that gives you infinite variation in the depth and width of cut. I have used this several times and am very pleased with it. I got it from one of the guitar websites. This is the website with the router jig but I clamp it in a vise and move the body around it, found that on another site. Here is the jig website http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/bindingsworkspacsetupexecution.html and you can see mine under "yes another first uke" here.

This is the setup I use. I have added a piece of wood under the cutter to fill in the gap. This works great and is about as cheap as you can get. I also use it to trim the excess off the top and back before the binding.

ksgjlg said:

This is the setup I use. I have added a piece of wood under the cutter to fill in the gap. This works great and is about as cheap as you can get. I also use it to trim the excess off the top and back before the binding.

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Yep- that will do the trick nicely.

The best set up i've seen is by Mick Doolin.

http://www.doolinguitars.com/articles/bindrout/

He has dedicated 1 lam trimmer for the top and back bindings and a lam trimmer each for the top and back purflings- so 3 lam trimmers. To do so you have to standardized the thickness of your purflings...(but where is the fun in that?)

I do the rabbet with a laminate trimmer and an edge guide. The back curve definitely causes a problem around the neck edge....from the widest part of the upper bout around the upper edge. I square that up with some careful file and chisel work. Its not the fastest way I guess but fine for a couple instruments per year. It really only takes 30min or so of fussing to get the edge squared up.

I firmly endorse the idea of learning to use a gramil and a sharp chisel. You'll learn a lot more about wood grain, carving direction, etc. that way. Go for power tools if you're going to get serious about making multiples, but still, learn how to do as much by hand as is reasonable. You should see how the luthiers in Paracho do practically everything...with a "cucillo"...a knife made from an old power hacksaw blade; the handle is old fashioned friction tape wrapped around the lower part of the blade.

One thing I might warn you about is to get a firm grip on the uke body. That little router can grab the uke right out of your hands and make a mess of things. Then you have do do some inovative inlay work to cover up the mistake. You can also run it through lightly and make several passes to get the work done without moving the cutter guide.

I do like Rick's suggestion to learn as much as possible by hand. You almost always have to do some minor clean up or fix something where the router can't get to. Hand skill will always be needed. You might also find that doing it by hand is sometimes quicker than setting up a tool for 30 minutes to use it for 30 seconds.

GREAT, my kind of humor! Tell you what, when I get my rabbet bound, you can come to my house to share a pot of rabbet stew and a couple of cold malt beverages. Cheers!

Lots of great ideas and thoughts here and are greatly appreciated. As they say here in the Ozarks, there's a lot of ways to skin a rabbet ( OK, cat then) In my 50 plus years of working with wood about 35 of them were, out of financial necessity, done mostly with hand tools. I screw things up them at least as much as with power equipment, of course, it just takes me longer. The gramil/chisel approach is definitely a candidate. However, Ive got a fairly new Rigid lam trimmer that that feels good so I'll probably try to make one of the simple jigs to pair it with. Ksgjlg, if you could share some primary dimensions, it would save me some time, I'm sure. Not that I'm in a big hurry, but at my age, I don't even buy green bannanas any more. I just completed making 5 cam clamps. Took me 4 days: the author of the plans said one afternoon would be plenty of time. Yea, right.

Anyway, the process is the important part, A nice looking finished product is just icing on the cake. Thanks again for the ideas and encouragement.

Ill get you some dimensions when I'm back in the shop tomorrow. Actually just some good photos will probably be enough. Yours will be slightly diferent being a good rigid trimmer vs my not so good harbor freight model. I really like that rigid trimmer. I also have another piece to the base that I use to cut rosettes with. I'll send pics of that too. I tooks some close ups of the rabbet on my uke "another first uke" and you can see how well it works.

ksgjlg said:

Ill get you some dimensions when I'm back in the shop tomorrow. Actually just some good photos will probably be enough. Yours will be slightly diferent being a good rigid trimmer vs my not so good harbor freight model. I really like that rigid trimmer. I also have another piece to the base that I use to cut rosettes with. I'll send pics of that too. I tooks some close ups of the rabbet on my uke "another first uke" and you can see how well it works.

Click to expand...

I just spent some time going through your build thread. Wow! Very impressive creativity and patience with all those jigs and fixtures. I'm looking forward to seeing more detail on the binding rabbet (rebate, groove?), but no hurry. I just finished a circle cutter jig very similar to yours. I'll try it out today. Next challenge: planing my spruce top wood from .160 to .080. Did you use a big sanding machine? Seeing you sanding your sides on your belt sander makes me wonder if a reasonably simple jig could be made that would transverse across the belt while keeping the wood held safely. Just a thought; I'm not looking forward to all the hand planing.

Anyway thanks for the help. I'll be going back to your build thread frequently for ideas and, most of all, inspiration.

Almost every medium sized town has a cabinet shop with a drum or wide belt sander that they'll rent out to you by the hour (or half hour). That's what I did before I bought my first drum sander.

Sorry to have taken so long to get back with you. Had to put up with a few issues with the soon to be exwife...she didn't like me building ukuleles...or guitars...or anything else for that matter. So with that out of the way...

I am attaching shots of my binding jig taken apart. There are no specs that really matter. I did make the bit recessed into the post or what ever you want to call it, to allow it to have access to the wood only when it was in the right place. I use whatever is on hand and screws and knob and who knows what else is superglued as necessary. Nuts can be glued into or onto the wood and a screw added, a piece of wood with a hole drilled in it and a nut glued on makes a knob. Anyway I think you get the idea.

I'm also posting the finished picks of my first uke. I've got a walnut/cedar uke on the bench with the body glued together and a parlor guitar is underway. First guitar.

Be inventive, use what's on hand, repurpose tools and think outside the box. Oh yeah, Bradford Donaldson is the one who got me on the belt sander. I made two runners on the side of the sander and a board with a handle to lay on top of the material to give it equal pressure. That works great if yo ucan find a way to attach the runners to the sander. If you get used to it you can probably do it just as well with out the runners but you've got to be mindful of whats going on, it will get away from you fast with 80 grit. I would say that belt sander is one of the best tools in the shop. I did end up buying a used thickness sander. Found a guy getting ride of a thickness sander, planner, dust collector and small shaper for $300.

ksgjlg said:

Sorry to have taken so long to get back with you. Had to put up with a few issues with the soon to be exwife...she didn't like me building ukuleles...or guitars...or anything else for that matter. So with that out of the way...

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Gah..! Hope you're ok. That is my worst nightmare.

It's great to have the support of your spouse isn't it? I'd photo my binding sett-up ffor you but it would just make you envious since it is a piece of aircraft industry kit costing $400 that I got for $25 on eBay... Just one of those kharmic moments that occassionaly happens when the planets align and you happen across something that is just right