side purfling

I understand how to get the purfling along the binding and rosette on the face, but how does one bend it along the sides for the edge of the bindings? Do you have to make stacks and resaw and bend? The stuff you buy doesn't bend that way, unless there is a technique I don't know (entirely possible).
Anne

the fine line stuff I am buying from LMI works fine for bending on the sides. The tight bends at the waist are aided and supported by the slot created between the side and the binding edge, with the method I use. I glue the top purfling, the binding, and the side purfling all at once. I tape the binding in carefully, dry, before gluing, to be sure the butt joints of the binding are tight, and correctly cut. All mitres are prepped beforehand. When I am happy with the length of the bindings, I start where the binding meets at the center of the tail graft, glue it with HHG for as invisible of a joint as I can get, then work my way up each side with a small squeeze bottle of PVA glue and a small brush, gluing and taping all three pieces at once. I use the paper binding tape from Stew-Mac and tape it tight. At the onset, it seems very daunting, but in process, it goes smoothly. This method allows me to easily make my own binding material by thicknessing the desired piece of wood, bending it in the side bender like a side, cutting it into binding strips on the bandsaw, then surfacing both edges of the binding by running it through the thickness sander on a special sled to support the delicate bindings, 4 at a time. I can make a set of 4 bindings, start to finish in an hour, including sawing and surfacing the wood, bending it, all the way to ready to install, and much of that time spent waiting for the 'side' to cool down in the bender. If I was making many sets, it becomes even more efficient. I know others do this differently, but this works really well for me. Buying binding with purfling attached is not inexpensive, and I do not get to choose exactly what wood grain I want for binding. Bending individual sticks seems like a pain, compared with bending 8-12 pieces in one bend, to exactly the same bend as the side. And, precision control of the thickness of the binding, and height is also a plus. Hope some of this made sense. Gluing all the individual sticks at once seems like a spaghetti fest at first, but it is not after you try it.

I use a similar system. If a stack of purflings are set on edge and taped to the binding they can all be bent at once. I like to bend at least four pieces of binding at a time, and place the purflings in the middle of the layer. All get applied to the instrument at the same time, perhaps as many as five sticks altogether on each edge. Its much easier than gluing purflings to bindings, sanding them clean, and then bending them. But it sure looks confusing to spectators.

I am curious as to whether more people use CA glue for bindings, or PVA glue.. CA looks easier if it is worked with in a clean manner, but PVA glue seems like a better engineered solution, stronger, slightly better.

I only use titebond/lmi glue for binding. I'll sometimes use ca on the top of my fiddly headstock.

I've only ever bend bindings one at a time over a pipe with the purfling attached.

Here is the sled I use for sanding bindings to height, with some Snakewood bindings in it and about to make another pass through the sander. This method works great.

The first purflings I tried to use were too stiff to bend 'as-is', so I sandwiched them between a couple of slats taped tightly together, then into the side bender. That worked, but the stuff from LMI bends without heat, just a little care in installation, pushing it into the slot created by the bottom edge of the binding, and the top of the binding ledge of the side.

I glue the side purfling to the binding with HHG prior to hand bending on the pipe. Then binding with side purfling attached, plus top or back purfling are glued to body again with HHG.

Allen, is the side purfling as high as the binding then?