Experimenting with binding

I bought some plastic binding from LMII. The idea is to bind the top and back of the mandolin with a WBWB pattern. The kit came with a white piece of binding, long enough only for the top, some some changes will have to be made. First, the top binding channel (that exits already in the kit) will need be deepened to accept the thicker new binding. Then a channel will have to be cut from scratch on the back, after it's assembled. In the meantime, I decided to experiment a bit with routing, gluing, and trimming this binding.

For cutting a channel, I'm trying to use the StewMac Dremel attachment with routing bit. People have conflicting views on it but I thought I'd give it a try. I can see that one needs a very steady hand to prevent variation in the channel depth. It doesn't take much to rock the router across the edge of the instrument and to cut deeper. I practiced for a while on straight edges of scrap wood, until the channel began to get cleaner and more even.

For gluing, I am using Weld-on 1874 cement. This was recommended by LMII, when I bought the binding. The glue is clear and fairly thin. I applied some to the empty channel and let it sit for a bit to dry. I then applied glue to the binding strip and pressed it into the channel, securing it with strips of masking tape. I don't have the blue painters tape yet so I'm using "standard" office masking tape. It's ok for the scrap piece, which is made of Maple. I'll have to get some blue tape when I deal with the spruce so avoid lifting grain when I remove it. The binding glued on very well and sees to be holding strong.

After a couple of hours I was able to scrape the edge down to the wood. This went very well, using my wood scraper, and left a perfectly clear WBWB pattern against the wood. On the side, the channel was a bit deeper than the binding (on purpose) and I used a sanding block to bring the side down to meet the binding face. I was worried about having sandpaper scratches on the plastic but it turned out to sand very nicely and left a smooth non-glossy face. I'm very pleased with the result.

Carving x braces

I finally got around to carving the braces today. It's been too long between work sessions but I'm grateful for the little time I could put into it today. I understood the main idea of tapering the braces towards the outside of the mandolin and feathering the ends to blend with the top wood. Tool-wise I tried using one of my chisels but gave up on it since it was too long and I could not get it inside the body. Another point against the pre-assembled top/sides unit. Since I don't have a thumb plane (yet) I resorted to a chisel-end craft knife. The handle is short and stubby and fits well in my hand. I sharpened the knife before using it and got fairly decent control over the size of the chips. The big mystery is just how much material to remove? There is no general guideline that I could find. I listened for voices in my head to give me spiritual guidance appropriate for the task but alas - no voices :) I could carve it down to nothing. No clue. What I did was create an even taper from the cross towards the ends and knocked the edges down, sanding it all nice and smooth. At this point, unless I get some new information, I plan to leave it as is and continue.

Feels good to make wood curls again