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.