Binding the top

The kit came with white binding material for the top only. Since I wanted to bind the back as well, I needed additional binding. The white binding was ok but I wanted to try something a little more interesting and so I bought some striped (wbwb) abs binding from LMII. This binding is thicker than the one that came with the kit and so, the routed area in the top of the mandolin would have to be deepened. I've been thinking about this operation for a while. If not done well, the results would be very evident. An uneven ledge would show gaps. If the ledge is too shallow, then sanding/scraping the binding would show up as uneven stripes. Better make the groove a little deeper than needed but not too deep. The sides can be sanded down a bit to meet the binding.

Since the IV kit comes with the sides already attached to the top, it's not easy to clamp the mandolin in various positions. I needed to hold it with side pointing up so that I can run the router around the edge. In order not to break the (unsupported) side piece, I used a piece of heavy close-cell foam, borrowed from my kayak outfitting. You can see it in the photo. This kind of foam is stiff enough and cuts very well using a saw.

I used the Dremel tool with the binding routing attachment, as I did on my straight test piece in the previous posting. There were two potential problems with this tool. First - it's not easy to hold it straight and steady. Small movements can cause the Dremel to dig deeper into the top. It turns out that I could not hold it as steady as I wanted and wound up spending a lot of time fixing an uneven ledge. It's not as nice as I was hoping but - hey - it's my first time. Second - I didn't want to damage the nice straight routed edge on the sides. I decided to set the router to a shorter distance than the actual ledge. This kept the blade away from the "factory" edge. The price was much extra work cleaning out the remaining un-carved piece inside the routed area. I think this was worth the effort. The photo shows a section of the groove after enlarging it. You can see how much deeper I need it to be, compared with the original. A little while ago I bought a cheap set of needle files, in various shapes. They came in very handy today when I needed to clean up the inside of the routed groove.

One the enlarged ledge was clean, I had to figure out how to bend the binding into the tight curve near the neck joint. The binding is somewhat flexible but could not be bent to the small radius that's called for near the neck. I tried using a hair drier to heat up the binding but could not get enough focused heat. I then tried hot water and got much better results. Pre-bending the binding would mean a lot less stress when gluing/taping it on.

Although the binding pieces are long enough to do the entire top in one shot, I decided to do it with two pieces, joining at the tail block. That joint will be covered by the tail piece and so it will be invisible. Binding the top with two pieces has the advantage of pre-bending each side and gluing each piece starting with the tight curves.

The gluing went fast and with no issues. I used lots of painters' blue masking tape - the "delicate" type - to keep the binding attached while curing. Instead of gluing both pieces, I started with one and will see how it works and trims before putting effort into the second piece.