Another interesting thing that can be done when making binding strips in the shop is making them from laminated pieces of wood. The process is similar to standard binding strip making, but with one difference. The blank is made with a contrasting piece of wood glued to one side, and when cut into strips it will show as a thin accent line.
The advantage of using a pre-glued binding strip is in the ease of installing them. If an accent strip is used that is separate from the main strip, it will have to be bent and glued in place itself. The regular binding strip will also need to be bent and glued, meaning twice the work for the same results.
The first step is to prepare the blank for cutting into strips. The overall blank dimensions need to be 36" long, at least 6" wide, and around 3/8" thick. The length dimension allows for a couple extra inches just in case some pieces are nipped by the table saw, and need to be trimmed. The width can be wider and will result in the ability to cut more strips from the blank.
Six inches is usually the minimum width, just because a very skinny piece will not give us as many binding strips before it becomes too thin to safely cut anymore. The height can vary depending on how thick or thin the binding will be in the end. Also, the accent piece can be as little as 1/16" or as much as 1/8", so the choice is up to the builder. On the binding strips shown in the pictures, the height is a little over 3/8" so there will be some room to scrape them level once they are installed.
Prepare the thinner piece first by running a 36" x 6" piece of wood through a planer until it reaches the final thickness desired. If this piece starts out 4/4 thick, follow the instructions for splitting it open earlier in the chapter, to avoid wasting too much wood on the planer. A piece of veneer can also be used for a very thin accent line if desired.
Select a piece for the main color of the binding strip, and cut it to 36" x 6". Run this through the planer as well until it reaches the desired thickness, usually 2-4 times the thickness of the thinner piece, or about 1/4". Once both of these pieces are down to the right thickness, they can be glued together.
Lay the thicker piece on top of the thinner piece and check for any gaps or problems with the mating surfaces before gluing them. If they look good, glue them together on a flat surface, using weights as clamps. The glue for this can be standard Titebond, or for some added protection Titebond III. All of these strips were made using Titebond Original.
A garage floor is perfect for this kind of work and will keep the resulting glue-up flat. Sweep any debris off the area where the pieces will lay, then find a scrap board to be used as a clamping caul to spread out the pressure evenly. Glue the two pieces of wood together to make the binding blank, making sure to coat the mating surfaces completely without any gaps. Lay this on the floor of the shop, or on another flat surface, and lay the scrap board on top of it. Using gym weights or heavy objects from the shop, weigh down the board, effectively clamping the piece together.
The diagram above shows how the layering will go, and anything can be used for weights as long as they are heavy. I happen to have a large number of gym weights in the shop, and anyone who has ever seen me knows that I do not use them for their intended purpose. They do however make excellent clamps for very large items that are sometimes hard to get a hold of with regular clamping methods. Gym weights in varying sizes from 5lbs. to 25lbs. are compact, easy to move around, and useful for many clamping duties. Laying many of them over a surface is a low tech version of a vacuum press. Though it is not as fancy, it does get the job done.
The strips will have to be bent before installing just like any other strip, however a little caution has to be used when doing so. Getting the strips completely soaked in a trough for hours before bending can result in the accent strip falling off of the main strip. The glue will break down over time under water and all the work will be for nothing. Also, leaving the strips on the iron for too long will break down the glue bonds, and cause the strip to fall apart.
If it is easier to bend the wood wet, spray the pieces with a spray bottle before bending them rather than leave them under water a long time. Once wet, the pieces will steam rapidly under the heat of the pipe, and bend just fine. Do not delay too long on the pipe, and as soon as the strips start to flex, go ahead and make the bend. This way the heat from the pipe does not separate the strips.
Also, the strips do not need to be bent perfectly to the exact shape of the sides of the guitar to work well. The waist bend needs to be as close to dead on as possible, but the rest of them just need to be close. The binding tape (masking tape) that is used to clamp the strips in place while drying will pull the braces into the correct position and solve any small bending issues.
Having bent several of these before, the separation has never been an issue. Leave a strip on the pipe a long time and eventually it will come apart, though it does take a while longer than required to bend it.
Once the binding is installed, the small accent line will really stand out and give the guitar a nice look without that much more effort. Depending on the species chosen, the look can really be exotic. Flashy choices include Padauk (pictured), purple heart, and blood wood. Each of these gives a bright accent color that is hard to miss.
The above diagram shows the bottom end of the guitar with the end flash in place and the two tone binding trimmed and mitered nicely. The main binding color, shown here in white, does a nice job of framing out the darker sides, which it does on every guitar that is bound.
The accent however does the same thing, again framing the darker sides but also giving another layer of contrast to the binding. This produces a double framed look that really sets off a guitar.
The ends of the accent are neatly mitered in the corners, making a clean look.