Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I recently had a stressfull day when fitting some bindings to a Soprano uke I was building after having to route out twice before I was happy with the finished result.....
Following all the stress I had with this job, I couldn't switch off the brain..something tells me there has to be an easier way to do this job apart from rope and sticky tape and painfull fingers..and this is what I came up with "The Acme binding jig"....It's still in the prototype stage and there are a couple of improvements still to do before I make the final one...I knocked up a mock uke body out of MDF routed the channels and gave it a test run with CA glue and Zapper..It almost worked perfectly with no glue on the fingers at all, no gaps and it just took minutes..I started at the waist wicking in the glue and zapping..I worked outwards clamping about 30mm spaces two a time top and bottom bouts together...Here are a few pics....There is more on this story here http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/sho ... ings-alert

I tried fitting springs behind the cauls as a couple of Guys suggested.....They didnt work co's due to the diferent variations in radii around the bouts the cauls just slipped sideways..If the uke was the Nunes design based on two round circles then it should work...I find locking the arms solid in the postions required, does the trick ...After hours of experimenting with diferent ideas finally this is the finished job... *Note* Cauls are made from Teflon ...The downside is I have to make more ukes with bindings to try it out:(

I completed the binding on the other side of the test piece to test out the improvements and I was very pleased with the result,considering that MDF is not the easiest of material to bond with CA glue...Still no gaps, and best of all no glue on the fingers.

Very nice!
Binding comes a close second to horror movies for me.
Do you mind if I make up a copy of it?

Andos

Hi Andos....Please go ahead and make one..I don't want my life to be in vain ....binding on sopranos is a bit of a nightmare for me also and I've done loads..the area just either side of the waist gives me the most problems ...and the underside of the binding catches me out as well sometimes leaving a gap...but with this gadget it seems I have overcome these these niggles...because of the bigger arc's on Tenor ukes I find they are easier to bind.

What a great design. Really nice jig. I can see the locking arms' benefit.
The Timbuck binder. Has a nice ring to it...
Cheers
John

Cheers Tim,
I'm only new to this game. Still struggling on tenors, let alone anything smaller. I learnt the hard way on a parlour guitar - don't cut the waist to tight. I saved the back, the rest had an inglorious end as starting the first of the winters fires. But once I've got your gadget up and running it'll be time to resurrect the back!

I just bound a real Sopran body with the binding gizmo...My observations are ...It does a great job in the waist area and there is nothing wrong with that bit of the jig..But! it still needs some design tweaking on the swinging arm cauls...The arched back is more difficult to do than the front, but easier than my previous tape and fingers method...The front being flat is not difficult at all and I may do a few uke's with front binding only.....All in all it's not perfect but better than my old way...*EDIT* Don't forget to fit teflon tape to the waist cauls or other non stick stuff.

I just followed your neck making tutes, excellent process and repeatable, loved reading it

Steve