Binding Finishing

[Drjay]

Hi
Can anyone tell me how to treat plastic bindings in the finishing process? I have just completed glueing the bindings to the body and have some glue marks on the plastic. What do I do to clean and polish them?

[vandenboom]

What glue did you use?
Presumably, a bit of scraping and sanding will still be needed to prepare sides for finishing - won't that take care of it? I have only used plastic bindings once. While I would stop at P320 on the wood, I think I went a few extra grades on the plastic to remove the scratches. Same as for plastic pickguards cut from a sheet.

Frank

[Drjay]

Hey Frank
This is my first build and is a Stew Mac Kit so plastic bindings supplied. I think I used Selleys multi-bond glues.
Jim

[Nick]

Scraping the binding should clean any excess glue of but make sure all glue has dried well (left overnight at least, haste is your enemy!) otherwise the plastic could still be a little soft underneath and when you scrape it will 'pull' some of the soft binding and leave a cratered surface. Believe me I know from earlier past experience!

[Kim]

Yes a scraper will work fine, you can use a freshly broken piece of glass but as Nick said, don't be in a hurry. You need to let plastic bindings set well because the glue used is thinners based and it goes 'in' to the plastic softening it and making it swell. If scraped back flush to the guitar too early, the bindings will then sink back below the surface of the sides and top/back in a week or so leaving you with a disappointing outcome.

Cheers

Kim

[seeaxe]

Hi Jim

I built my last from a Stewmac dreadnought kit and not knowing any better, I just sanded the white plastic bindings along with the top. back and sides. It seemed to behave the same as the wood. I cant remember exactly how long I left it until I sanded it, but it would have been a couple of weeks. I used all the usual paper grades, then sprayed it with nitrocellulose.

I was pretty happy with the result.

Good luck