Oh, look... More Binding...

That'll buff right out...

Now that the body has most of the holes routed/drilled it's time to start fixing my earlier mistakes.
When I left off with this build (seven years ago!) the binding was incomplete and in the intervening years it has developed a few additional - oh let's call them "issues."

Looks fine (if you turn your head and squint a bit).

A piece fell off around the smaller horn (and that broken piece is long gone), a couple of cracks have been there all along, a section came unglued, and I never did the bend around the bigger horn properly in the first place.  So!  There's much to do.

Don't be so picky. 

The answer to all my problems.

This binding (unlike the plastic binding I used on the Les Paul build) is made of Cocobolo.  A fabulous wood that is dense, oily, aromatic, and water resistant.  If you have ever tried to bend wood before then you know water is usually an important part of the process.  Not so much with Cocobolo. This stuff is so dense and oily it's one of the few wood types in the world that doesn't float.  You pretty much just use heat to bend cocobolo.  In this case - the same heat gun we used for the Les Paul binding.

Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!

Also, because Cocobolo is so naturally oily you have to "degrease" it before you glue it.  So keep some Acetone on hand prior to gluing. Wipe all of the cocobolo pieces down with a rag dipped in acetone. Again, this stuff isn't the best thing in the world for you (according to the State of California) - so don't bathe in it.

Look! I found my Special-purpose!

I can't speak for other woods but with Cocobolo you really have to "listen" to the wood while you're bending it.  I usually use a stethoscope...

I'm sure there is a joke in here somewhere about men "listening" so I'll just let you fill in the blanks.

But seriously, as you apply the heat the wood will very quickly go from stiff to pliable.  It's not a specific amount of time (or heat) but usually it's less than a minute of direct heat before it starts to bend.  If you see the wood turning black or the wood resins bubbling you've gone too far - ease back on the heat.  You want it JUST before that point.

The thing about heating and bending wood this way is that you really need a third hand.  One hand to hold the heat gun, one hand to bend/reshape the wood and a third hand to tape it down.

A fourth hand to photograph it all wouldn't hurt either

If you don't tape the binding down immediately - as it cools it will start to go back to it's original shape.  It won't completely go back to it's original shape but you will lose a lot of those lovely curves you just created.

Quick tip: Don't use foil duct tape (or actual duct tape) like in the picture.  Use low tack masking tape or painters tape.

Like with plastic binding - you can use a bunch of different things to glue the binding down with.  On this particular evening I used medium viscosity super glue.  Since this is a wood binding being glued to a wood guitar body - you could use PVA (Wood) glue and it would give you more working time.
I wanted to scrape and sand the body in the same night as gluing the binding down - so I chose superglue.  Also - it's supposed to work better with cocobolo.   I'll let you know.

Remember to use just enough to glue your fingers together but not enough to glue what you actually wanted adhered.

Mmmmm... Toasty

So, remember when I said use enough heat to bend the binding but not enough to cook it?
Yeah, "Do as I say.  Not as I do."  This is a little cooked.  I'm hopeful the charred parts will scrap off.
Patience is a virtue.  Just not one of mine.

The glue on the above piece of binding has dried and this little section is ready to be cleaned up.
You use a similar process as you would for plastic binding: scrape the sides with a card scraper (or small plane) and sand smooth.  One thing that is different about using cocobolo is that the oils can stain adjacent wood while you are sanding (which it did for me).  I also used a utility razor blade as a card scraper as it is good for detail work.

Pictured: A lack of virtues

You may be able to see that in the picture above the bit on the end is broken.  I tried to force the cocobolo to bend too much too soon.  Take your time and this won't happen.

Oh look!  New problems.

One of the things that you learn working with wood bindings is that if you heat up an old section of previously glued binding for too long - it may come UN-glued.  I'm not sure how you would avoid this (tape the old binding down?) but thankfully it's an easy fix - and in this case not completely unhelpful.  I plan on trimming the two pieces of binding until the meet in the middle. Having them free like this let's me test the fit as I trim them to the correct size.

In process...

 I was able to clean up quite a few of the binding issues but not all of them.
...and I was starting to get sloppy - so I stopped for the night partway through the process.

I'll be honest - probably the most valuable lesson I've learned from building guitars is knowing when to just stop for the night and pick it up the next day.

There is more fiddly work to be done but this body is one step closer to being a guitar than it was yesterday.

Not quite there yet...

Lessons learned?  For those playing the Luthier Home Game (or anyone who works with wood) some people find the sawdust of Cocobolo irritating to their sinuses.  I did. Wearing a mask when using it is probably a good idea.

Cocobolo is still one of my favorite woods to look at.  Maybe not one of my favorites to make bindings from.  But as it's the only wood binding I've tried so far - I have no basis for comparison.
Still, it cleans up real nice.

Getting purdy.

SHAZBOT!!!

&@#%!!!

I'll be honest, a sailor would have blushed at the vigor and color of my language after seeing this development.  This crack formed soon after I unclamped the PRS - so I've known about it for a little while now.  I wanted to address it - and talk about fixing it in the same post so, I've been holding out until now to discuss it.

rassa frakin' rackin' on a rassa frackin' rackin' rack

So, what happened?  

A few things could have happened: I didn't use enough glue (or pressure) on that spot, there was a killer twist/warp to one of the pieces of the lamination that I didn't see, the temperature and humidity could have been too extreme while this was curing, or the router (being on the endgrain) may have knocked these two pieces of the laminate loose when I was routing the body.  I don't know for sure.  Looking at the crack (and you can see clear from top to bottom for the first 1/4 inch) it looks like there wasn't enough glue to hold it together at this spot and the router probably jolted the pieces apart.  Looking at the guitar top (above picture) the crack runs about 1 to 2 inches.  Looking at the bottom it runs for less than an inch.

What to do...?

The rest of the joint is strong and not moving anytime soon - so it doesn't make sense to tear the body blank apart and start over.  I need to fill the crack but also strengthen the joint in that area.  The most popular solution is to use CA glue.  Cyanoacrylate Glue (also known as Superglue) is clear, strong, and quick to harden.  Also, if you buy the right kind (for example - not the kind you find in your local pharmacy or supermarket) it will 'wick' into the crack and really seal the fissure.

Aw, come on.  I'm great with kids!

I will admit - I may have just swallowed a bunch of marketing info-babble.  But to my eyes this stuff seeped into the crack better than the contents of a regular bottle of Superglue would have.  Also, this comes with precision applicators that regular Superglue doesn't (which alone was worth the $2 premium I paid for this stuff).

The real trick to this process is not to just flood the crack with CA glue and call it a day but also to add saw dust and CA glue in layers to help fill the gap and also make it easier to hide the repair.

Did I say 'saw dust?'  I meant saw powder.

Not pictured: lines

That tiny (and I mean tiny!) pile of powder above is the result of 5 minutes of sanding with 220 grit sandpaper.  For the new arrivals - sandpaper is identified by grit.  60/80 grit is your Arnold Schwarzenegger level of paper - strong, but lacking any subtlety.  100 to 180 grit is your Tom Cruise level of paper - workman-like but lacking finesse.  200 to 400 grit is where we start to get some grace - maybe Ed Harris or Anthony Hopkins.  Somewhere around 1000 grit we hit Meryl Streep territory and after that the analogy falls apart...

So, what I'm saying is that the Yellowheart 'dust' in the above picture is closer to baby powder than wood chips.  I made three piles of powder (one for the top, one for the back, and one for the edge of the body blank).  Step one was to flood a little CA glue into the top of the crack and let it dry.
Step two was to pack the wood powder into the crack from each side.

Crack is whack

Step three was to pour the CA glue over that packed in powder.
Step four was to repeat the above steps until the wood powder/CA glue mixture was proud of the crack.

I may look ugly now - but I'm drinkin' CA glue.  And someday I'm gonna be strong!

Then we wait.  But this is superglue, so we don't wait long!
That stuff cures hard as a rock - and when you add the Yellowheart powder it has something to bond to and form around.  So, you are left with a mound of Yellowheart 'rock.'
The trick is that rock doesn't 'sand out' that well.  I ended up using a card scraper to remove all the excess CA glue and Yellowheart.  If you don't have one - I recommend getting one.  Card scrapers are great for a lot of guitar building tasks (like installing binding).

This is what is left over after you scrape and sand...

Not pictured: perfection

Pictured: Better living through chemicals

The above pictures aren't bad.  But You won't fool anyone.  You can see the line of hardened CA glue.

What happens when we wipe on a little mineral spirits to simulate a lacquer finish...?

Better but room for improvement

Pictured: not terrible

I'm going to hold off judgement until I start carving this top.  The above spot is going to be a 1/2 inch shorter after I'm done carving - so who knows how it will look.  I'm satisfied that I have stopped the crack and strengthened the joint.  I'll deal with the aesthetics when the time comes.