Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

OK, I know this has probably been done by many others and I am yet to try it on a guitar but I thought I'd have a go at making a Binding Trimmer jig. After much searching online and knowing my limited skills I came up with this one. In conjunction with a cradle to hold the guitar body I hope it works out. The testing I have done on scraps seems to work really well so far.



This is a replacement base for the Laminate trimmer. It allows the clearance needed. It's made from a Jarrah base and a Merbau 'ring' that I made on a drill press of all things.



This is the replacement base on the trimmer. The StewMac router bit fits in nicely.



And this is the trimmer attached to the jig.



This is the cradle for the guitar body. It is adjustable to allow for a range of guitar sizes and shapes.

So, I have now tested the new jig. A friend, Jeff Chapman, who is a repairer kindly donated a junker that he had received from a local high school. I think they were just wanting someone else to throw it out. Anyway, I actually had to re-glue the back and top to the sides just so I could do my testing.

I did say it was a junker!


The cradle works like a charm.


The results. Yes, the binding routing works exactly as hoped for.