Official Luthiers Forum!

When I glued the bindings onto a fretboard I'm working on I got LMI white glue in the ends of the slots. What's the best way to remove it without damaging the binding. I've been trying to pick it out with a dental pick but I'm scratching the board and binding and widening the slots. There must be a better way.

_________________
Alain
_______

I have used a Dremel with a 1/32" end mill

Given that 1/32" is 0.03125" that seems a bit large to me - even if gluing frets in (which I did for a while). I use an 0.020 end mill in a dremel, then a little hook-shaped scraper thing I made from #5 exacto blade for a final clean up. The last one I did I managed to glue on the binding without getting any significant amount of glue in the slots and no cleanup was needed. I use fish glue.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I use the SM fret slot cleaning tool. Prior to that it was an Exacto blace. I apply glue to the binding (LMI white or titebond) clamp with tape or wedge. Before the glue hardens, I clean out the slots. Haven't had any problem. I have even used the SM tool, well sharpened as a scraper to deepen the slots.

i drove my self nuts with this once. the next time i glued the binding on to a fingerboard i made sure to take a little more time and scrape out the wet glue (with my trusty olfa) while applying the tape to the binding. super easy to do when the glue is wet. sucks when it's hardened.

I used just enough "extra time" ca and my joining jig on my last couple. Worked great. No glue to scrape.

_________________
Pat