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Well it seems like it took all summer but I finaly have my binding rig ready to test drive ! My question is , I am building a mahogany dread with rose wood binding, and herring-bone (layed in ebony ( or wood dyed black)I think )purfling. I am told the z-poxy has a "reddish " tint , which will be fine for the mahogany, but I am thinking I should z-poxy the body before routing to avoid coloring the bindings and purflings. any suggestions will be seriously perused ! LOL thanks Jody

Rout the body first,

You can allways mask off the bindings after.

i personaly would'nt worry about the the z-poxy discolering your wood.
it will add a subtle redish brown tinge if leave a wash/light coat on before finishing but it wont show on dark woods and can add depth to the wood.

it aslo depends what method you use.
if you use the sand back to bare wood method then it wont add a noticable differance i dont think,

Joel.

I don't have an answer for you as I don't use epoxy to pore fill, but I do have a question for you.

If you pore fill first than cut the channels and install your rosewood bindings, what will you use to pore fill the rosewood with?

Oh and I don't think you have to worry about the purflings on the top as the top of course doesn't require pore filling. Once you get the bindings all installed you could just wipe on a coat or two of 1# cut shellac (over the entire body, backs, sides and top) which will seal in the color and protect the top wood (a bit that is), than do the pore filling. You won't have to worry at all about color darkening in the wood and the pores will all fill fine.

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After they are installed, the bindings will have to be levelled with the sides, which will be difficult without touching the sides in the process and removing the pore filling for those parts, requiring more pore filling. It is also much easier to monitor the removing of scratches of the different sanding grits when doing an entire part (like the whole side) instead of segments of it. Generally, finish all woodworking before you start any of the finishing steps to avoid wasting a lot of time and making things more difficult than necessary for yourself.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Remember, epoxy doesn't adhere well to shellac, though shellac adheres well to epoxy. So, don't coat with shellac before using the epoxy.

Colin

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I have heard that somewhere before

Zpoxy will add a very slight amber tint. Much less than you would think looking at the color of the part A base. Not much more than any other epoxy. It is also not real bad about carring color dependent on the wood. I too think it would do no good to fill prior to binding. Then binding will likely have a few micro gaps between the binding and body that the Zpoxy could fill for you. Coat the top, bindings and pruflings with a 1# cut of shellac using a fin artist brush for the fine edge work, side purfling and such. Once tha has cured go for it and bleeding is no issue.

Oops, thanks guys. I don't use epoxy so I should have just kept my mouth shut.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

If you don't want the amber tint of zpoxy then you can use sytem three finishing resin. It is clear.

I do put a thinned coat of zpoxy on the entire body before I cut the binding channels. it seals the wood giving you less chance of tearout with the router or with tape release. After the binding is in you can scrap, sand and fill as normal.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I have got zpoxy several times and it seems that each time it is a different color, at least in the bottle. Because it is so thin when used, it doesnt really seem to make any difference in the wood except for maybe a slight amber color to the spruce wood tops.

Here is a picture of three different bottles of it and as you can see they are all different colors.

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Ken H