Making your own purfling

[stuw]

I've been thinking about trying my hand at making my own purfing from the 36" x 6" sheets. A couple of questions pop into my head.

1) Is it really cost effective to do so? (instead of just buying them)

2) Whats the best way to cut them? I can see me having wider, than thinner than wider etc. I watched a video on youtube where a guy used a drafting table with a slide. Any better options?

thanks in advance.

Stu

[charles Tauber]

I've used a SHARP knife and a straight-edge. It works fine. Would I want to make thousands of them that way? No. Is it "economical"? In small quantities, sure. Am I going to save big bucks making my own purling? No.

I usually make my own bindings because it allows me to use what ever wood I want, rather than what is sold for bindings.

[WaddyT]

Can't say it's cheaper, particularly, but if you buy it, you don't get much choice, unless you have a bunch made up. It's not so bad if it's something you use all the time. If you like changing things up, then making your own is really the only way.

I made myself a stripping board by putting some heavy rubber on a piece of plywood as long as I needed for cutting strips of veneer. I use a long straight edge and a razor blade in a handle, and it works well for strips up to about two layers. Thicker than that, and it goes to the band saw with a bi-metal 14 - 18 tooth blade.

[arie]

Originally Posted by stuw

I've been thinking about trying my hand at making my own purfing from the 36" x 6" sheets. A couple of questions pop into my head.

1) Is it really cost effective to do so? (instead of just buying them)

2) Whats the best way to cut them? I can see me having wider, than thinner than wider etc. I watched a video on youtube where a guy used a drafting table with a slide. Any better options?

thanks in advance.

Stu

1) not really. the payoff would be the freedom to use whatever species you fancy and in any grain direction you want.

2) any method featuring a small sharp blade in a scoring or slicing config. would be choice.

been thinking about doing this myself. my beef with commercial purf. is that it's always lumpy. a couple of thou. here, a couple of thou. there = wavy borders that bug me. so i'm always sizing my purfs down with scraper blades to "clean" them up so my borders are sharp. imo every bit helps.

[Ned Milburn]

Many ways to skin a cat. My instructor is a pro with a circular table saw, so he cuts his carefully on this machine with a fine, fine blade on it. It isn't a commercially available saw, however, since he made it himself. You can search you tube for "cutting thin strips on a table saw". There is a model boat maker who is a pro at this and who has posted a video of the process.

I, however, am more comfortable with the band saw which is my main work-horse. I usually cut strips about an inch tall and about 1.5 or so mm wide. I dress one side to remove the band saw blade marks, then put the other side through my home-made thickness sanding attachment and again dress lightly to remove thickness sanding undulations. Finished thickness is near 0.9 mm. Using a fine blade (18tpi 1/8th inch) I cut the strips into aprox. 2 mm in height. I do not finish the tops and bottoms of these strips (I leave them rough) since the bottom will be buried under the surface of the guitar and likely has better glue adhesion, and the protruding portion will be scraped off after the glue dries.

So, as the others said, probably not a money saver, but when I batch process, It doesn't take too long. Also this gives one the option to make purfling/binding from one's own wood choice, and it allows one to make custom thicknesses.