KMG binding routing system improvement?

[peter havriluk]

Just about to embark on cutting my third set of binding channels with this tool, and I had what I called an 'inspiration': Would it be easier to keep the router bit parallel with the guitar body if the stop was a couple of inches taller? It might be easier to make sure of the parallelism if the gap could be more visibly evident?

Anybody done this? Experience?

Thanks very much.

[Dave Bagwill]

I've done that, Peter, and it worked just fine.

[peter havriluk]

Dave, thanks. Got a picture? And maybe a description?

The video of the tool in use...I think it was your doing, no? That video sold me on the tool. I get amused by all the convolutions folks go to in cutting binder channels when Ken's tool is easy to use and virtually mistake-proof.

[Hans Mattes]

A question: Are there two versions of Ken's routing system? I bought a routing system from Ken a few years ago, but it was destroyed when my house and shop burned in the Northern California wildfires last fall. I remembered it well enough that I was able to build an arrangement that worked the same as Ken's -- in other words, very well and in a foolproof manner (which I need). But the system I bought and then reproduced doesn't have anything that could be called a "stop" or could be usefully made "a couple of inches higher." The arrangement I built is shown in the photos. (The two holes in the work surface are for the hose of the shop vacuum. The one near the edge is in the proper position. Is this the same as the system that you are using?

As an aside, the recreation of Ken's design was greatly simplified by the fact that the Grizzly trim router that Ken used, and that I purchased for the recreation, has a edge guide which only needed to have a bearing removed to serve well as the side guide for the binding channel routing system. That's most clearly shown in the top picture.

[Dave Bagwill]

Nice work Hans!
Did the recent fires affect you in any way? The Rogue Valley was smothered in smoke most of the summer.

Pete - I just stacked up a few washers under the movable part and then raised the bit up to the right height.
When I found the height that works with all models, I made a wooden spacer for a more permanent setup.
Don't have any pix, sorry.

[peter havriluk]

Dave, thanks. The lights went on when you mentioned stacking washers. Even I can do that! Much obliged.

[peter havriluk]

Well, I didn't stack washers. The one I have, the collar that fixes the adjustment bolt in place does not allow raising the adjustable stop. But a one-inch-high extension to the stop works just fine. Wednesday night I routed the body for half the binding, the back, and I had all the control I needed to keep the body at right angles to the bit. Big, easy, improvement.
And tonight , Thursday, I routed for the top binding. Much improved, and just a cubic inch of wood, trimmed. Wonderful.
Thanks, everybody.