Wanut / white spruce OM

[John Parchem]

Now my battle will be to cut out the final shape of the fretboard keeping each side of binding equal. I find it difficult given the sides taper from nut down and the binding will only end up about .080" thick.

What do most do for the fretboard? stick a template on the blank and use a router to shape it?

I am not sure I understand what you mean. For me the fretboard shape is determined when I taper the fretboard without the bindings. The size of the unbound fretboard is the final dimension - 2X the binding width. I would not use a template and a router as every slot is an opportunity for tear out. I measure at the nut and the 12th fret. Draw lines for the final shape. Cut close with a band saw. Finish up with a plane. After I glue on the bindings I do not touch them until shaping the neck itself.

So my steps are:
Shape the unbound fretboard to size taking into account the width of the bindings.
Glue the bindings on.
Scrape the top and bottom of the bindings until true to the fretboard. At some point re-radius the fretboard with the bindings on. I eye ball it with a scraper.
Glue the assembled fretboard to the neck.
Taper the neck to match the bindings.
The sides of the bindings on the face of the fretboard are never touched. Just like an unbound fretboard the blending will blend into the shape of the neck.

[Rangerdave1]

Now my battle will be to cut out the final shape of the fretboard keeping each side of binding equal. I find it difficult given the sides taper from nut down and the binding will only end up about .080" thick.

What do most do for the fretboard? stick a template on the blank and use a router to shape it?

I am not sure I understand what you mean. For me the fretboard shape is determined when I taper the fretboard without the bindings. The size of the unbound fretboard is the final dimension - 2X the binding width. I would not use a template and a router as every slot is an opportunity for tear out. I measure at the nut and the 12th fret. Draw lines for the final shape. Cut close with a band saw. Finish up with a plane. After I glue on the bindings I do not touch them until shaping the neck itself.

So my steps are:
Shape the unbound fretboard to size taking into account the width of the bindings.
Glue the bindings on.
Scrape the top and bottom of the bindings until true to the fretboard. At some point re-radius the fretboard with the bindings on. I eye ball it with a scraper.
Glue the assembled fretboard to the neck.
Taper the neck to match the bindings.
The sides of the bindings on the face of the fretboard are never touched. Just like an unbound fretboard the blending will blend into the shape of the neck.

Thank you for your step by step proceedure.

It is definitely what I plan on doing next time. Where I made things a little more difficult for myself is I sized the unbound fretboard accordingly as you do but then glued on the cut offs at the irregular shapes so now I am forced to size the fretboard once again. It would have been much easier had I cut down those cut offs to the correct thickness like regular binding and simply glued them on and scraped flush....live and learn I suppose