Straightening sides

[Paul C]

Do sides need to be perfectly straight before cutting binding channels.?

[Herman]

You are better off when they are. the router follows the flatness in the sides. So if there is a bump (glue or so) it will make a bump in the channel.
But with a good eye, you can spot these places and work them straight with a chisel.
Good luck Paul

Herman

[Paul C]

Herman what's your process for straightening sides I'm having a tough time with my scraper it only makes dust. The sides are high in the middle in some areas but not all. I have a handheld spindle sander but it's not wide enough. Just can't get anywhere with it. I think the scraper would be great if I could get it to scrape. I followed a Stewmac video for sharpening it but it's not working yet. Any thoughts appreciated.

[Herman]

The scraper is the way to go. Practice on the sharpening, You can do it. I make mine flat on sandpaper, up to a perpendicular block. Then draw a burr and turn that. That is all. On Youtube there are several vids aout the issue.

Beware of the amount of waving of the sides. Mostly the sides are 2 mm thick, so if you have bumps of half that thickness, you could scrape the sides too thin. In that case I would suggest to leave it someway imperfect and live with a slightly bumpy side.

btw, If sides are high in the middle, that will not affect the routing of the binding channels.
Good luck Paul.

[Kevin in California]

Paul, also once you rout your channels, you can go back over them with files to even everything out width wise. If you worry about making the binding channel too deep after making corrections, then rout them a tad shallow. Wrap some tape around your bearing, you will make about a .005 to 010" shallower channel, then us a file and make it even and the depth you need. Those flexible nail files like the ladies use work great for this, especially on the inside of the waist area.

Doing this is much safer than taking too much wood away trying to make those sides perfectly flat.

[Paul C]

Ok guys thanks your tips are greatly appreciated. Little things sometimes are huge. I was wondering about the thickness of the sides as iwas sanding so thanks for the heads up. And the tape on the bearing great idea. I have kens setup on router which is a wood block but I'm sure I can put tape there also. And I found a better video on scraper that I will try. I was burnishing way too much. Sometimes the details are left out. This will be my first try on a herringbone on top so i have read that I should rout that channel first?.

[Kevin in California]

I usually rout the purfling channel first, then come back and do the binding channel.