MIMF

How do you avoid dripping glue onto sides, especially when working on binding and purfling? It shows under finish and is almost impossible to sand off without leaving a flat spot.

Perhaps you need to cut back on the amount of glue. If you're using hot hide glue, you may have it too thin. It cleans up easy with a hot damp cloth. If you're using Titebond the same thing applies.

I'm using weldon # 16 for herringbone and white plastic binding as shown in my d model plan.

I wipe the excess glue off with paper towels (I use Ducco cement though).

Yeah, I was thinking wood binding & purfling. For plastic, I like FGW sold by Luthiers Merc:
http://www.lmii.com/products/finishing/ ... -adhesives

Any glue applied with a brush would solve most of this, thanks.

I tape around a joint before applying glue, especially in a hard to clean area.

Well, you get to decide which is more work; cleaning up dripped and smeared glue, or putting a seal coat on the wood before installing the binding. With the latter you get to sand it off after the binding is in place, but it will yield an even appearance because you 'get' to sand the entire surface. That, or develop more skill in the application of glue.

Learning to apply "just enough" glue, for any joint, is part of the process of reaching for a higher level of workmanship.

For the inevitable slight glue run or fingerprint, use whatever solvent dissolves whatever the adhesive was instead of sanding it all off. If it still shows under finish(you'll know on the sealer coat or first coat) then stop, strip the finish, dilute some of the adhesive in its solvent, and wipe a thin, even coat all over the surface, let cure completely, sand lightly and return to the finishing.

Mario's post gives an incredibly good reason to learn just how much glue to apply!!!!

His always include a way and a reason to get better.

I will paint on some shellac sometimes to keep glue from soaking in but I like wood binding because I am miserable so far with plastic binding (tried it twice, didn't do well .. will try again).
I also usually tape close to the binding channel although this still is hard to get to do very well with solvent glues. It does catch large drips tho.

With wood bindings, hide glue(hot, or bottled if fresh) or fish glue is the answer. Since they are protein-based glues, they will not show under finish. If in doubt, any of the above can be thinned and wiped over all surfaces prior to the finish process. Some luthiers even use hot hide glue as a pore filler. It "pops" the grain beautifully, too.

Test on scraps and see for yourselves...

Best advice is Mario's - don't go crazy with the glue - for fish and hide, squeeze out is your friend - make sure you have some along any joint on all seams. For AR, due to it's more complex cleanup, plan for minimal squeeze out...just a pit is just about right. For CA and plastic cements, I avoid any squeeze out once I know there is adequate glue in channel.

Second piece of advice is have a plan for handing the excess. I use hot hide, fish, AR/acetone, and CA in binding, depending on the job. Each has different squeeze out and clamping requirements. Hide and fish clean up with warm water, and scrape well during cleanup. Prior to routing the channels, apply a very light spray coat of shellac within about an inch of the edges of the guitar, which keeps glue from sticking to the areas immediately adjacent to the channels during glue-up. After binding, scrape versus sand to remove excess. For Ivoroid or tortoid binding, I am usually using wood and/or fiber purfs, and use AR plus an acetone wipe on the plastic...same prep with shellac, and pretty much the same follow-up scraping ( allow the binding to loose the solvents added by the acetone wipe...2-3 days minimum prior to scraping and sanding). For guitars with Florentines that have complex binding schemes and lots of critical angles, I put up with CA's tendency to wick by shellacking the channel both before and after to seal ingrain, and tacking in sections prior to carefully controlling the amount of CA used to permanently glue up. By tacking stuff into place, the body can then be rotated to take advantage of gravity to control wicking, etc.

Finally - simplify your life -