After 2 days it looks like it's connected well

Nice work!

Crested graft for your first attempt as well.

Are you using any sort of humidity dome for this one or just letting the cut surfaces remain exposed to direct sunlight?

I ask as while I've done the same thing your doing, it often helps, especially with crested grafts, to increase the humidity so the healing is a bit faster than the drying out process which definitely increases with direct exposure to the elements.

Crests in my experience have more of a tendency to want to buckle or curl when grafted... larger pieces are of course easier.

Again, congrats on your first graft.

I tried to graft this about a week and a half ago. I had to recut and attach them and hold it down with something stronger. It's humid here. And I've been letting it have Sun half the day. It looks like it's really connected well. I hope that holds.

Crests tend to want to buckle in the middle as they dry.

Any tissue exposed to the air will dry out faster than tissue not exposed to air.

Any tissue exposed to sun will also tend to dry out faster.

With that in mind, when your stock and scion are drying it helps to have holding mechanism that shrinks with the graft as the graft dries out. Even a little give can create an air bubble which allow more air in which makes drying faster.

For a graft this size, I would have personally used something like self-adhesive coban or pantyhose that has a little stretch to it.

I would also have thought about increasing the humidity a bit further for a few days during the initial healing via self-adhesive coban, a humidity dome, and or foregoing the full sun.

I know I talk about grafting in the full sun all the time... but then I have a particular way I graft when I do that.

But, if it works for you that is all that matters.

How long do you wait to take your banding off

For a crest the size you are grafting, I would personally tie it down with self-adhesive coban. I'd leave the bandage on for 3 weeks as my patience would hopefully allow. One learns to listen to ones grafts over time and the graft will tell you if it can be removed sooner or it should stay on longer. Worst case scenario, you will have an imprint of the coban on your graft if you should leave it in place too long. That imprint will eventually heal. Always pay attention to what your graft is telling you. If you see swelling then chances are your scion has taken as swelling indicates the scion is pushing on the coban from inside. If you see the coban cutting into the side of the scion... you need to remove the coban the graft has taken. These are the signs one must learn to listen to, but if one listens to time and nothing else one may have great success so long as ones patience does not run amuck.

When it came time to remove, I might consider slicing the bandage off with a very sharp razor blade rather than attempting to unwrap it as that action can sometimes result in pulling the graft free as well.

Update doing well

First graft is 100% successful and with a crested specimen no less.

Those crested specimens tend to be harder than most.

Now all we need to do is to get you to grafting seedlings and areoles.

Very nice, good job