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Permalink Reply by Dooder on August 22, 2014 at 1:35pm

Depends on the thickness of what you can get, and how thick you want your end blank to be.  The big thing in my experience is that too much glue is bad, too little is also bad.  Best approach I have is to use a flat putty knife/spatula (don't tell your wife) to spread just enough glue on the pieces you want to laminate so that the entire surface on BOTH sides is wetted with the glue.  Get as many c-clamps as you can, and about ten more and some scrap pieces of wood and start building a sandwich.  After I apply the glue, I lay the piece on its side, and place blocks of scrap along the outside long edges, with the scrap being ideally at least as long as the piece to be glued up.  Now comes the tricky part, until the glue sets, it will act as a lubricant, meaning that your workpiece will want to slide all over until you get it pinned down with as many clamps as possible.  There are a couple of ways around this.  If your glued up piece is lone enough so that you can afford to cut a couple of inches off the ends, I would lightly tack the two glued surfaces together with finish nails, clamp away, and let the glue set up.  If that is not possible, start your first clamp in the center of your laminated board and work outward equally from that, being sure to be aware of things moving on you as you go, you may need to stop and tighten the clamps as you add more to the project.   BTW, make sure you have a drop cloth under this for two reasons, the glue will still squeeze out and get all over, potentially gluing up whatever surface you are working on, and you run the risk of gluing your lamination project to that surface.  Let the glue set up according to the specs, and clean up any overspill/runoff and uneven surfaces with either a block plane or a rasp.  As far a strength, a 1 inch two piece laminated board should be far stronger than a single piece of the same thickness.  Another way to add rigidity and strength is by adding a truss rod.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on August 22, 2014 at 3:43pm

How thin is thin?

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Permalink Reply by Elliot on August 22, 2014 at 4:32pm

Hey Ron, aprox 18 mill

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on August 22, 2014 at 6:07pm

That's 18 mm, yes? Bout 3/4" then. Glue two together, making sure the grain is running in opposite directions; that'll give you 36 mm, just a hair under 1-1/2" wide, which is plenty wide for a 3 or 4 stringer.

As Dooder sez above, get a bunch of adjustable compression or C clamps; I use about 6 of em, and start in the middle as well, working toward the ends. If you simply draw a relatively thick snake of glue on one side all the way down the board, that'll be more than enough. I usually just set the boards side by side so that the short edges are flush with my flat work surface, start clamping in the middle, then both ends, then in between, and mop up any spillage. You have plenty of time to clean up before the glue sets, if using Elmer's or Titebond 2 or 3, or any other wood glue used in carpentry. Just don't use Momma's good dining room table; women are funny that way.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Fred Johnson on August 23, 2014 at 2:28am

This one is 2 x 15mm thick + a contrasting 8mm,gives a nice effect

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Permalink Reply by Manny Lopez on August 25, 2014 at 2:54am

Very nice stuff! I like it. The binding is an awesome touch. I may have to give it a shot after I finally amass the required tools for Fretting. That is a beauty headstock, can only imagine what the rest looks like. 

I laminated a neck out of some maple that wasn't big enough for a neck on its own. For all the work, it will be interesting to see the result. It's only two pieces, but there is some tearout in it from the planer. It does feel quite dense though, so it should remain quite hard and straight assuming the grains behave. But yes, opposing grains is important. Keeps things from getting wonky - don't ask how I know haha. 

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