Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mark Betzhold on April 2, 2017 at 10:04am

Thanks for your input, Wayfinder.  I think I'll try gluing the fingerboard on as is, and using wood putty if the glue doesn't fill the gaps enough.  I hadn't actually heard of wood putty before, so I'm glad to have learned something new.  I'll report my findings soon.

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Permalink Reply by Grandpa on April 2, 2017 at 2:13pm

Mark, in a recent (last couple of days) post about scarf joints, there was a tip about wood filling which I haven't had a chance to try myself,but I thought it sounded promising. The premise is similar to yours - a small gap between the neck and the fretboard at the side of joint. The fix is to glue the fretboard to the neck, allow to dry. When doing the final sanding at the side of the neck/fretboard joint, you first fill the gap with superglue, then sand immediately. The superglue will grab the sawdust, allowing the wood dust/superglue filler to dry to a matching gap filler. As i said, I haven't tried it, but I will. I have used wood fillers on a couple of cbg gaffes in the past, and had mixed results...color not quite right, wouldn't take stain. Not big deals to me, but I like the superglue/sawdust idea. Hope this may be helpful to you (and perhaps others).

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Permalink Reply by Grandpa on April 2, 2017 at 2:28pm

Hi Mark, Grandpa again. The information referenced in my earlier screed was in the Blog Post section, "Scarf With Me" by Hal Robertson. Wanted to give proper attribution to Hal.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Betzhold on April 2, 2017 at 3:13pm

Thanks for the tip, Grandpa.  I glued the fretboard on earlier this evening, so tomorrow night I'll see if any gap-filling measures are necessary, and if so, I think I'll use Hal's technique.

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Permalink Reply by Milt Haselmire on April 2, 2017 at 3:32pm

You can also use the glue and sand method with regular carpenters glue. Because it is thicker it will fill a little quicker than superglue. Either will work. Its impossible to get a perfect match to the wood with any type of filler, but it beats starting over. Hope it works out for you. 

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 2, 2017 at 5:05pm

There's an easier fix: get an 21" 80 grit sanding belt for a belt sander. Cut it so it opens up. Glue that face up to your work surface. You will knock down the high spots on the neck sanding it this way, very, very quickly. Then you shouldn't have to worry about gaps.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Betzhold on April 2, 2017 at 5:14pm

It's too late for that now (I've already glued it up), but that's a really good idea.  I'll keep that in mind for future builds,

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on April 2, 2017 at 8:39pm

Each step is an opportunity to learn. Too late now, but next time don't use a Dremel, do the job by hand. Scraping with the blade of a craft knife, steel scraper or a sharp chisel removes epoxy relatively easily, and there's little risk of going too far, as long as you scrape with a pulling motion with the blade at an angle rather than pushing  with the sharp edge of the blade. You'll feel the point when you go through the glue and start scraping the wood itself.

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Permalink Reply by Russell Bryant on April 3, 2017 at 5:15am

I would mix up a thick paste of wood glue and saw dust and then use that to fill the gaps, It should be pretty thick with a lot of saw dust in it. Works great and is really strong since it is nearly the same as gluing wood together. Worked great for when I did some speaker building for home audio a few years ago.

Russ in Tucson

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Permalink Reply by Cigar Box Jokah on April 5, 2017 at 7:41am

i prefer to use superglue and fine dust from sanding works really well to fill cracks and gaps. Plus, once its in there it is rock solid. I use this trick in the Butcher Block Countertops i make in my shop. 

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Permalink Reply by Mark Betzhold on April 5, 2017 at 2:36pm

I've been working on the neck for the last few days, and there's good news and bad news.  The good news is that I was able to glue the fretboard on without incident.  I was able to fill in the gaps using the glue-and-sand method that several of you recommended (thanks again for that tip!).  The bad news is that I broke the neck.  I realized that the pickup notch wasn't deep enough, so I cut an extra 1/4" or so out.  I then realized that, since the lead wires from the pickup (a C.B. Gitty Electric Delta) emerge from the edge of the bottom plate of the bobbin, I would need to cut a little bit more out from one edge of the notch.  Because, as previously mentioned, I'm a bit clumsy, I cut too deep.  I realized that it may be weakened, so I tried to flex it a little to assess its strength, and that's when it broke.  The wood at the bottom of the notch came unglued from the backstrap beneath it, and broke at the spot where I had cut too deep.  So, I took the pieces to Lowe's, and asked the guy there what he thought.  It turned out that he was also a musician, and he suggested re-gluing it, drilling two holes through the weak spot, and putting bolts through the holes.  I'm also going to partially fill in the extra notch with wood putty, since it was too deep anyway.  I've already re-glued it, and tomorrow I'll put in the bolts and the wood putty, and hopefully get the whole thing assembled and playing.  The box is just about ready, and I've got a bridge and nut picked out.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but thanks for bearing with me.  I'll post a couple pictures of the repaired neck, and of the finished guitar, as soon as I'm able to.

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on April 5, 2017 at 3:57pm

Don't bother with the putty Mark, it will add no strength, and possibly shrink and fall out to rattle inside the box, if you feel the need to compensate the removed material, just add a strip of wood or even better aluminium along each side, screwed and glued it should compensate easily, as it is out of sight, i'd use aluminium and make it 3-4 times longer than your notch

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