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HELP! Redwood headstock wings cracking under tension!

For Fathers day, I'm building my dad a 4 string license plate guitar from one of his old personalized plates. For the box, fretboard, and headstock wings, I'm using some 30 year old reclaimed redwood that was formerly part of his back porch. I've built the neck from maple, so I know that'll be strong, but the headstock wings, once I added the tuners and strung it up, one side started to crack. (see photos) I've pumped some wood glue in the crack with a bottle and toothpick, but now I'm concerned that this is just a warning of bad things to come from using this old dryed out wood.

Mind you my dad is not a player at all, and this will just be a wall hanger, but it must survive being shipped 1000 miles via UPS, and be able to withstand some occasional abuse from the grandkids.

I've only got about another 2 days to get it done and shipped out.

Should I :

1. Take the safe bet, and chop off the wings? I've got the space to mount the tuners above and below the inset silver dollar

2. Let it be with the glue and clamps that are now on it.

3. Some other fix that some of you more experienced builders may have come across. Perhaps some sort of dowel insert though the sides of the wings? A couple wood screws?

Any and all advice is welcome.

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Permalink Reply by Kipatronic on June 8, 2014 at 1:52pm

I dig the recessed screw idea. It's still in the clamps. Perhaps I can keep the wings on, as it's only one that is splitting. And it's not the glue joint that's coming apart. The wood itself is splitting diagonally down the grain.
I think if I were to drill a couple pilot holes through the wings into the maple, fill it with wood glue, and set a couple hex screws in each side (3 each side), it might hold it.
Thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by robert jones on June 9, 2014 at 1:39am

You'll probably want to change that splitting wing out for a quartersawn piece with the grain oriented horizontally. You need the tuner post to be perpendicular to the grain especially with an easily split wood such as redwood.

Always use clamping cauls when gluing up.

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on June 8, 2014 at 7:14pm

Putting screws or dowels into a piece of wood that's already split is asking for trouble. You might get away with working some glue into the splits and clamping, but those plastic clamps are pretty poor for applying serious pressure, you need proper cast iron G clamps to really close the gaps.

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Permalink Reply by Randy S. Bretz on June 9, 2014 at 3:40am

Try 5 minute epoxy

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Permalink Reply by Marcus Darwell on June 9, 2014 at 3:49am

WeldBond or standard wood glue and good clamps....no screws...

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Permalink Reply by Kipatronic on June 10, 2014 at 7:41am

Thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it. My workaround because of the fathers day time crunch is to send it as it is. I don't want to be in a rush and mess up something else. My glue clamp job seems to be holding for now. But this summer when my folks come to visit, I'll have them bring it back with them, and I'll have my dad work with me in the shop to swap out the wings for better pieces. Should be a good bonding experience. (pun intended) ;)
Thanks again. Great advice all around.