Official Luthiers Forum!

I've never found a totally satisfactory way to clamp the carbon fiber reinforcing bars into a neck and keep them flat against the bottom of the slot all along their length unless you leave them a little proud. I just tried this on a couple of necks and it worked great. Make the depth of the slot so that the bar rests just below the surface of the neck. Use a 1/8" dowel (metal or wood) with spring clamps and it will self center in the trough and works as a good clamping caul. Use some wax paper or clear packing tape between the bar and the dowel.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I use finishing nails ... same idea (spring clamps) but no wax paper.

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Dave
Milton, ON

I put epoxy in the routed-out well and then just push the CF bars in gently with a small wooden spatula till they bottom out, then fill the tiny gap at the top of the bar with more epoxy so that the epoxy ends up just proud of the neck surface. No need to hold the bar in with clamps in my experience. After the epoxy is cured (24 hours), I carefully hand-plane the excess epoxy back to exactly level with the neck/fingerboard joint surface. I've never had any issues doing it like this. I don't like the thought that you could possibly build some tension into the CF rod by "forcing" it in with clamps....

Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

You folks are way too complicated. I mask off the surface to lessen my work later, I bury the bars with strips of mahogany, and use a MDF board with tape on it that I wax, and five or six clamps and I'm done.

I am with David .. mask off, epoxy, push them in, then some wax paper and 4 clamps with Allied truss rod keys underneath to hold things down. They sit a hair under the top surface.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Or even simpler, glue them in at the same time you glue the fretboard on.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

It always seems like the bars I get are not dead flat and tend to rock a little in the channels. I like to have them bottomed out all along their length. That's why I started clamping them. Using a finishing nail or a truss rod wrench as a caul is a great idea, simpler than what I did. I did some drawings and burying them with a strip of Mahogany over them puts them pretty close to the surface at the first fret when I do a V profile so I have not tried that so far. Thanks for the ideas guys!

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

which is what I did! I made sure they were flush within the slot. tapered the headstock ends, put a little epoxy in the channels, throw the truss in and glued the fretboard right on.