Official Luthiers Forum!

At this stage in the game, I usually don't run into these kinds of issues that I don't have the answer to but this evening I was finishing up a pyramid bridge and getting ready to glue it to the sound board. For some reason I decided to sand the dickens out of it and just about put a fine finish on it with sand paper alone. As I went up in grits I had to find a lube to keep the paper from clogging so I put a couple drops of lemon oil on it and sanded a way. Man it was shiny. Downright work of art. Until I turned it over and noticed the oil on the bottom of it.

My concern is that the oil will contaminate my attempt at glue up with titebond.

Am I crazy or is this a legitimate concern?

Dave

I would think that a light sanding would remove the residual oil. Perhaps clean with naptha and then sand.

_________________
http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210

Clean it with naptha and sand a fresh surface. Then you should be good to go. Stephen beat me to it. But I would use the naptha first.

_________________
Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Thanks guys.
I had already drenched it in DA but Naptha is probably even better.

Will do.

Dave

Oil usually doesn't soak all that deep into wood... Usually less than 0.005" unless you use a vacuum to suck the oil into the wood....

I would use a good sharp card scraper to scrape the bottom of the bridge...
I haven't had good luck sanding out oil - it ends up scrubbing the oil deeper into the wood....

Thanks

Thanks guys.
Late night.
Panicked.

Duh, sand it off.


BUT! What if I hadn't caught it? Would the lemon oil destroy the glue bond?

Dave

The oil surely would have distroyed the glue bond.