Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey everyone,
So I have a bit of a problem after heat bending the pliage in my selmer top, I had a bit of a snafu occur and I am not exactly sure how to fix it or if its salvageable. This is my first build so bare with me. I'm following plans laid out by Micheal Collins' book on Building a Selmer Gypsy guitar. However due to limited access to certain tools I had to make concessions on how I approached certain parts of the build. Bending the Pliage was one of them. In the book, each half of the top is thickness sanded/planed to spec then bent individually after which the two halves are joined. I did not have access to a thickness sander so I joined the two halves first then tried to bend the assembly using the same heat box design only wider to accommodate both halves.

Well the bending part worked good, but I wasn't anticipating the join to debond at the pliage which was the closest to the heat source. Not only did it debond but it seems that the wood may have shrank (sinker redwood) a bit around the bend so now there is a gap. And there lies my problem. So I am not sure if there is a way to fix this. I imagine I could just try and heat the joint and have the Titebond breakdown through out joint and then just re-plane the edge to match again and reglue. I just don't know what may be the best way to do that. Or if that is even possible.

Uhhh bummer....

Greg

I haven't fixed guitars in this manner before , but I've been repairing carvings and furniture for, years by making about a 10-15% angled cut on each side of a split or separation with a very sharp knife and cutting a matching wedge of wood (grain matched if possible) and compressing that sliver into the split or crack. Not too tight or you may take the risk of forcing the joint further apart at a later date. This takes lots of trial fits, but if you have extra wood from your top...it's worth a try.
Kent Bailey

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Wood Creations by Kent A. Bailey
EXCELLENCE IN SCULPTURE, CARVING, LUTHIER, ARCHITECTURAL MILLWORK AND DESIGN

http://www.kabart.com

Yeah I could probably do that, I just hope it doesn't have too much of an adverse effect on the top, but considering its my no. 1, I can't expect much.
I haven't cut the shape out yet so the good thing is that I'll have some extra material that already has the bend in it that I can use. Just getting a sliver shape to match may be difficult.

Greg,

Just heat the joint and separate the pieces, re joint the edges (either with a jointer, hand plane or sandpaper on a flat surface) and glue them back together. Mike is also a member here so you could PM him if you want the word from the horses mouth....not saying that Mike is a horse, but you know what I mean!

Anyway, I wouldn't plug the gap, once your top acclimates a bit it is going to move again anyways (just not fully back to its original shape).

Good Luck

Shane

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Canada

Thats my original thought, someone suggested that a blow dryer might do the trick or heating something like a putty knife with a torch then sliding it through the bond will work. What do you guys suggest would be best? I tried using my heat box again, but it's heat is pretty localized where the bend is and I don't want to add a bend where there shouldn't be one.

Greg

Try a blow dryer. A heat gun is pretty cheap these days at some box stores and they get a lot hotter. A heated putty knife will work as well.

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Canada

Thanks Shane, I'll give that a go!

Also, if you haven't profiled the outside edge of the top...or if you did but left plenty of room around the perimeter, you could just run the center joint through the band saw and rejoin the top.
After the top is re-glued, you could install the spruce re-enforcing strip under the joint to prevent further issues.

Cheers,

Michael Collins
www.collinsguitar.com

Thanks Micheal, that was going to be my next option if the heat gun wasn't going to cut the mustard, luckily it did, so the two halves have been separated. Now all is left is some how re-truing the joint which is proving to be an interesting exercise with bent wood. I'm using "The Easy Jointer" that I bought from luthiersuppliers.com. Seems to be working so far.

Also I wanted to say thanks for publishing the book and DVDs. They've been very helpful in my new found hobby. Once I am done, I'll definitely post some pics!