Thread: Glueing timber

Hi PJ and welcome, a circular saw will most likely give a rough cut and you'll probably still need to dress it up but it's a good start.

I have found in my exorbitance that the key to a good bond is to make sure the two bits to be glued are as flat as possible so that they fit together neatly. this can some times be a bit tricky but it;s worth it

The surfaces need to be dressed smooth and then lite sanded with some medium coarse sand paper, this will provide a good bonding surface.

Dowels to hold it in position shouldn't be necessary but clamping is a must for at least the recommended time of the particular glue you use.

I have never used 24 hour epoxy but with glue's like PCA and Durabond it's recommended that you wipe both the surfaces to be glues with a damp cloth, two or three minuets before gluing as the glue needs moisture to set. This also causes the timber to fur, and facilitates in adhering.

I believe most of the builders here use titebond, I haven't tried it yet but I can highly recommend selleys durabond for hard wood and don't forget to read the destruction's carefuly.

Stick around a while and I'm sure some of the more experienced builder can help out some more.

kindest regards

Wal

Titebond (yellow PVA glue) is more than adequate for a body join. There is a Triton yellow glue available at Bunnings Me, I rough cut with a saw (band saw, but a well set up circualar should be OK) then joint the edges with a hand plane. The edges need to be flat and square. This is basic joinery and is a skill you will use ALL THE TIME in luthiery. If it takes you an hour to shoot the edges of your body joint then I think its an hour well spent IMHO. Use a straight edge and a light source to identify high or low spots in the timber and mark them with a pencil, this way you can see where the plane has taken timber off.
IMHO the jack (#4) plane is one of your most improtant tools. Yeah, OK if you have a shed full of tools like thicknessers and jointers then thats fine, but you wouldn't be asking about joining a body blank Rough it up (carefully) with some 80 grit, just enough really to take the smooth off the join. Apply glue to both surfaces with your finger (you can feel the little bits of grit and get rid of them this way) Put them together and clamp. But not too tight, you dont want to starve the joint. Leave it for 1 to 2 hours, depending on temperature, and then release the clamps. The pieces should stay together happily and you then leave it the hell alone for 24 - 48 hours.

Jointing a top is a similar process however you have to make sure there is no warping in the timber so it is often useful to clamp the whole thing to a sacrificial glueing board on some paper (the paper scrapes off with a little elbow grease later down the track.



after this I put some grease proof paper on the top and a few 1 kg dumbell weights on top to keep everything flat.

Hope this helps.

PS the body joint is probably the easiest joint you will make in a series of joints on a guitar, so its best to do it right from the get-go as you will only have to do it again later...

PS read this thread, its a start to finish of my then 13 year old making a guitar.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f98/lil-mongrels-build-70739

google and youtube is your friend...(forums like this too) ....

on youtube, search for 'luthier' and a ton of luthier type vids will appear where good folks are demonstrating all types of luthiery things

i believe there are a few dealing with glueing thin tops(and backs) ...typically for acoustics but it would also apply to thin tops used for electrics

ya usually don't want heavy duty clamping in this situation...unlike glueing up thicker pieces

as for circular saw...i have seen circular saw 'artists' who do such a good job at circular sawing timber that there is little to do in terms of jointing after they are done sawing....

P.S...i should have added initially...that once you find a few useful vids, typically there is a desire to save them to disk somehow (for repeated viewing without re-downloading from youtube each time)

to do this you need to

1) copy the url of the youtube video ...
2) go here (in another window) - http://keepvid.com/ and paste in the copied url from 1)
3) save target as either of the 2 direct links that comes up for the video (one link is for lower quality flv file and the other is for higher quality mp4 file - flv file requires flv player; higher quality mp4 file requires video player like vlc)

Originally Posted by R3R

google and youtube is your friend...(forums like this too) ....

P.S...i should have added initially...that once you find a few useful vids, typically there is a desire to save them to disk somehow (for repeated viewing without re-downloading from youtube each time)

or you could just copy the video link into this thread....

people will get told off by me .. "google it"

and then they will google glueing timber, and this thread wil pop up
and then they will be like "#### yea... a whole thead with videos... god i love andrew!"





on another note....
a trick i use to get a fat suface when glueing the thinne stuff is to rip a sanding belt down the join and tape it to my triton table (router or saw depends on my mood) use the rip fence to keep the timber at 90degrees and sand it.....
but that timber moves away fom the rip fence... you gotta start over.... you will get a rolled over edge... dont want that....

planing takes time and practice.... i do it often

crikey Andrew

wat sorta nanny state do we want here?!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alufd7Elulw"]YouTube - OBrien Guitars - Luthier Tips du Jour - Glues Part I[/ame]

O'Brien Guitars - Luthier Tips du Jour - Glues Part 1

- halfway or so thru vid there is a short section where he appears to glue thin backs using epoxy and 2 fixed rails (slightly skewed to each other ...not parallel) on a flat surface tht holds both pieces tight at the join but not too tight as to distort the thin wood...presumably he adds weight on the thin wood after sliding them into a tight position

search for O'Brien guitars on you tube and he has a whole bunch of useful vids where he demos some stuff (there's a part 2 for Glues too)...appears to be 'bits' from DVD(s) he prob sellin but it a good start for ppl completely 'green' to the luthiery stuff imo

At what point can we start hijacking .

Hey, thanks for all the tips, link, etc. Feeling more confident already!
This was actually a question for my second build - even though I'm still going on my first! For this one I used a rough blank that was already glued up, but I have some bits & pieces that I may use for the next if I ever get round to it.
Really happy with the first so far - I'm up to finishing the body - neck all done. Yes, it actually plays well - I strung it up before I even routed the pickup & control cavities as I was a bit worried about my fretting job - one of the most stressful things I have ever done in my life!
Only get a couple of hours a week to work on it - been going 5 months so far -LOL!
Will post some pics when I'm done, which may be a while as I have to take a break for some surgery soon.
Thanks again,
PJ