Official Luthiers Forum!

To avoid adding moisture to a neck, what epoxy (or other glue) are you using to glue the fingerboard to the neck?

I was using "All Wood Epoxy" but it has gotten overly expensive.

I use West system - the same stuff I laminate sides with. It takes a while to set up, so I let it cure overnight. It doesn't take much to glue a fingerboard, so I measure and mix it in the 1 oz. medicine cups.

I also use West System. It dries hard. I use a $15 electronic scale from eBay to measure a small quantity.

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

Smith and co Tropical Hardwood Epoxy.
Use a small toothing plane on both surfaces.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

System Three T-88. The gun and mixing tips make it very easy and fast to use, no measuring. Now carried by Stew Mac.

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It will probably be alright.

I stopped using epoxy and went back to tite bond

I don't think the moisture is an issue.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

+1.
Before that I was using System III.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

It may not be an issue if you are using a double action rod. But any water-based glue will introduce a small amount of backbow into a flat neck. You can level it out or adjust it out. I prefer to keep the neck flat.

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It will probably be alright.

System 3, but now experimenting with gorilla clear poly glue. Its cheap, readily available , comes in a small bottle . easy to spread with an acid brush. Long open time., and sets up hard at 70 F in 2 hrs . I laminated 2 pieces of katalox to a red oak body for future plane. It also works well for gluing plastic binding. to wood. Will start testing soon on FB. Called gorilla and was told it delaminates with heat at 175 to 200 deg F

I won't get any "cool points" with this, but I get a $6 DevCon double syringe from my local Ace Hardware when I run out (which isn't too often). I only use epoxy for gluing fretboards, gluing in carbon fiber rods and inlay. I like this stuff cuz I don't have to measure, it's cheap, has a 30 minute working time, and is a 2-ton formulation.

I got away from using the quick set epoxies. They never seemed to get really hard, like West system.

Update. After gluing a maple FB to a piece of pine using gorilla clear poly glue. I tried to remove the fb a day later at 225 F using a 1.25in by 18 in silicone heating blanket . I managed to get 2 palette knives inserted and thats as far as we got. Gorillas website says its moisture an water resistant. So this will work well for coco FB, but may be difficult to remove in the future . Will stick with Fish glue for fb . gluing. This poly glue will work well for plastic bindings and waxy / oily woods like cocobolo. And jonting waxy/oily woods

I've had one problem using titebond. I used to much glue, clamped poorly, and took out of the clamps way to soon. I make sure I use good technique now, still use titebond, and dont have any troubles.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

If I was to use epoxy I would use System Three Clear coat. T-88 is a structural glue, for weight-bearing, which would be fine, except some of the structural epoxies tend to turn greenish after time. Not sure about T-88 but a phone call to System Three should tell you.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Like Ernie I use the clear Gorilla glue .It bonds without moisture,unlike the original
Brown Gorilla glue.
Mike

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Mike Collins