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I have a small 3/4" edge crack on a Mahogany side I bent. Can it be repaired? the kerfing will reinforce it on the inside. Can I use CA glue to fix the crack and sand it out? I hate to toss the set for such a small defect. I am a newbee and I haven't gotten used to what can be fixed and what can't.

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Mistakes are mandatory-learning from them is optional. http://www.opensourceluthiersupply.com

Hi. Most likely this can be repaired...but I'll go ahead and say it before anyone else does: if you could post photos of the crack, so these folks can get a look at the location, etc., that would be most helpful.

Bill

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

If the crack is clean work some HHG in the crack reinforce the inside with a side brace or bias tape. Picture would help here but side cracks are a pretty straight forward repair and done all the time

3/4" edge crack that will be covered on the inside by the lining. As Michael said just get a bit of HHG or fish glue in and wrap some brown tape around the edge till it dries. Probably be the strongest portion of the sides.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Stupid question- HHG stands for? Also fish glue? Sorry Newbbe

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Mistakes are mandatory-learning from them is optional. http://www.opensourceluthiersupply.com

Never a stupid question.

HHG = Hot Hide Glue

Fish glue is made from bladders of, well fish and is an excellent, very hard drying glue.

The primary difference between the two glues for what we do is that Fish glue has a working time of perhaps an hour.  HHG you have to have things clamped in place in 20-30 seconds max unless you preheat the parts and mess with the viscosity of the glue.

Michael and Bill wanted to see a picture of your crack...... on your guitar......

Crack kills.      And if you don't have HHG (and a newbie probably wouldn't), use something like a titebond or an LMI white. I'd avoid CA or epoxy, since it might leave a dark like on the wood that will be visible.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Greenman, there are several good threads about HHG and fish glue. If you have the time, they are well worth the read.

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Aoibeann

Thanks for help. I tried to upload a picture and got an error message saying it was to big. What do I do to compress them?

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Mistakes are mandatory-learning from them is optional. http://www.opensourceluthiersupply.com

not sure what image editor you have but under one of your tabs in your image editor should be a image size icon or command line. the dialog box for this should have a height, width and resolution field.400 x 600 at 72 dpi should get you down to about 200kb or less as need to upload and image.

Most editing programs will export a picture at a reduced size.  Another way is to email it to yourself, Windows usually will ask you if you want to adjust the size for emailing.  Check the box to reduce the size.  When you get the picture it will be a much smaller picture.  I just did it with one that was 650 KB and it reduced it to 41 KB.  My normal way is to use Picasa-2, free program available at Google.  Nice pic processing and organizing program.  It will export to smaller sizes, and it will let you do some good light and color editing to help in display.  Nice little program for free.

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Waddy

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Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I don't know if this will be of any help but it worked for me.  While bending the sides on my heated pipe, this old Brazilian rosewood developed a small crack where they usual occur, right at the top of the waist where the sharpest bend is.  Quite small but it made me a little nervous.  It was right at the edge but I was afraid the kerfing and binding would not be enough to really stabalize it.  I had some extra rosewood from the sides so I cut a piece long enough and deep enough to stabalize the area, bent in on the iron to match, clamped and glued it up really well with HHG, then cut the kerfing to fit around it.  The photo is not that great but I think the repair will stand the test of time.  We'll see.  Just one idea for these kinds of cracks. The arrow is small but points to the patch.

Best,

Bruce

 

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Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."