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I need some idea's on how to remove a fretboard.
This has been glued on with LMI white. No finish has been applied, I just need to replace it, its been damaged.

Thank

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Remove the frets, iron the FB for a few minutes and then use a fish fillet knife starting at the nut and gently slide it under the FB and it will lift right off. It's gotta be hot though first. Be careful not to aim the sharp edge at the neck or your will cut the wood.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Another method also involves heat. Remove the frets and use your
bending blanket. Clamp it to the fretboard in such a way as to not touch
anything you do want to get hot, heat it for about 5-10 minutes, use a
spatula and it will come right off with a minimum of mess.

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Sylvan
http://www.wellsguitars.com

Thanks guys

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Lance, I had to do the same thing recently. I found a long thin "knife" sold at Wal Mart in the cake decorating section. (I believe its intended use is for spreading cake icing.) It's not super sharp--obviously--and it's quite flexible. I did like the above suggestions, using heat to break the glue joint. Worked small sections at a time until I could feel the glue giving. Not a problem when heat and patience are applied in appropriate measures.

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Lance,

I did it too recently. I left the fingerboard way too thick and had to remove it after it was glued with LMI white glue for 4 or more hours. I just clamped the neck to the workbench, layed the heating blanket on top of the fretboard, and turned it up. I used a digital cooking thermometer out of curiosity to see what it would take. I took it up to 270 for about 4-6 minutes and was able to pry it off pretty easy with a flat bladed knife. Seems to be no damage to the cocobolo fingerboard. It did seem to darken the coco nicely though!

Good luck.

Jeff

LMI turns loose pretty easily with heat. You are fortunate that you used that glue rather than, say, Titebond II. I just recovered from a titebond II do-over job and it was a struggle.   

Seems like I'm in good company!

Believe it or NOT! I drilled and inlaid the fretboard markers in the wrong positions DHO! My only excuse is that both my little girls were in the shop with me most the time during that operation, and I was nearly done when I looked and thought SOAB!

LanceK38389.5828472222

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Been there... done that.... I hate that, and it is SO easy to get them mis placed.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

While building guitars anyway.

I once put the bridge on backwards. Pins facing the peghead, saddle slot facing the butt end of the guitar. To make matters worse, I drilled the pin holes before I discovered my error. There was a nagging suspicion that something was wrong and I should have heeded that. The top had to replaced. There was no recovery from that.

I have also put the markers in the wrong place, but covered my mistake by putting inlay all over the fingerboard. Some of my most creative moments have been inspired by stupid mistakes.

I did drill out one of them, filled with Ebony and CA, but it still shows what looks like a shadow dot. So, I'm redoing the board, I emailed my VERY kind, patient and considerate client and he said "This is no big ting, mon."

What a guy!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Thank God for patient customers. Lance, if this helps any: my fretboard replace was due to the fact that when buffing out the finished neck / fretboard, the spinning wheel caught the heelcap, jerked the neck out of my firm grip, slammed the fretboard extension into the wheel, and snapped off the end of the ebony board. It was bound with the prettiest curly maple, too. So-- new board, new binding (fortunately I had 2 extra pieces of the same stuff), new inlays, and a refinish to boot. That was fun.

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

As, I've said on another thread I've taken off all the ebony fretboards of my earlier guitars and replaced them with rosewood. I found it a relatively painless operation (apart from one burn on my wrist) using a Minco blanket on the de-freted board and my wifes cake icing pallet knife starting from the nut end. Of course it's my fretboard removing knife now. She's still searching for where she left that knife!

Before I started profiling my necks prior to gluing on the fretboard I did once glue on a board back to front, If I'd left it that way, it could have made some interesting music, a la Scheonburg?

Colin

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

Lance, use your heat blanket. Turn it on and put it on a bench top if its MDF or put it on a piece of MDF. Put the neck fingerboard down with the peghead sitting just off the end of the blanket. Set the blanket temperature to around 250F. Heat it up and check it when you can feel heat in the back of the neck. Test the joint. When its ready to release it'll separate cleanly.

BTW, don't use Titebond or LMI white glue for fingerboards, use West Systems Epoxy or similar. It won't impart moisture into your neck, which can often cause the neck to backbow when you glue on the fingerboard. It releases more cleanly too when you need to remove a fingerboard as it gets powdery rather than gummy.