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I wonder what you all do for a final clean-up on your brace/glue joints. I have pencil marks right next to the braces that are very hard to get to and worst of all is a white stain (LMI white glue), where the brace slipped while gluing, on the redwood that seems really stubborn and difficult to get off.

Any tricks for a final clean-up?

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Thank You and Best To All

Sandpaper should do the trick or the scraper to remove pencil marks, sometimes a chisel for glue if i didn't have time or forgot some near the braces.

[QUOTE=LarryH] I wonder what you all do for a final clean-up on your brace/glue joints. I have pencil marks right next to the braces that are very hard to get to and worst of all is a white stain (LMI white glue), where the brace slipped while gluing, on the redwood that seems really stubborn and difficult to get off.

Any tricks for a final clean-up?[/QUOTE]
Larry, the LMI glue should dry clear. It sounds like you have some chalking which is a sign of glueing in too cold of an environment and produces a weak joint. You need to be above the low 60's with the LMI glue.
For clean up I carefully scrape with a chisel.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I usually dont spend too much time removing pencil marks past giving the area a light sand..after all if theyre on the underside of a top theyre a bit hard to see unless you go purposefully looking for them.

[QUOTE=Jim_W] [QUOTE=LarryH] I wonder what you all do for a final clean-up on your brace/glue joints. I have pencil marks right next to the braces that are very hard to get to and worst of all is a white stain (LMI white glue), where the brace slipped while gluing, on the redwood that seems really stubborn and difficult to get off.

Any tricks for a final clean-up?[/QUOTE]
Larry, the LMI glue should dry clear. It sounds like you have some chalking which is a sign of glueing in too cold of an environment and produces a weak joint. You need to be above the low 60's with the LMI glue.
For clean up I carefully scrape with a chisel. [/QUOTE]

Yeah it's been pretty chilly here in SoCal. but didn't realize the temp had to be that high. And clean up should be that simple but this redwood top is a bear to get cleaned up without taking some redwood with it.

If it's as simple as sandpaper and scrapers and chisels then off I go, I thought there might be a trick or two I've been mising.

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[QUOTE=kiwigeo] I usually dont spend too much time removing pencil marks past giving the area a light sand..after all if theyre on the underside of a top theyre a bit hard to see unless you go purposefully looking for them.[/QUOTE]

Yeah I here that, but I'm just trying a little harder to get it nice and clean - kind of like a right of passage, if you know what I mean.

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Thank You and Best To All

I used to fret about the slightest spot of glue or stray pencil mark on the underside of my tops but I got to thinking that the time I was spending trying to get rid of same was better spent doing other things.

[QUOTE=ToddStock] I leave the top oversized until I have it braced, allowing me place the X, upper tranverse, etc. brace location lines slightly outside the body outline. I'll mark a location for finger braces and the tone bars inside the body outline with a single fine pencil, but this line per brace gets covered, so not visible. I'll do the same for the soundhole side of the X.

On LMI cleanup, I let the glue set for 10 minutes or so, then clean off the excess with a chisel. I run a damp (not wet) paper towel over the joint and see if there is any glue residue (it turns white) - if so, I clean with the paper towel until the joint shows just wood. The trick here is not to flood the joint with water, which can weaken things - just use a paper towel dipped in warm water and wrung out. Any damp clean-up requires a light sanding, as the grain will rise when wetted. I do a final sanding of the braces and top with 320 or Norton 3X 400 anyway, so no big deal.

If your squeeze-out is limited to little spherical stuff, you might just wait until it dries (transparent for LMI) and clean it off dry. [/QUOTE]

Very helpful Todd. Thanks for the tips.

Larry

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Thank You and Best To All

Yeah,Those pencil lines bug me too.I just sand em best I can. Think I'll do what Todd suggests on my next. Good Tips!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Some times I ADD pencil lines just to confuse the curios

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Great tips there Todd, thanks!

I just glue in my braces to slightly cover the pencil lines. My brace layout templates mark the spot for the braces perfectly so my lines are always "inside" where the braces need to be. I just barely cover the lines up. Problem solved.   

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

I don't worry about the odd pencil line, it used to bug me but now I think it'll just give the historians of the 22nd century something to debate when the standard reference tome on my work is written.    

An ordinary soft pencil eraser will take the mark off usually anyway.

Colin

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

[QUOTE=Dave Rickard] Some times I ADD pencil lines just to confuse the curios [/QUOTE]


That's a fantastic tip there Dave !

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CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
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And why would you clean pencil lines when you can read:

Custom created in my bathroom
                          Lacey
Easter, 2006!

Crush up a few aspirin in a baby food jar, add a few drops of water and mix. It should be the consistency of hide glue or a bit thinner.

Carefully brush this over the hardened glue surface and wait 10-15 minutes before carefully wiping off with a barely damp paper towel or preferably use a chisel. (Repeat if not all glue is gone) Try not to get this on the bare wood like I did - it does clean off easily though.

I think someone else here has already posted this info but I figured I'd repost it. The best part of this is that the aspirin solution won't wick into the joint but eats away all hardened glue around the joint leaving it very clean. I had cracked a joined sitka top while flexing it and used LMI white glue to fix the 4" long crack. After it dried, I used the aspirin solution and you can't tell there ever was any damage.

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

I often clean up PVA glue (LMI glue, Titebond, etc) squeeze out after a few minutes when it's just starting to get leathery, with a chisel-point sharpened piece of hardwood. Almost always quick, easy, clean, and flawless.

Of course, this works best if there are just TINY beads of squeeze out. Bigger beads will be leathery on the outside but spooge a bunch of liquid glue all over the place when you poke at them, making for a MUCH harder clean up.

Interesting trick with the aspirin. Anybody else ever hear of this or try it?

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

In the Fall '06 edition of "American Lutherie," Mike Tagawa wrote a very favorable review of a product called De-Glue Goo. It's made to remove hardened water-based glue, and, he says, it does it cleanly. It apparently causes no problems with the glued joint. I remembered seeing it offered in catalogs some time back, but it seems to have disappeared from them. I stumbled on it recently, though, at Klingspore's site.

www.woodworkingshop.com