Official Luthiers Forum!

Of all things, I am having trouble with gluing kerfed linings. I am getting gaps between the top or bottom of the lining where it meets the side. I am using 2” pony clamps. I use to used clothes pins and rubber bands, but the gaps were worse.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

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Guitars...One's too many...Twenty is not enough.

Hi Doug,

I use "alligator" clips from an office supply store...MANY MANY alligator clips! The trick is to get them right next to one another, high-low-high-low, so that you get an even clamping pressure all around from the top to the bottom of the kerfing...

Larry

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

I use solid linings now, cut from basswood. Before, when I used kerfed linings, I had problems with them cracking when gluing them down. Then I got the bright idea to bend them first on my side bender (have to do it now with the solid ones). This eliminated the cracking problem and made fit-up much easier, eliminating gaps.

To hold down my linings I have over a hundred of those teeny black plastic clamps with the orange swivel jaws. Each one doesn't have a lot of clamping force, but when placed next to each other, they get the job done for the most part. Any areas that show a bit of a gap, I close with 1" C clamps.

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

I had the hardest time with linings, I ended up installing and removing two or three times until I got it right. I gave up on reverse kerfed and went to standard and installed in about 4" long sections and that worked great. I used a bunch of those cheap little black plastic spring clamps with the orange on the tips.

My problem was I'm doing an O-size shape and the waist is pretty tight. At that point, you have to bend the linings the shape of the sides (which is easy because of the kerfs), but you also have to bend it to conform to your back/top radius and the waist is a high point in that regard. That made the lining want to flare out towards the interior of the waist, so I kept getting gaps. That may or may not be the issue with yours, just thought I'd throw that out there.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Are you cutting some relief into them so they will flex vertically? With the dome cutting the backs of them every so often will help.

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