Official Luthiers Forum!

I suspect I probably know the answer to this one

Thought I would ask as I know you guys are ingenious, I was putting the bridge on a French Polished guitar today and managed whilst cleaning up the squeeze out to dent the spruce under the finish

I thought about steam, but thats going to blow the finish I guess, and I spent hours french polishing the guitar to get it just so !

Any Ideas ? or is it a case of remove the bridge and then refinish the top

Doh!! your probably right. Scrape or sand the finish away from the dent area stem the dent out sand the raised gran back down and refinish that area. Not want you wanted to hear huh! It could be worse. You could have lacquer on and have a 30 day cure time instead of a couple hours refinishing. MichaelP38930.6518055556

Thanks Michael

I suspected that was the case. Never mine as you say it could be worse

Hi Russell,

I know the frustration on cleaning up glue squeeze-out from the bridge and I never managed to do it without some mark on the top with FP.

Let me know how you get on with the repair as Michael suggests - I never managed to fix areas like that without it showing and usually resorted to doing the whole top again. I'd love to have the UK equivalent of a Brune class on FP - particularly FP repairing.

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

On FP adding and removing finish should never leave tale tell signs providing you are using the mix you finished the guitar with.MichaelP38930.7044328704

Before you hit it with sandpaper, you might just try a little trick. Moisten a washcloth and use it as a buffer with a soldering iron right on the dent. You might get lucky and the moisture in the wood might be enough to steam it out. Be VERY careful that you don't steam the washcloth dry or you run the risk of burning the top.

Hey, just attach a vacuum hose and suck the dent right out.

Sorry to hear about that Russ, i'm sure you'll fix it in no time though!

Good luck!

Serge

Thanks All

Dave

No worries I will let you know how I get on Up until now I haven't had a problem using hide glue I let it squeeze out and use a piece of spruce to take off the excess once gelled, I think I had the piece of spruce at the wrong angle and made a little dent behind the bridge.

Paul

Thanks I will give that a try.

Nelson

Hell thats some vaccuum you've got

Serge

Not to worry my friend, I will sort it out tomorrow, I just had to abandon shop as I was too mad at myself, for being so stupid

Russell,

I routinely use CA glue to level dents in areas like where a pickguard would go where there can be dents like fingernail marks. Lightly sand the FP area and use CA glue to level the dent. You then need to FP again. You don't have to do a lot of building but mostly polishing.

Just an accident Russ, let us know how you fixed it!

Thank you Robbie

A suggestion for the future is just to use a damp paper towel or cloth to clean away the glue on a FP surface. You can wrap that around a stick (sharpened like a chisel) if necessary to get into the corners. Scraping at a relatively freshly French polished surface, even with spruce, is pretty risky. I guess that's stating the obvious!

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

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

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

Hi Todd

I have thought about using a damp towel, but my reasoning behind not doing so is, that as I use Hide Glue my concern is if I run a towel along without effectively breaking the joint between the squeeze out and the glue under the bridge, I would effectively drag glue from under the bridge and weaken the joint. Now if my reasoning is correct or not, is open for discusion, and I would be keen to hear what everyone thinks.RussellR38931.4769097222

Russell, I don't think so, but I'm also very interested to hear what the hide glue experts here have to say about that.

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

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

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

[QUOTE=npalen] Hey, just attach a vacuum hose and suck the dent right out. [/QUOTE]

I usually use one of those dent pulling tools the automotive body shops use...only then you have to plug the hole the dent puller put in the top.

_________________
Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

Na. it would gell to quick for that to happen imo unless you heated the bridge.

Thanks Michael

The only reason I was a bit hesitant was because when you peel it, it without breaking the glue line, it looks as if it pulling glue away, but maybe it is just the squeeze out streaching.

When this happens to me I have had great success with putting a drop of water on the dent and then just touching it with he tip of a soldering gun, just enoungh to evaporate the water. If it is a small dent it will come out and won't be noticable. Otherwise do as Michael says.

Thank everyone for your input, in the end I used Pauls technique with the soldering iron to lift the dent, I the finish roughed a bit so I sanded it with 1200 grit paper lubricated with a drop of olive oil, I then spirted off the oil, and did two bodying sessions and reglazed. I have had in every concievable light from all angles and it looks good

Russell
Those are the moments we all savor.
"I have had it in every conceivable light from all angles and it looks good.   
Maybe this should become the OLF mantra.
Nelson

Russell, glad it worked out. Nice job!

Paul

Thanks for the help


Nelson

Happy for ya Russ, good job!