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Well, I am sitting in anticipation of the moment (any day now) when I bring myself to driving up to wood craft to buy a drum sander (haven't decided on the 10-20 or the 16-32 yet, as I really do not know if I would find the extra length of use for anything), dust collector, and air filtration system, which could be any day now. I usually get about 2-3 late nights in the shop (garage) and have been coming along well.

I am trying to perfect each step as I go. Currently I am bracing 3 tops and backs that I have. I will jump to hide glue with the next builds, but am currently using tight bind on the braces. I am using a radius dish on a simple go-bar deck i made with thin wooden dowels.

Now, no matter how hard I try I am ending up with some squeeze out on the plates when all is dry. My first top had so much it is just absurd, the second still has a little. I think I did a nice job on these tops, but want to get rid of the excess hard glue.

First, is there a trick to not getting any squeeze out first off?

Second, Do ya'll wind up with squeeze out on the top after the braces dry and do something special get it off after it is dry.

 

I wait until the glue gets to a putty like consistency then use a chisel to gently lift it from the wood.

Al

I use anything from toothpicks to laminated plastic sheet cutoffs...my workplace is REALLY into the 3 Rs (reduce,re-use,recycle) and I take home anything that could come in handy in assisting guitar building...

As stated above the trick is to get rid of the excess glue while it still wet. If you let it "skin over" a bit it can be lifted off with a chisel without smearing all over the place.

Another method, which works pretty well on ladder braced backs, is to put down some tape such that the edge of the tape is butted right up to the brace. The squeeze out will be forced up onto the tape. Once the glue has thoroughly skinned over you can pull up the tape and take all the excess glue with it. This method also helps stop the brace from sliding around on the layer of wet glue when you are applying the clamps (go bars).

Mark

Go to McDonalds and order yourself a large Diet Coke then save the straw. The greatest tool I have in my workshop for glue squeeze out is a regular old straw. Once the braces are down, just push the straw into the joint from one end to the next and all the glue squeeze out gets pushed up inside the straw. The straw conforms great to the corner joints and there is virtually no need for any cleanup at all once the joint dries. Try it, you'll never use anything else. Any straw should work fine, but for some reason I find the McDonald's straws are particularly good.

Cheers!

John

Someone else mentioned using plastic drinking straws to pick up squeeze-out too.  I tried it once, and it seemed to work.  I found that creasing the straw to get in a corner works pretty well.  It sounds to me like timing is pretty important to getting good clean-up.  I still have gluing of braces to look forward to.  Can't wait!

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

John!  Was it you that mentioned it before?  We were typing at the same time.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

if you use the straw, pinching and trimming the end to a slight angle will make getting into the brace corners easier.