Official Luthiers Forum!

I have used cumbersome clamps in the past and found it slow and a pain to clean up squeeze out...On my last Irish Bouzuoki I tried something different....A lot of you probally use this method but I have not seen info on it...I aligned my bridge to the exact position and using a center punch I made a centering dent in the soundboard through one of the E string peg holes. I drilled a 3/16" hole in the soundboard...Placed my bridge in place and inserted a peg to hold it in place....double checked my alignment...then drilled the second hole through the other E string peg hole......With the bridge in place and the pegs in both E string holes I checked the alignment again...I lightly scribed around the bridge and removed the finish underneath...I made my go bar deck top higher ( to allow for the dept of the Bouzouki)and used go bars to apply the pressure on the glued up bridge...With the pegs in place the bridge could not move and the squeeze out was easily removed with a wet Q-tip....I could easily check and see if the bridge was making good contact and apply more go bars where needed.....Maybe a support block under the bridge plate might be a good idea also.....Worked great.....Larry

I use a fox style clamp which I made myself. Easy, cheap, works great.

For gluing bridges I properly locate the bridge and then drill two small holes in the corners of the saddle slot through the bridge, top, and bridge plate. My clamping caul is spaced for these holes and you will see this in the pics. I use the steel locating pins and drill bit set from LMI for this. Now my bridge can be pinned in place.

Next I warm my bridge, get my HHG pot going and usually visit the OLF while waiting for the glue to get hot. Once my HHG is around 140Fish and my bridge has been warmed (I use a high intensity light) I insert one pin through the bridge and paint up the bottom side with HHG. I quickly position the distended pin.... in the hole in the top of the guitar and lower the bridge in place. The second pin is quickly pressed through the other hole in the other corner of the saddle slot and then my Stew-Mac clamping caul (modified with two holes for the steel registration pins) is placed on the bridge.

Lastly the two long reach C clamps are positioned as shown below, tightened, and the wing adjustment knobs on the clamping caul are set. Once it is all clamped in place I wait a minute or so for the tack of the HHG to take and then the registration pins, which are proud of the holes in the clamping caul, are pulled.

Cleaning up the HHG squeeze-out is fast and easy after a 5 minute wait and with a bit of hot water from the glue pot. I don't tape anything.

Prior to using any glue I always do a dry run and preposition what I will need for easy reach. I can do this process, live with HHG, in under 15 seconds.

Here are some pics:

I used the Dam Tape, I mean Tape Dam method, and a homemade jig similar to the one Hesh showed. Seemed to work just fine.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I pin the bridge too with 1.4mm finishing nails in the saddle slot that fit great in a 1/16 drill hole. Hide glue with the Stew Mac caul and a long reach clamp.
I remove the finish with the router method, and leave a 1/32 rim of finish. I've been routing a little rabbit in the bridge edge the same thickness and width as the ledge of finish like David Collllins showed a while back.
Terry

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

This is one of those threads that should be made sticky... VERY informative!!

Mike

It's a mistake to clamp in a go bar deck without a solid block inside, and it would need to be fitted to the arch of the top (and back).

It's a mistake to clamp in a go bar deck without a solid block inside, and it would need to be fitted to the arch of the top (and back).

I have to agree with our "Guest". I have wanted to use go-bars to clamp bridges but there simply isn't an easy, effective way to support the top sufficiently. We take great pains to shape the bottom of our bridges to conform exactly to the shape of the top. Sufficient gluing pressure applied by way of go-bars would certainly change the arch in the top. It seems unlikely that the shape of the bridge would change in the same way & your care in making a precisely fitted joint is wasted.
Then, there's the real possibility of a slipped go bar & a huge dent in your soundboard... Too scary for me.

I use two 1/16" alignment pins in the saddle slot & a vacuum clamp. Works slick & is quick enough to have the HHG under full clamping pressure in seconds. After 8 - 10 minutes, I remove the clamp just long enough to clean up the squeeze out.

I made a couple of cam clamps that have an extended face on the bottom part of the clamp. This allows the cam clamp to be used without a caul on the inside of the box.

I use the same method of putting down a waide strip of blue tape and drawing the outline of the bridge in the exact position, then cut out the bridge with an exacto knife. Once the finish is removed, I remove the remaining blue tape and glue down the radiused bridge using the cam clamps mentioned above. The only squeeze out part that may cause a problem is the section under the cam clamps, but I have found that a damp q-tip easily works.

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Reguards,

Ken H

Vacuum!

-Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

That Gator green tape is better than the blue 3M. I loaded up on a few rolls a while back and am impressed with it.

I want to second that, on top of the fact that Daniel agreed with it as well. This might have worked with a small body (bouzouki) but it would most certainly deform or might even damage the top of a larger guitar.

I personnally use a home made Fox type bridge clamp, similar to the ones illustrated above. It's really great to clean around the bridge, especially with acoustic bridges that do not require any standard U shape clamp going through the soundhole.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

I use old bridge pins to locate it and then clamp with about 4 of the stewmac mini cam clamps. I'm liking the looks of that vacuum rig though!

I always weld them on - keeps them from coming loose

Is/was that the Tacoma Narrows bridge Michael?

It sure is Hesh - Galloping Gertie! There's old newsreel footage of the collapse on You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxTZ446tbzE

Bob Garrish vacuum bridge clamp!!!!! Fast, tight and can't be beat

Dennis,

That looks like a Tim Burton bridge Lovely lips.

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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

Fresh medium viscosity superglue direct to the well cleaned finish...

Once you use vacuum, you'll never go back! I use the one from LMI:

That seems too easy, too obvious. It can't work!
I know you've probably done hundreds that way and not had any issues, but you are obviously wrong because you just can't do that!

I'm kidding, but I'll bet you've had that reaction before, probably many times.

Is your finish catalyzed PU? Do you think it would work for any finish? (Probably a bad idea on French polish.)

I've seen you post this method before. If I saw it from someone else, I might be able to dismiss it as foolish. I can't with you. You wouldn't be doing it that way if it didn't hold up.

I suspect most of are not courageous enough to try it.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Steve buddy I think that Rick uses CP finishes.

I also think that I owe Rick an apology. Here's why: Some time ago when Rick indicated that he glued his bridges directly onto the finish with CA I was a jerk and took issue with this.

What's changed is that I have personally now worked with a CP finish and when chiseling off a piece, or trying to..... of the CP finish I could not get a piece off cleanly with out the CP insisting on pulling some wood along with it. My CP finish from Joe White was so firmly attached to my stinkin guitar that it occurred to me that this must be why Rick can glue his bridges directly to the finish with CA.........

I still don't know how one would remove a CAed bridge when you want to do so but most of my premature (I hate that word...) revulsion to this idea was based on knowing how tough, or not, nitro is...... and how long a bridge would stay glued directly to nitro.......

My apologies Rick.

At its resonant frequency!

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

All I can say is that it works and it's stupidly easy...

Yes, catalyzed polyester over rosewood sealer over a coat of well dried Waterlox on the tops...and yes again, the finish sticks like glue...and you can superglue to it...and you can clean off excess superglue with superglue solvent.

RT