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I glued the fingerboard to the neck last night and when I popped the clamps off this morning I realized I had a pretty fair amount of squeeze-out that crept onto the fingerboard side - probably when I was moving things around. So what is the best method for clean up? Would heating up a chisel or scraper (obviously not to the point of scorching or burning) be a bad idea? I figured adding even a little very direct and controlled heat would help things along. Has this happened to anyone else? I know to be more careful next time. TIA

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

I would let it cure completely and sand it off.

With heat you risk debonding the glue joint that you want to maintain.

In the future what may help you is to have some denatured alcohol and a rag handy and clamp in such a manner that you can clean up the squeeze-out shortly after setting the clamps.

I take it off with a file as part of the final carving. The epoxy is actually handy as it lets you see exactly what you're filing. Just be gentle, and switch to a fine file when you get close to the fretboard itself.

In the future, mask off the edge of the fretboard. You then still file it off, but you'll have a tape buffer between the file and the fretboard's edge.

Yup, what he said

I found that the epoxy squeeze out doesn't cure fully either so it can be a bit "rubbery" for lack of a better term. You can almost peel it off with your finger tip and the stuff that is really hard on there is taken care of with the file.

The other nice thing about the masking tape is that when filing it will tell you when you are getting close to cutting into the wood, nice for dummies like me who might file and sand to far

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A scraper works well also.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Thanks everyone. I wouldn't have thought to use a file. Seems like I'll have to be pretty surgical in my approach so as not to mar the fingerboard. Good to know this is fairly typical though. I'll keep away from the heat too and mask off the next one I do. Very good tips!!!
Thank you!

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

A second vote for the scraper! It doesn't leave marks like a file does.

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

Why would your epoxy cure rubbery? Properly cured epoxy should be very hard, unless you use that 5 minute stuff, but that's not "real" epoxy.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Sorry Douglas, I should have been more clear. Check the squeeze out after 6, even 12 hours (on most 24 hr cure epoxy), it's sort of rubbery and not fully cured. Even after 24 hours I found the thick epoxy (squeeze-out) was not hard really, easy to dent with the finger nail, and sort of rubbery.

Squeeze out of course is thick, not a thin film thus the thick squeeze out takes a lot longer to cure than a thin film between two plates clamped together.

Clear as mud?

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Oddly enough, the only epoxy I've ever had an incomplete cure on was the 24H stuff and the 5-min has always cured up rock-hard for me...must be the weather here! I use the West Systems long cure stuff now, but the 5-min does the trick if it's mixed well.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Epoxy goes through two stages of cure. A stage and B stage. B stage takes considerably longer than A stage. The amount of ambient heat greatly affects the cure. The warmer the better! Really, it makes a huge difference.

Thick bits of resin should not cure less well than thin, I think that its an illusion caused by the amount of resin available to sink into.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Thanks again for the tips! Just as an update I did get the fingerboard cleaned up and I definitely will never make that mistake again... I hope. I tend to get ahead of myself sometimes. That was not that fun. I ended up using a chisel that I just finished tuning up and very carefully lifted the epoxy off the board. It worked ok, but unfortunately I will have to do a little 'post op' clean up. Nothing major, just a few small areas where it was less than cooperative.

_________________
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

Did you have the neck fully, 100% carved -before- gluing the fretboard down? If you did, next time, leave yourself a bit of neck wood to blend int the fretboard. Eliminates all issues....

Otherwise, I don't see what the issue is at all. You need to do some post-gluedown blending of the fretboard to neck anyhow.

But yes, tape helps a lot, as does getting the hang of how much epoxy to use to minimize ooze....

Yeah,I recently glued up my neck/fb. with Smiths epoxy for the 1st time.
I did use a little to much glue and had too much squeeze-out! I wiped up the glue
with paper towels. Other than that it worked well. I did leave enough wood where I could sand and clean up
all the epoxy afterwards. I will use tape on the next.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

I was planing on having the neck 100% carved but stopped myself from doing that for fear I would go too far. So no, it wasn't completely carved, but had anywhere from 1/8" to 1/4" to play with. I haven't really heard the term 'blending' in regards to the FB/neck joint. I'll keep that in mind.

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

Just thought of an important clean up tip: use alcohol (ie: methyl hydrate), vinegar, or Windex window cleaner to get uncured resin residue off of stuff.

And wear latex gloves whenever you can. The less exposure you get to the stuff the better.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Guys, one of the things that separates fine handmade instruments from the masses is how they feel. With that in mind, one of the little tings is blending the neck and fretboard seamlessly. The neck's curved profile shouldn't abruptly stop at the fretboard, but rather, continue on up the fretboard's edge, then finely rounded-over at the surface.

Go play a few well-worn vintage instruments, ones with the finish worn completely off the neck, and you'll get a perfect example of what I'm talking about.

So, with that, there's always plenty of room for blending. I leave 1/32" to 1/16", and go at it with a file, then scraper, then sanding block(s). At 1/4" I'm still in chain saw mode

Details........

Good tips. I've found that vinegar works really well too. Haven't tried windex yet though.

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

I am wholeheartedly with the Grumpster on the importance of neck profile and the comfort it presents to the player. I've owned guitars that have sounded and looked great but got played very little simply because I couldn't establish a relationship with it due to th neck profile falling outside of what is comfortable and inviting to me.

I have a unique procedure that I've always offered to my customers concerning neck profile and the interface that they enjoy with it. Unfortunately, it's not practical to offer it to overseas customers.

We will discuss the general desires that they have for the final shape of the neck. Things like depth, profile shape, width at the nut, 7th fret and 14th fret as well as the radii that end up at different points of the profile are generally determined before I do any shaping.

Once the neck is assembled and rough shaped to approach their desired profile, I will send it to them for inspection and to feel. With the rough shaped neck, I send a communication sheet that has several cross cut profiles designating the nut, 7th fret and 14th fret. The sheet is clearly labeled with terminology that allows the customer to communicate to me what changes they would like to see in the neck shape so that it will be familiar and inviting to them when they receive it attached to the guitar.

I'll send the neck to them as many as three times to ensure that they receive a guitar that has a neck that is as comfortable as possible for them to play. The customer pays the shipping bith ways for each trip in order to take advantage of this offering, but none have ever had a problem with that nominal cost.

I've never had to send a neck for a third trip and most times don't have to send it a second time, but get it to where the customer likes it on the first trip and possibly wants minor tweaking that is easily communicated and achieved without another trip.

Neck shape is important and the interface of the neck barrel and the fingerboard sides is a critical and often overlooked portion of the whole shape and playing experience. A cool vintage feel is a good thing to shoot for and the only way to really understand it is to get your hands on some well played and broken in necks.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars