I used the barrel bolts (as per Cumpiano's new info on his site) on my first guitar and when I was doing the final assembly (after paying $400 for my finish job) the bottom barrel bolt split the bottom of the heal on my neck. I pulled the neck off and looked at the damage. The heal was held on by mostly the finish and a little mahogany. I glued it up and than doweled in the barrel bolt holes. I drilled and installed a 1/2 dowel vertically up the tennon and drilled for inserts from the local Home Depot. I still have a nice crack in the finish to remind me to use inserts. I will never try the barrel bolts again.
The design of the system doesn't make much sense to me now that I have thought about it. The grain of the neck runs parrallel to the length of the neck, now we drill a hole through the tennon, weakening the wood. We insert a steel pin in the hole and tighten it up with a bolt. That pin is wanting to push the grain apart just from the tension focused at one point of the hole. Looking at the failed tennon on my guitar was evidence enough to me that this could happen again.
Has anyone else ever had this happen with the Barrel bolts? Or is it just me?
Epoxy in a threaded insert and it will require more force to pull that insert out of the end grain than it would be to split the tennon along a grain line.
Thant's my 2 cents worth anyway.Rod True38607.045625
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