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Hi

What the best way for cleaning inside the box, fitting a LR bags system so want the cleats and stuff to stick okay.
Tia

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I am not sure what you are doing, but never vacuum in the box.

I use a vac every time as I don’t have a blower.

I use a vac all the time, just be real careful not to close off the sound hole or it can go real bad in a hurry and collapse the box. No different than working with any other power tool that can cause damage if misused. Often I will take a 3' or 4' piece of small diameter hose, maybe 1/2" or 3/4" ID, slide it a few feet into the regular vacuum hose and you can vacuum with that. It's safer and will get into smaller spaces if needed.

If there is goop that needs to be cleaned off then naptha is my first choice.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Toothbrush to loosen it up, then vacuum.

I blow it out. It will take a while for all the dust to exit out the soundhole.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I always vacuum out the inside of the box using a small nozzle attachment. No problems.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

For really dusty old boxes there is a tip that Frank Ford describes. Use some rice as an abrasive to clean out adherent dust and grime. Read it here (but note the disclaimer about the paper label):
http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier ... clean.html

I stick the air blower inside and the vac at the edge of the sound hole. Gentle on the trigger.

B

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

If you use rice (which works very well) have a vacuum cleaner handy to vacuum the rice out. I've used rice to clean up violins where a vacuum won't fit. Shaking that last grain of rice out through the ff holes can be rather frustrating.

The rice idea is cool!

I blow through end pin hole, small vac tube in sound hole. I clean areas that will have sticky things attached (wire holders, soundhole volume, battery velcro) with Acetone.

I tried rice once, but it left the inside of the guitar covered with fine white powder and smelling like rice.

Easy - just a call away

Blowing or vacuum, either way can go south. I know of once instance where a finisher blew the top off a guitar.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

The shop vac is too dangerous around the sound hole. I use a blow dryer on the no-heat setting. On old guitars with a build up of dust, thick and stuck in the corners, I reach in with a shop rag and drag it around to loosen it up before blowing, and hold my breath so I don't breathe in that nasty stuff.
If all you are doing is gluing something and not doing a general clean up, just rub the rag on the spot you need. I can reach most every corner of the guitar thru the hole with my hand and a shop rag. Skinny arms I guess.

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Dust is not the problem. It's the dust bunnies, dead insects, and leftovers from small mammals.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Don't forget the roaches. The dropped ones.

A friend of mine got done working on a fiddle and called the customer to come get it. The guy asked if he'd replaced the tone ball; the dust bunny that absorbs all the objectionable high frequencies. 'Sure' he said, and then spent the next half hour while the guy drove by collecting dust balls from old fiddles. One can see a market for that: wool and linen tone balls for traditionalists, polyester for 'modern' music, and crystal tone balls for 'New Age'. We all know about the rattlesnake rattles the Texas players use to add 'snap' to the tone....

I use a vacuum with a thin flexable hose that fits all around the inside of the box. I never gave it a thought that it would implode O.o