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What method of hot hide glue removal around braces have you settled on?
1. Let it set up 15-30 minutes and use a chisel or sharp stick
2. use a straw while it is still soft
3. final cleanup with sandpaper
4. final cleanup with sandpaper

Thanks

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Formerly know as Mandodiddle.

This is one of my favorite things about hide glue. You don't need to remove the squeeze-out immediately, just disturb it while it's gelled. I use a long toothpick kind of thing to reach under clamps and separate the glue from the wood. After it's dry and you have the clamps out of the way, the big stuff you scraped before will just crumble off, and the remaining residue can be dissolved with water.

If there are any lumps of well-adhered squeeze out that you couldn't reach when gelled, leave a piece of wet paper towel to rehydtate them for a while. But it is possible to compromise the joint if water soaks too far underneath the brace, so don't leave a pool of water against the glue line for a long time.

I’ve always removed it right away mostly with a spruce stick sharpened to a bevel, then scrub with a toothbrush dipped in the hot water of the glue pot and wipe down with damp/dry paper towels. I hit the area with a heat gun to dry it out after cleanup.

Go bars make access pretty easy for top and back braces.

I’ll have to try letting it dry more before removal. So many ways to skin a cat.

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

I let it gel, then scrape it away with whatever will best reach it. Sometimes that’s a sharpened piece of spruce, at other times it is a utility knife blade, or a chisel, etc. then I wipe as best I can with a wet rag or paper towel. Leaving thin layers for sanding later is fine, but any thick globs are murder to clean up if they adhered to the wood while warm, so I do everything I can to dislodge the glue from the wood while it is in the gel state.

I do a lot of bridge reglues and in doing so I work in a manner that the next steps are not obscured if possible by the current step.

So I use a caul that is shaped and positioned in such a manner that I can get to the entire glue line and squeeze-out immediately after the bridge is clamped in place.

With this said:

1) I want 1 - 3 minutes and then begin removing the squeeze-out. I make a masking tape "well" with a double layer of masking tape around my bridges so they have a pocket to snap into when time is short and the HHG has been applied. So 1 - 3 minutes after the clamps are set I pull the tape and that takes 95% of the squeeze out still flexible and a bit watery with it.

2) I dip a paper towel in my glue pot hot water (we float our HHG in a baby food jar in a hot water bath) and use the hot water on the towel to clean any glue off the guitar finish.

3) I use a wooden tooth pick and pieces of wet paper towel to really get into the glue joint for a very clean result.

With brace reglues kind of the same thing I am cleaning squeeze out around the clamps nearly right away again with hot water and paper towel.

I'm going down memory lane here and remembering a post Mario one made on the OLF describing that some of the finest guitars in the world were a mess inside with HHG glue globs, saw marks on the braces, etc.

Anyway I used to use masking tape next to braces too to again pull squeeze-out up a couple minutes after I have clamps in place.

HHG is funny. If you time it exactly right, you can pull off the sqeezeout like a piece of string. Too soon, you wind up with 3 or 4. Too late, you wind up with 3 or 4.

Something else that’s also been helpful for me is long ebony off cuts from fretboards which are sharpened. They stand up to being rinsed off over and over and they are long enough to get all the squeeze out while the full set of go bars are still in place. Different angles and skews.




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Brad I like that. I have been using skew chisels to provide that sharp point and the angles but there's a danger of cutting/scratching something because they are so sharp.
And if you don't get the (in my case Titebond) off pretty sharp it isn't good for the chisel!

Cheers Dave

My favorite glue clean up tool is a plastic straw cut across and an angle , I let the glue boogerize a few minutes , and then the sharp corner can seat against whatever you glues and it lets it go up the straw . Then wipe up with a damp paper towel . I then come back about 20 minutes later with a soft toothbrush and water. Sounds like I need to do a blues creek quick tip for you tube.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I use the plastic straw as John describes then finish with damp rag and some shaped sticks like Brad shows. If you use the sticks around the bridge on the top be careful, you can leaves marks on the top if you press too hard.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Same as Brad but most are made from scraps of Plexiglass that were left over from making jigs and templates; not pretty but they work well. They can be whatever sharpness or angle is required and can be cleaned in hot water. As Steve says, it is easy to mark a finished top with these. I use fresh spruce ones round each bridge and give those a dip in shellac.

I use the straws too, but they're getting hard to find. I've go a stash of them, but may have to stop building when those run out...