Official Luthiers Forum!

Does anyone use Poly glue to install carbon fibre bars into their necks? Or is epoxy the only glue for this?

Thanks

Shane

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Canada

I use Polyurethane, yes, have done since I read about Mario using it to laminate his CF reinforced spruce braces. Works fine, bit foamy, but I find it quite easy to mix (ie, none required) and clean up.

Mattia.

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't paying attention I guess when Mario was talking about it. Do you wet the wood or do you just use the glue 'dry'?

Thanks again!

Shane

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Canada

I use the titebond poly Shane - just put a couple bars into a new retrofit neck for a pointed stick electric. Its gonna be stiff as all get out - inch thick as well.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Do you wet anything Tony or just use the poly as it comes out of the bottle onto dry wood and CF? I am doing just the same thing as you did. The CF is going into a Yamaha 5 string fretless bass that has a spaghetti noodle for a neck. Fretboard is off now and I will rout the channels in the next day or two and try to have this thing back together by the weekend...so I can finish building my binding jig.

Thanks

Shane

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Canada

I lightly wet the materials. poly glue will not cure right without moisture. All it takes is a whipe from a lightly damp rag .You should check out Loctite's Sumo brand polyurethane. I found it at a Lowe's homecenter. It set's up a lot quicker then gorilla or elmers brand. And it a lot less foamy then the others by at least half. It also dries a tranclucent white like Elmers white glue. No dark glue lines on light colored woods.

Thanks Michael....I will lightly wet the CF then and give the channel a spritz or something.

I will let everyone know how it goes!

Shane

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Canada

No Shane, didnt wipe anything, but might not have been a bad idea, but it still hardened up pretty fast (on the bubble out that is - I put masking tape down either side of the slots, and my student cleaned it all up yesterday in no time - nice and clean. I dont think its coming out any time soon !!!!

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Have you tested these joints? (I know Mario has tested his bracing).

The reason I ask is because I royally messed up a neck and needed to make anothe. I had no more CF and so I cut it out of the bad neck. Well, in several places the wood sheared away from the CF cleanly, with little force. In other places it was quite tenacious. I was quite distraught that I might have used a neck like that (though in reality there was more than enough glued well that the neck would have been fine), and have switched over to epoxy for this task.

I'm not sure what went wrong. I know I wet the CF prior to installation, the fit was tight, and a got squeeze out and foam out. Maybe I left some dust in the joint or something?

I've run them dry, to date, and no, I haven't destructively tested any samples. Might do that with some scraps I've got, though...

Scuff the CF and wipe it a few times with alcohol before gluing, no matter what glue you use.

That it held strong in some areas and did not in others indicates the above wasn't done...