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This topic was brought to mind by Todd's question about glueing bridges over the finish.
I have often been disappointed with the appearance of the area at the base of the bridge. On my current build, (ie yesterday) i scraped off the finish about 1/16" inside the bridge pattern & with a scraper, formed a 1/16" chamfer around the base of the bridge to get good wood to wood contact while hiding the scraped edge of the lacquer.
The result was quite acceptable, but I'm wondering what others do. Anyone got any tricks they'd like to share?Daniel M38742.5357407407

This topic was brought to mind by Todd's question about glueing bridges over the finish.
I have often been disappointed with the appearance of the area at the base of the bridge. On my current build, (ie yesterday) i scraped off the finish about 1/16" inside the bridge pattern & with a scraper, formed a 1/16" chamfer around the base of the bridge to get good wood to wood contact while hiding the scraped edge of the lacquer.
The result was quite acceptable, but I'm wondering what others do. Anyone got any tricks they'd like to share?

Edit... OOPS! I tried to correct a spelling error & ended up posting twice! Sorry.Daniel M38742.5375810185

Rather than a chamfer I make a rabbit ( if you could call it a rabbit) .004" deep and .06" wide, completly around the bridge after tracing the profile to the body. I scrape the finish clean with in a 1/16 of the traced bridge profile after finish is cured and buffed. the rabbit depth is just slighty less than the film thickness. Therefore it just barly compresses into the film when glued and clamped. This gives a nice tight and clean edge.

I made an invisible gridge joint once, not too hard, but the bridge joint does take a lot of finesse.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Well, don't worry too much... I seldom hold a gridge for long!
Hey Michael;
Are you jigged up for the rabbet operation, or do you free hand it?Daniel M38742.6727777778

I was at Rob Bustos's (Paragon Guitars) shop one day while he was glueing a gridge (enough OK ...bridge, sorry) on and what he did, following his work at Larrivee, is just scrap the finish leaving about 1/32 to 1/64 inch inside the bridge outline then glue it done with Lee Valley cabinetmakers glue. I have some of that glue and it reads that it has high solid content and will gap fill. Larrivee glues on a lot of bridges, I think that is the way I will do it.

Shane

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Canada

Mario?

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

[QUOTE=Daniel M] Well, don't worry too much... I seldom hold a gridge for long!
Hey Michael;
Are you jigged up for the rabbet operation, or do you free hand it?[/QUOTE]

I do it with my router and bearing piloted bit scotched taped to set width of cut. It takes longer to set the depth than to make the rabbit but I have a piece of maple that has a channel routed to this depth to use as a set gauge.