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OK, so my excuse is that it is a year since I built a guitar as I have been away working or building lutes, but boy am I stupid!

I bent up a set of very nice English walnut sides, the sister set to some that Russell showed recently, and got them ready to glue the cherry head and tailblocks in. So I turn on the bottle warmer, sit the tail block on the hot plate to warm and heat up the HHG. When it's up to temperature a good layer goes onto the warm block and I press it into place on the sides and add the clamps. Clean up the squeeze out and job done!

Well half an hour or so later I'm thinking to myself did I put the wax paper between the sides and the mould? Answer, NO! So out to the shop I go and yep, the glue squeeze between the two sides had glued the sides to the mould.

This is the point where running around in a panic like a headless chicken does no good at all. So after I'd stopped running round like a headless chicken, I calm down and figure a way to get them out without ruining the sides. So I unscrewed the two halves of the mould, and heat up my trusty pallet knife (OK my wifes pastry knife) and very carefully start working it between the mould and the sides, success! Sides removed from mould and calm and tranquility returns to the Symonds' household.

Anyone else done this?

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I haven't done that one Colin. At least not yet.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

I may have...

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

But if I did, it was my wife's cake frosting spatula that got me out of it!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Yep, I have even had such a good fit at the ends a set of sides that I said to myself sort of boasting, "that's such a good fit I don't even need to block the glue" wrong answer!!!

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

No you don't want do that Don't ask how I know

Just last week I glued a back down to a radius dish, the glue on the brace ends that extended out over the back_AND_wax paper held firmly to the MDF dish

They had to be amputated in place, no damage done, BUT a fresh reminder to USE THAT WAX paper..

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

I may not ever do that...now. Thanks, Colin!

I might have done that once. But I'll never tell.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Not yet but now that you mentionned this, John Hall's signature has meaning more than ever!

Colin,

What a relief! Makes a good case for coating the insides of our molds.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

[QUOTE=Hesh1956] Has anyone cut off the excess on a slotted fretboard but mistakenly cut off the wrong end.......? [/QUOTE]

Well...I did just cut one off too short. I didn't cut the wrong end, but I did cut it off somewhere outside the rosette. Seems that at some point for some unknown reason I added an extra notch to my slotting template. I marked it with a big red x so I won't make the same mistake twice....I hope.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

I to have had that expression Ooooh!Noooo! Seems fretbds and glue squeeze out have plagued many others. It so nice to know your not alone in one's human condition. Thanks for reminding us of our abilities to overcome those problems that sometimes happen. Glad it worked out that you didn't acquire to much damage to either mould or sides, Colin. Let's think things through my friends. You know the old addage-measure twice, cut once.

Never glued the side to the mould.

But....I use the single rod, gibson style truss rods, and on the last build, after the guitar was all polished up, I attached the neck without the truss rod (my desin lets me take out the rod from the heal end of the neck, good if the rod ever breaks, just like Hoffman does). I was lying in bed, admiring my work when I realized I didn't put the truss rod in.

Zipped down to the shop around 2am (was only in my undies too ) and detached the neck, the glue had already set too.... Doh!! Rod True38993.8730439815

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Ok, that sounds really really bad when you pervert it .

Your mind is on the rocks again I see Hesh

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

[QUOTE=Rod True]

Zipped down to the shop around 2am (was only in my undies too ) and detached... [/QUOTE]

Rod, that must have been a real nightmare?

i've never had the misfortune to glue somethiings together which shouldn't be, uless you count my fingers with ca too many times to remember.

but this good fortune has been the result of having it drummed into me very early on that wax is my friend. anything that i use glue on or around, e.g., jigs, forms, cauls, wooden clamps - everything from clothes pins to klemsias, spools, etc., gets a healthy coat of wax which i renew when ever i think about it. saves having to remember to fuss with the wax paper.

Could you wax the inside of your molds instead of using wax paper? I'm thinking if you have a snug fit, the paper might get wedged in.

Colin, thank you for sharing your mistake. When I see that grizzled vets like you make an oversight, well I don't feel as bone headed.

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Reminds me of the first time I tried using HHG to glue my top to the rims...

Nerves and a need for speed tripled with the fact that I wanted enough glue in the joint...

Long story short, I wound up with squeeze out the likes of which has probably never been imagined in a luthiers worst nightmare... Why, I glued myself to the shop floor!!!

Good thing HHG cleans up like a dream!

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Uh....! Rod, why did you have a truss rod in your undies?

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

I was making two mandolins at the ssame time. When I cut off the top of the pre-slotted fretboard, I then tried to do the same thing to the other board. I accidently grabbed the first board again and lopped off the first fret position.

[QUOTE=Hesh1956] Ahhhhh, now I do not feel so very alone in this world.....

Has anyone cut off the excess on a slotted fretboard but mistakenly cut off the wrong end.......? [/QUOTE]

Hesh, don't cut on the narrow end