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My first CBG Gorilla Glue NO?

Posted by Rex on March 28, 2010 at 9:52pm in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion
I have been working on the neck for my CBG. Its a through the body neck. I thought I would be creative and add a fret board, or the like. Here is the problem, first off, I do not have the fancy tools, so I couldn't use a band saw or table saw to make the cuts exact. I used my circle saw to rip the oak board down from 2.5 to 2 inches, I just didnt like the width as it was. I used a red oak plank 3x1/4 ripped that down to 2.5 as well, once again I did a lot of leveling as close as I could with a chisel and rasp file and lots of 150 and 250 grain sanding. I marked off the fret markings and made this neck to 25.5 scale, measured the 12th fret from the nut, doubled that for the bridge distance to nut.
I used gorilla glue to bond the fret board and now, 3 hours later I have a mess! My fret board crept sideways about 1/16 to 1/8 inch. Looks like I can plain it some but this neck is not going to be anything masterful, to say the least. I know now I need some better clamps or at least a better technique of clamping.

Q) How do I clean up the gorilla wood glue mess? Will I have to remove the fret board? What is a good way to true out the sides, if you don't have a plain machine? All I have is a chisel and rasp and sand paper.

I am messing up and making mistakes, (meaning not getting exactly what I planned) but so far, next to actually playing music I lose track of time and absolutely enjoy this!!!!

There are so many questions I have it aint even funny. I have scoured through the posts using the search option. Last night I searched for necks and found some awesome pictures that made me both excited and jealous. I told the wife, I need to step away from these pictures and just do it right? She agreed. Intimidating is word I would use. Once I got started though it felt great. I practiced on 8 different scrap pieces of wood to make sure I understood exactly how my circle saw cuts, and wouldn't you know when I started cutting my good piece of oak, I made a nice gouge when I accidentallyGrrr backed the saw up!...Grrrr. I figure I will try and incorporate it into the build somehow...

I have a huge cow leg bone. I read somewhere from a guy who cuts his own nut and saddle. Anyone have experience with that? I am not sure what the best way to cut this bone would be.

As far as I have seen I have not found any plans that deal with bonding a fret board. If you are using a through the body build, do the plans stay the same? Or is there something different I should do when I cut the body to fit the neck.

Like I said I have a dozen questions and I will keep searching the forum for what is already been explained, but any help would be greatly appreciated. I will post pictures tomorrow of what I have so far.


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Replies

  • Don Thompson October 7, 2010 at 5:09pm
    Hmmmmmm, Salt, perhaps some kosher or some sea salt would work. Not sure, I was the one who posted the suggestion about the sand, and admit I never thought of salt.
    Don



    Wes Yates said:
    Hmmmm, I wonder if course salt would be the same as the sand? Or would that be toobig of a grain? Good suggestion!

    -WY

    Julian Perry said:
    Hey Rex, I've always had a real battle keeping the fretboards in place whilst tightening the clamps, but following advice from 'the nation' have used the pin idea successfully and also a few grains of coarse sand sprinkled in the glue (just 10 or so) before clamping helps to stop the sliding around. I always use Elmers or Titebond too.
  • Mungo Park October 5, 2010 at 9:31am
    If you are clamping to glue, 2 things:
    Nubies clamp to tight, don't reef it down so thight it squeezes out all the glue, just enough glue so it just squeezes out a tad from the joint. Tighten your clamps and just befor you walk away back them off a hair.
    If the clamps are straight and not at a slight angle then the pieces should not slip.
    Clamp it upside down on a table come back in about 5 min and check if it has moved.
    If you have a skill saw make a guide and it should give you straighter lines.
    If you cut the notch in the box well, a hack saw is cheap, you can put on the neck and close up the lid, string it up and the strings will hold it tight enough to try out befor you secure the neck.
    Cheers Ron.
  • Rand Moore October 4, 2010 at 11:56pm
    Then there are the folks that swear by mixing in salt or sand into their glue to give it teeth to help hold the pieces in place until the claps have all been put in place. Also, some people wait till the glue is a bit more tacky before putting together the two mating pieces. I have read about these techniques elsewhere in CBN, but haven't actually tried them.

    -Rand.
  • BT Cohosh April 2, 2010 at 5:11pm
    Another bid for the plain old yellow glue.

    When I've done fretboards, I've just used regular pinch-clamps and checked every 30 seconds to make sure the alignment hadn't shifted. I love the chopstick/rubber band idea. And I'm seriously coveting the violin clamp thingies.

    I've worked with bone a little--my results are pretty crude compared to some of the artistry you'll see on this site. I've been cutting the bone with either/or a combination of a hacksaw, dremel w/cut-off wheel, or a hand-held saber-saw with a fine-toothed blade (my middle school shop teacher would *not* like to have seen some of those situations). Final shaping is done with a piece of sandpaper on a flat surface. Stinks like a dentist's office, so not for the weak of heart.

    In the end, though, I think you've just gotta shrug your shoulders and remember that, after all, it *is* made from a cigar box....

    Have fun.
  • Wichita Sam April 2, 2010 at 9:04am
    Here's a different look at fretboard clamps....

    They are violin fingerboard clamps.... the tighter you screw the knob, the better the alignment.... First try, I'll let you know how it turns out... the best, Wichita Sam
  • Rex April 1, 2010 at 7:30pm
    I live in the Mineral Area. Desloge, Park Hills, Farmington area. My friend Wolfs Robe contacted me today, and he now lives in Sedona Az. Makes sense actually, because he traveled out there every year, and did a 5 month tour.
    I would be open to a festival. Although I have to admit that traveling for me right now is sort of tough thing. I have so many irons in the fire right now. WHen is this festival in KC? And will there be security? LOL
    Gasconade is a bit closer for me, not far from Jeff City right?

    And welcome to the Show Me State Sam...

    Wichita Sam said:
    Rex, where in Missouri? Are you up for the hoped for Festival in KC?... how about a picnic on Doughboy's farm on the Gasgonade? I'm a MO transplant by way of Puerto Rico...

    the best,

    Sam

    Rex said:
    An old friend of mine here in Missouri David Wolfs Robe, aka the Flute Man. David is an awesome musician, and as well a master flute maker. He and I talked about doing a project together at one time, but things just never panned out. Here is his website, hope this is not breaking any rules. No intentions of spamming just thought I'd share ti with you.
    http://www.akaflutemanent.com/

    KaptnKen said:
    Alan Roberts said:


    The first few cedar flutes I made, I used a chisel, hand drill and draw knife. I use a router now, but wouldn't have really grokked what I was doing if I hadn't started by hand.

    Wow...I haven't heard anyone use the word "grok"...and properly...in a long time! I think it's best that people work at that level, especially in the beginning, so they can achieve a basic understanding of how things work. I build rustic furniture and the only power tool I use is a drill...rest of it is knife, drawknife, hand saw, rasp and sandpaper. And I couldn't imagine doing it any other way. And it drives me crazy when I run across web designers that use WYSIWYG editors that don't know how to make changes by hand using the most basic HTML tags.
  • Wichita Sam April 1, 2010 at 6:39pm
    "Grok".... if MVSmith were here today, I think he would enjoy CBG building and playing.... SIASL is the all time best SF novel (IMHO) and pushes the top 10 of all 20th century American lit (again IMHO... oh heck, no so humble really)....

    the best,

    Sam

    KaptnKen said:
    Alan Roberts said:


    The first few cedar flutes I made, I used a chisel, hand drill and draw knife. I use a router now, but wouldn't have really grokked what I was doing if I hadn't started by hand.

    Wow...I haven't heard anyone use the word "grok"...and properly...in a long time! I think it's best that people work at that level, especially in the beginning, so they can achieve a basic understanding of how things work. I build rustic furniture and the only power tool I use is a drill...rest of it is knife, drawknife, hand saw, rasp and sandpaper. And I couldn't imagine doing it any other way. And it drives me crazy when I run across web designers that use WYSIWYG editors that don't know how to make changes by hand using the most basic HTML tags.
  • Wichita Sam April 1, 2010 at 6:35pm
    Rex, where in Missouri? Are you up for the hoped for Festival in KC?... how about a picnic on Doughboy's farm on the Gasgonade? I'm a MO transplant by way of Puerto Rico...

    the best,

    Sam

    Rex said:
    An old friend of mine here in Missouri David Wolfs Robe, aka the Flute Man. David is an awesome musician, and as well a master flute maker. He and I talked about doing a project together at one time, but things just never panned out. Here is his website, hope this is not breaking any rules. No intentions of spamming just thought I'd share ti with you.
    http://www.akaflutemanent.com/

    KaptnKen said:
    Alan Roberts said:


    The first few cedar flutes I made, I used a chisel, hand drill and draw knife. I use a router now, but wouldn't have really grokked what I was doing if I hadn't started by hand.

    Wow...I haven't heard anyone use the word "grok"...and properly...in a long time! I think it's best that people work at that level, especially in the beginning, so they can achieve a basic understanding of how things work. I build rustic furniture and the only power tool I use is a drill...rest of it is knife, drawknife, hand saw, rasp and sandpaper. And I couldn't imagine doing it any other way. And it drives me crazy when I run across web designers that use WYSIWYG editors that don't know how to make changes by hand using the most basic HTML tags.
  • Wade April 1, 2010 at 10:46am
    Elmers used to make a hot glue gun with glue sticks designed for wood- IF you like the regular hot glue gun - you would get hooked on one of those!

    Wade

    Jerryrig240 said:
    Check out some of my vids here on the nation, I hope they will help you along with other builders out there that are having a hard time with their first build.. A good mind set of a first build for me anyway is to keep it simple. Nothing too fancy. And you don't have to have fancy tools to do a lot of this stuff. In fact, a drill, some screws, a good, and I mean, good hand saw that has small teeth on it, and some sand paper is all you really need to make a nice, good sounding, sturdy cbg. Sure, a electiric hand sander, and a dremel are nice to have...but if you don't have that stuff, it's not a problem. I bought a really nice hot glue gun a few weeks back and I am hooked. The glue that I liked was kinda pricy and it did not come in a very big tube, and I have heard that hot glue was good to use on peizo's...so now, I use got glue for almost everythig, except for my neck fret board, the last neck I made I used just plain wood glue. I have not had amny experience on making bone parts for my cbg's, but I have called my local butcher and he said he would hook me up with a couple of boes for free. I just need to go and pick them up.....I normally use bolts for nuts and bridges, but I am runing short on good bolts to use, so I figured I would try my hand and bone. It's free, so why not. I also have thought of just using simple dowls for nuts, I think you can get them a big bag for decent, and with a dab of hot glue, they would work realy well.

    As far as the gorllia glue, I went down the same road, I used it and it foamed up some feirce....A good rond of elbow greese and some sanding and it took care of it....I also used my pocket knife to remove the bigest part of it. Needles to sa, I don't use it anymore.
  • Rex April 1, 2010 at 9:10am
    An old friend of mine here in Missouri David Wolfs Robe, aka the Flute Man. David is an awesome musician, and as well a master flute maker. He and I talked about doing a project together at one time, but things just never panned out. Here is his website, hope this is not breaking any rules. No intentions of spamming just thought I'd share ti with you.
    http://www.akaflutemanent.com/

    KaptnKen said:
    Alan Roberts said:


    The first few cedar flutes I made, I used a chisel, hand drill and draw knife. I use a router now, but wouldn't have really grokked what I was doing if I hadn't started by hand.

    Wow...I haven't heard anyone use the word "grok"...and properly...in a long time! I think it's best that people work at that level, especially in the beginning, so they can achieve a basic understanding of how things work. I build rustic furniture and the only power tool I use is a drill...rest of it is knife, drawknife, hand saw, rasp and sandpaper. And I couldn't imagine doing it any other way. And it drives me crazy when I run across web designers that use WYSIWYG editors that don't know how to make changes by hand using the most basic HTML tags.
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