Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by sparky37 on September 17, 2015 at 3:40pm

You don’t need dowels for a scarf joint. I am on #7 build and these scarf joints have worked great.

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Permalink Reply by Nathan Binns on September 17, 2015 at 4:55pm

I've never used dowels. Just glue. If you get a good joint it's not going to come apart. 

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Permalink Reply by john mackay on September 17, 2015 at 11:11pm

titebond glue and so is gorrilla glue good for necks/head stocks.

I glued a headstock and the next day after taking the clamps off it was lopsided so I tried to break it apart,

but was not having any of it and I consider myself a strong person.

in the end I had to recut and glue.

so no need for dowels for strength.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Robbins on September 18, 2015 at 3:46am

Thank guys!!!  That will save some time!!!

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on September 20, 2015 at 6:03pm

One trick I just learned from somebody here:  Drop 2 staples into one side of the joint, then cut the staple off with some flush cutters.   It will leave a sharp pin protruding, which will keep the joint from slipping until the glue dries...   

This has saved me a lot of time clamping scarf joints to my workbench...

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 21, 2015 at 6:27am

Yeah, that were me. ;-). I stole it from a luthier's website.

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on September 21, 2015 at 4:39pm

Thank you for stealing and sharing!  Should we meet, the first beer is on me.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on September 21, 2015 at 7:46pm

I just used dowels on my 6 string build that I'm working on. My 4 string CBG's are fine without, just a little more help couldn't hurt on the 6 string.

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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on September 22, 2015 at 7:00am

Josh Gayou has a good method for making scarf joints in his Advanced Cigar Box Guitar Building Guide. I have used this method successfully to make scarf joints. No dowels are involved. In fact, I have never heard of anyone using dowels. The scarf joint, in and of itself, is quite strong.

Available for free download here:

http://www.cigarboxguitar.com/knowledge-base/advanced-cigar-box-gui...

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Permalink Reply by Steve Robbins on September 22, 2015 at 8:20am

Thank all of you very much for replying to this post.  As always, your advice is greatly appreciated.

I may not have made myself very clear in my post. I tend to make that mistake a lot... my apologies.

My question was not about using dowels in the scarf joint... it was about using dowels in the headtsock when your're gluing extra pieces of wood to each side of the headstock in order to make it wider. I too use the system explained in Josh Gayou's manual using a scarf joint to attach the head to the neck.

Thanks,

Steve

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Permalink Reply by Greg Thompson on September 22, 2015 at 11:08am

I have never used dowels to attach the wings on the head stock.
Same as gluing scarf joint. Do a good job with glue and clamping and it's a strong as it can be. I laminate different wood this way into the head for a bit more interest.

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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on September 26, 2015 at 6:29am

I have never used dowels to glue "wings" on the headstock. The joint is quite strong.

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