Comment

Comment by AGP # on November 23, 2019 at 9:14am

I often wondered what the cleats were for Dave, I did assume they were to strengthen cracks, but wasn't quite sure, thanks for the explanation.  :-)

Comment by Dave Lynas on November 22, 2019 at 5:38pm

I think so too Daniel. I had to cut through one of the cleats to put in the pickup hole. It was tough! Cross grain cleats are standard practice. The wood in this old box is very fragile. It had several cracks to fix. Massaging glue into the cracks and cleating with diamond shapes really strengthened those cracks. The pickup hole needed cleats where possible too. 

Comment by Daniel Walter on November 22, 2019 at 11:21am

Dave, the small blocks of wood is a very interesting technique. Most would add a large piece. I'm thinking, from my addiction to laminating, that the other benefit you get from this method is that you have pieces with the grain directions going different directions. I've learned, for example, if you take two or more thin slices of fingerboard sized pieces of wood, grains going in different directions, the strength is considerably more than one piece the same thickness. Just had to ramble cause of your photo. my 2 cents.