Hellooo faithful watchers!!!
Firstly, blindrabbit, thank you. It really isn't that much work, as I do not cover everything, but, I try to be as comprehensive as possible. The honor is truly all mine, because, the thought of inspiring and helping other people....believe me, that, is the honor.
With that being said, I will segue into a fairly comprehensive subject...repair!
Today, I continued wet sanding to 1000 grit, to eliminate any 600 grit scratches, and I got to thinking about the crack in the back. I asked the lead acoustic instructor, Matt Baker, about gluing in the cleats before doing any more buffing, causing stress on that area.You can identify it by the dark line...lacquer that could not get sanded.
He asked if he could use my repair for a demonstration, for the whole class, and you guys know what I said...of course!
The list of tools were as follows; lacquer-safe tape, razor blade, double stick tape, my repair magnets, and the cleats. As I had discussed earlier, the cleats need to be made from the same wood that you are bracing. In this case, it was rosewood. The cleats are .050" thick, 1" long and 3/8" wide, with the grain running along the 1" measurement. Something that I did not know, was that the edges needed to be chamfered, mostly for appearance. By sanding a nice 45 degree angle on all the upper edges, it gives it a nice, clean look.
I took this picture after Matt had already finished the first crack, so some are missing.
Next, you use the masking tape, along with two magnets to lay out where your braces are and where you need to place the cleats. Here, you can see the back brace location, marked with the two straight lines, and the proposed cleat locations marked with the "x"s.
By using the magnets, you can run the magnet into the brace, on either side of it, and mark its location on the tape.
Now that you have the locations, it is time to prep the cleats.
Using double sided tape, you adhere one of the magnets to the cleat. The other side of the cleat will get the glue.
Then, reaching into the body, you will place the cleat as close as you can by hand, and maneuver it into place with the other magnet. Side note...you want the cleat to be as parallel as possible, with the brace...it gives a stronger brace and a cleaner appearance.
Generally, after about 20 minutes, you can take the magnets off, and try to get the double stick tape off of the cleat. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to get the tape off.
When it was all said and done, I had installed seven cleats, covering all of my cracks. I will have some glue cleanup to do, but, I am worrying about that later.
For now, I get back to sanding.
Here is the top sanded to 1000 grit, and the last of my sanding pictures...sorry. I will tell more, though.
I got my neck completely sanded, looking good, and I also got my body sanded completely, after lunch.
We did have a guest lecturer. Jon Eaton, a wiz at repair. He is the brother of William Eaton, administrator of the school, and owns a thriving business in Boulder, CO. He went over the outline of the repair section of the course, and covered some basic evaluation and setup skills with us. His lecture was pieced together, though, as it started before lunch, and restarted before the 3:30 break. It ended at 5:50, and we cleaned up for the day.
I did, however, have some time to get back to the buffer. I was buffing my neck, and the buffer struck again. No worries...my neck fell, but, there was no structural damage, only finish damage. I asked about drop-filling, but was advised against it, because of lacquer shrinkage, over time. That bothered me, at first,but, I have yet another change in my plans. It is amazing how often your plans, dreams, and goals can change. I did have a few minutes to go back to the buffer, with my body, and I did not drop it or damage it in any way. I am simply not finished buffing, so we will see what tomorrow brings.
Another side note, and the last picture of the day, while my cleats were drying, I went out to the thickness sander, and scalloped the ends of my bridge. Just thought that I would share.
I am truly going for a Martin-style dreadnought, so, better make the bridge Martin!
That is all that I have today. I may not get much time for work on my acoustic tomorrow, as we will be evaluating guitars for repair. But, I will get as many pictures as I can, and I will definitely document as much as I can.
Thanks for watching!
Thumpin_P
