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  #1  
Old 04-08-2020, 11:39 AM
Brent Hahn Brent Hahn is offline
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Default Repair options for side cracks

I do volunteer work at an open-mic venue. They have a nice old Guild dreadnought, their house guitar, it's beat up, and now's a good time to work on it. Among other things, it's got long cracks along both sides. I've been contemplating two approaches:

1. I've fashioned a tensioning tool from a tuning machine that I could use to clamp small veneer "cleats" from the inside. I'd have to do this in several spots for each crack, one spot per day, and it would necessitate drilling tiny holes to sneak a guitar string through.

2. Iron-on veneer strips. This seems like a good option, but what do I use for an iron?

Thoughts? Other ideas?
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Old 04-08-2020, 11:57 AM
John Arnold John Arnold is offline
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I like #1. I have used it successfully many times to realign and glue side cracks. You may find that using 3 or 4 of them at once will help on the longer cracks. A few spool camps may also be necessary to pull the crack together. Rare earth magnets are the vogue these days, but I haven't tried them.
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Old 04-08-2020, 12:00 PM
Brent Hahn Brent Hahn is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Arnold View Post
I like #1. I have used it successfully many times to realign and glue side cracks. Rare earth magnets are the vogue these days, but I haven't tried them.
Rare earth magnets! Brilliant. I have some old hard drives I can sacrifice. Way too many, actually.
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Old 04-08-2020, 12:07 PM
redir redir is offline
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#1 is a standard technique for fixing such cracks. It aligns the crack well which is important when clamping it shut and then of course it glues a cleat in place at the same time.

Iron on edge veneer is not strong enough. What ever glue they impregnate it with is not good enough. You can find rolls of that stuff that is not impregnated with glue then you could use AR glue or HHG or what ever but then it's hard to make a caul to clamp the curves. And like you said what would you use for an iron?

Couple pics to illustrate:



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Old 04-08-2020, 02:03 PM
charles Tauber charles Tauber is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Arnold View Post
Rare earth magnets are the vogue these days, but I haven't tried them.
In my experience they work quite well.

My favourite use of them, however, is to use with a pencil and paper to draw the layout of the interior sturcture on a guitar. One magnet inside can be manipulated by one magnet outside and moved along braces to see exactly where the braces are. A pencil can be used to trace onto a piece of paper beneath the outer magnet the movement on the outside. It's an easy way, for example, to size bridge plate gluing cauls.
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Old 04-08-2020, 02:08 PM
redir redir is offline
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Wonderful tip there Charles thanks for sharing. I have never used them for aligning cracks but I suppose if you stack them they ought to be strong enough.
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Old 04-08-2020, 05:35 PM
mirwa mirwa is offline
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I like magnets for holding items in place whilst they dry, example fitment of cleats. I find they dont have the strength to actually provide a clamping force good enough for any structural application.



Just some simple clamps



Holding cleats in place

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