Area 51

Well, the rainy weekend was a nice time to listen to the rain hit the roof, but that's about all I accomplished. I did think about the guitar though, and I guess that's worth something.




This morning I took a few pictures of what I am calling "Area 51" due to the fact that it's a hornet's nest of unknowns. There is a long top crack which has been repaired, but I think the repair can be/should be improved upon. That means ungluing what has been done, cleaning it out, and re-gluing it. This will be a job.

There is another crack which needs to be closed up and glued.

There are a few small cracks which should close up easily, and may not even need cleats.

The huge fabric patch on the side covered a crack which is missing some wood. But before I can deal with that, the piece I do have must be put back in place.

The question is, in what order should I proceed?

I think maybe a "go-bar" deck could be the best method to flatten the top, fix the cracks, glue down the braces, and to insure things get back where they belong. Maybe this should come first.

Then the side chunk can go back in place.

Then the missing wood in the side can be replaced.

Part of the whole process will be the repair of and or the replacement of a few top braces. One small finger brace is missing completely. The other--one diagonal of the X--is broken. It'll need to be lengthened toward the damaged lower bout, and then glued back in place. However, this can't be done until the top is flat, crack-free and has the missing piece on the lower bout replaced.

It's a set of dominoes, and I have to determine in exactly which order I want the dominoes to fall before I set them up.

Thinking ahead

This weekend may be rainy and lousy for outdoor activities....so Mr. Martin may see some action. I would like to see some of those top cracks cleaned up and closed up. There is still a bit of glue removal to do on the one that has been "repaired" and I need to figure out how to clamp them successfully when the time comes. In other words I'll do some dry clamping run throughs this weekend, and try to figure out what will work.

Bridge Work

"The Chisel" really came through. Here are some before and after shots. The holes will be filled too. Somewhere I have a shot of the clamping process I'll add to this page.

Glue be gone

All in all, the guitar came a long way today. Most of the old glue and fabric patches are gone. It looks like the thinking of the old repair attempt was to use the patches only to stabilize the cracks, rather than to glue the crack back together first and then put in a fabric patch to hold things in place. As far as I can tell, there is very little, if any, glue to clean out from inside the cracks themselves. This is very good news. After a great deal of soaking and scraping with my fingernails, the inside of the top appears to be nearly glue-free. Here are a few before and after pictures--not quite the same view, but close.

Patch be gone

After soaking for a bit, the patch peels up in mostly one piece.

At the left is the patch at the beginning of the peel.

At the right, the patch is removed and sitting on the endblock.

Removal of old fabric patches

The first step is to soak the old fabric patch and get the glue to let go a bit. This was a huge patch covering a lot of undamaged area as well as the crack. It was a bit of overkill. I assume they were working through the soundhole and did the best they could. They managed to get the thing glued in place--I'll say that much.

Side cracks

There are a number of of side cracks, small ones, which need to be squeezed gently back together, then glued and clamped. I may have to put a few fabric patches on as well, to shore up the repair. I'll use hide glue of course.

With so many mini-projects on this guitar it may seem like I'm jumping around and not concentrating on one thing long enough, but...all in good time. Lots of the work is being done piecemeal, as I have time for it. One of the next posts should have a nice picture of the bridge, which my partner [The Chisel] is working on. He is doing a beautiful job...a real rescue in the works. It looks now like the old bridge will be able to be re-used.

Tools

Working on glue removal a bit this morning, it occurred to me that the good old fingernail is probably one of the best tools for this process. The patch needs to be completely soaked and the glue softened. At that point the patch is easier to peel away. Then, the fingernail can scrape away at some of the glue and the moisture will liquify it. Wipe away, and continue until the glue's gone and only the wood remains.

White glue blues

Today I worked on the top and sides for the first time really. And for the first time I see a bit more clearly what needs to be done. There were repairs done some time ago using white glue, which I need to un-glue and clean up. This job will present some difficulties, because to get those cracks sealed back up nicely, they must be free from all that old glue first. Not easy with white glue. I plan to move slowly and deliberately when I finally tackle this job, which is usually the best approach anyway.

I knew that one of the braces forming the X was broken and re-glued, but today I realized that the piece had been re-glued in the wrong place. This fact made me all the more determined to get it out of there, which I did. If I can successfully clean off all that old glue, I'll be able to put the piece back where it should be. I'll have to graft another piece of spruce onto the end of it to make it long enough. This should not present much of a problem; there is only an inch or so missing.

I was also able to remove the broken bridge plate today with no trouble. The cotton patches on the top and sides need a great deal of soaking to remove, and there will still be glue to clean up. Slowly...slowly...everything must be done very slowly...

More clampage

Well...new cracks have come to light, and the optimism of yesterday has met with the hard reality of today. Before I get that last brace in, before I put in the cool CFM stamp, before I call the back 'done,' I want to make sure I've gotten glue into every available crack crevice and cranny. Right now, the bottom portion which I started last night is still clamped, albiet in a slightly different spot. I'm working slowly, which is always a good thing. Every crack has to get closed. Then, and only then can I put that last brace in place. Tonight...? Maybe.