Ford Posted November 8, 2004 Report Share Posted November 8, 2004 Hi All, I couldnt find an answer doing a search, so here I go! I am glueing neck laminates together (Maple/Walnut/Maple) with Titebond, how tight is too tight on the clamps? I assume the good old "Snug then Tug" routiene works well enough, but I know there is a danger of squeezing all the glue out. My first glue up made a nice bead of glue squish out, I wiped that off and that was about it, not much more oozed out. Eh? -Ford Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddgman2001 Posted November 8, 2004 Report Share Posted November 8, 2004 (edited) Franklin recommends somewhere around 200 psi. There's not much of a chance in getting anywhere near that with C-clamps unless your neck blank is very narrow. We use approximately 85 psi and get nice tight glue lines. You can test smaller clamps with a bathroom scale to get a feel for torque vs pressure. Edited November 8, 2004 by ddgman2001 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar_ed Posted November 8, 2004 Report Share Posted November 8, 2004 Hi, It has been my experience that when gluing there are two issues: 1) The tightness of the clamps; and 2) The consistency of pressure over the entire piece being glued. When doing veneer work or gluing an acoustic bridge, many people use a vacuum clamp, which does not generate all that much pressure, but it does cover the entire gluing area. According to LMII, their bridge vacuum clamp generates 14lbs/sq inch at sea level. My advice would be lots of clamps, alternating which of the neck they are on, and they need not be bone crushingly tight. Guitar Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford Posted November 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2004 Hmm.... I only had regular 3 clamps and two spring clamps to work with, but I used bits of wood to distrubute the pressure as best as I could. I got the clamps pretty snug, but didnt torque them too hard. If I wanted to I probably could have gotten them tighter. HMMMM.... Well, as insurance against destroying my nice wood, I'm gonna go out and buy a router table today. Once I get the glue line cleaned up and the exas wood routed back, I can see what the glue line looks like I guess.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirkentesquire Posted November 19, 2004 Report Share Posted November 19, 2004 I've never had a problem with clamps being TOO tight, only the opposite. Maybe I'm just too weak to tighten them enough to cause a problem, but I shall assume that is not the case. But you want to know what DOES cause a problem? Wood that has very small pores and is sanded very smooth. I recommend making sure that your surfaces to be sanded are flat but fairly rough, so that might mean planing them dead-on and then sanding them by hand with some 80 or 100 grit paper. If this step is overlooked there is a really good chance you'll get some really visible glue lines that could have been avoided. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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