Discovered A Crack In My Sapele ...

[fyb]

I bought some 8/4 sapele a few days ago (with some BEAUTIFUL ribbon stripping!) and the board looked decent when I got it. After some planeing and cutting it down into pieces for body blanks, I noticed a crack in the wood. It's not too thick (thinner than the black lines on a ruler for example, so it's small enough that I can't measure it) but it's noticable and it runs about halfway down the side and about 2" into where the body will be.

What's the best way to hide or fix this?? The body blank is just about a perfect size for the bodies I want to do, so I can't just cut the cracked part off.

Help!

[prauny]

This is just an idea, so please dont go ahead with it untill you have a few other answers. But maybe you could fill the crack with two part epoxy resin? Im asuming you wont be able to see the crack once its filled with it being very thin.

[Acousticraft]

The other option if you want the sapeele look is to glue up the crack and if it shows to badly, then glue on another thin laminate of Sapelle to hide it.

This is horrible timber to put through a thicknesser as the grain alternates in direction with each pattern line so it always tears out in places whichever direction it is fed through the machine.

I had this problem with a neck I laminated out of three pieces (Mahogany, Maple, Mahogany) and when cut to shape there is a crack on one side of the peg head. I can still use it at a later time if I glue on a thin laminate to hide it.

[Mattia]

Alternately...split the thing all the way through, clean up a touch, reglue.

Was this piece end-sealed? If you bought it recently, did you measure the moisture content? If not, did you let it acclimatize in your building environment, with ends sealed up, for at least a month, preferably more like 2-3 (or even longer. Longer is better)?

Most boards, in the rough, will 'lose' about 2-3" off the end due to checking. Always account for that. Stickering and stacking for a while will help minimize damage, but you will always, always have a lot of waste when working large chunks of wood. I've got several large boards (think big enough for 1-piece doubleneck guitars) of Khaya that are dry, have been at the back of the local wood warehouse for at least 3-4 years, but I'm still going to let them settle in for another few months in my own environement before working them fully, and some of them do have end checks that I know will go in relatively deep once I get the surfaces cleaned/planed.

[Mickguard]

For the last few months, I've been working with a huge plank of 50 year old work I found here. It was used as part of the apple cider works they had here in the old days, then tossed up in the loft and forgotten about. Needless to say, it has tons of cracks.

There's not much to do with the worst of the splits and cracks, I just worked around them, cutting out a few body blanks and neck blanks. But I didn't know about sealing the ends, so some of those still developed small cracks and splits.

Yet the surface cracks that developed were not nearly as bad as I thought -- they'd look bad, going pretty deep on the edge and extending pretty far into the blank. But once the blank was planed and especially after I shaped and sanded it, nearly all of the cracks had pretty much disappeared.

So it's possible that what you're seeing isn't as bad as you think either.

[Mattia]

For the last few months, I've been working with a huge plank of 50 year old work I found here. It was used as part of the apple cider works they had here in the old days, then tossed up in the loft and forgotten about. Needless to say, it has tons of cracks.

There's not much to do with the worst of the splits and cracks, I just worked around them, cutting out a few body blanks and neck blanks. But I didn't know about sealing the ends, so some of those still developed small cracks and splits.

Yet the surface cracks that developed were not nearly as bad as I thought -- they'd look bad, going pretty deep on the edge and extending pretty far into the blank. But once the blank was planed and especially after I shaped and sanded it, nearly all of the cracks had pretty much disappeared.

So it's possible that what you're seeing isn't as bad as you think either.

...or, more likely, it could be a little worse. Basic surface checks you can sometimes just plane out, but I don't really believe in cracks that 'dissapear'. Try wetting stuff with alcohol, and you'll see exactly how far the crack goes.

[Mickguard]

...or, more likely, it could be a little worse. Basic surface checks you can sometimes just plane out, but I don't really believe in cracks that 'dissapear'.

A little clarification--the cracks 'disappeared' because they didn't go that deep, so they planed/sanded out.

[spazzyone]

try sanding some of it to get the dust

fill the crack with C.A utill its filled close to the surface then pack the dust in the crack

then C.A it again and let it "Wick" in repeat as needed til filled the sand smooth

this may not be the best solution but it should work well

if you live in a dry winter climate wait till late winter and you will get better results

as the crack should be fully open when you fill it

Edited November 14, 2006 by spazzyone