Glues Expand Wood?

[Bmth Builder]

Hey I just did my first inlay (dots and my name at the 12th fret) and I'm suprised at how well it has all come out, I mean its by no means perfect, there were gaps before gluing, but they seem to have disapeared after begining radiusing (I expected to see dry black glue between the wood and inlay)

Now is this because...

Its ebony FB, I used black super glue and the inlay is either dark of very contrasting and so I am not looking hard enough and the glue filled gaps between inlay and wood are still there.

or

the glue has caused the wood to expand tightly against the inlay material? But I used superglue, which as far as I know wouldnt cause the wood to expand or swell in any way?

So that said, could you cause wood to swell tightly against an inlay to close gaps? If you could get water based glue such as titebond to glue inlay material to the FB it would be a pretty cool way of ensuring a tight fit.

[Quarter]

A glue that has a moisture content will swell wood to a minor degree, but its very minor and would shrink back when dry.

Your not seeing the gaps because ebony really hides gaps well. With black glue and a bit of dust and sanding, its very hard to see the lines.

[fryovanni]

Hey I just did my first inlay (dots and my name at the 12th fret) and I'm suprised at how well it has all come out, I mean its by no means perfect, there were gaps before gluing, but they seem to have disapeared after begining radiusing (I expected to see dry black glue between the wood and inlay)

Now is this because...

Its ebony FB, I used black super glue and the inlay is either dark of very contrasting and so I am not looking hard enough and the glue filled gaps between inlay and wood are still there.

or

the glue has caused the wood to expand tightly against the inlay material? But I used superglue, which as far as I know wouldnt cause the wood to expand or swell in any way?

So that said, could you cause wood to swell tightly against an inlay to close gaps? If you could get water based glue such as titebond to glue inlay material to the FB it would be a pretty cool way of ensuring a tight fit.

First, your probably just seeing glue that filled the gap. Ebony is usually easy to fill cleanly(it is pretty much jet black on black), but good for you it sounds like you did a very nice job.

As far as expansion. Sure wood swells that is a no brainer, and dead easy to test. How much expansion will be limited(you are not making a lot of wood swell and thus your expansion will be limited to a small percentage of that volume), and also will vary depending on the angle of the grain(longitudinal expands very little, radial more, and tangential orientation should swell the most). For those reasons I would not opt to rely on it. I would still opt for a glue that would fill well and adhear to the material I am inlaying(Titebond doesn't adhear to shell very well for example).

Rich

[Bmth Builder]

ah well it was just an idea as to something that could be helpful even if you can do spot on inlay routes, but theres always a catch

and thanks I'm pretty impressed with my first attempt