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Gluing a maple veneer to repair headstock


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Hello,

Here's my situation. I was shaping the headstock from a blank and the router took too much off the tip of the headstock. It is pointed so I need to glue 2 pieces of maple to the left and right side of the headstock point.

1st attempt:  I cut the piece of maple to approximate size, then used a disc sander to attempt to get it to 1/8 thickness. However, the wood was bending and warping during the sanding. Is that because of the heat? I then sanded by hand, got it flat, and glued it. I cleaned up the squeeze my spraying water onto the bare glue joint. 12 hours later, I put the template on and tried to route it to its final shape, but the piece flung off. Actually broke off as i was routing around its corner. Was that the water on the wood, or too little time to glue, or the direction of routing.

2nd attempt: I sanded another piece to size and repeated the same steps, except i waited 24 hours. This time, I routed very slowly. I got it to shape, but the wood was black on the side from the router heat maybe, and the joint was coming loose. Was that definitely the router heat that caused it to melt the glue? There was only 1/8 inch between the router bit and the glue joint. Or was that because I sprayed water again to wipe off the glue squeeze.

3rd attempt: Instead of trying to route to the final shape, I decided to craft a piece if maple that would be perfect to size. I didn't use power tools to sand it, instead I used the Stewmac Safe T planer to get it to 1/8. I scored the joint sides with a razor so the glue would stick better. This time, I didn't use water to wipe the squeeze, just a paper towel. And this seems to work now. I then sanded the surfaces to flush it with the rest of the headstock.

Now I am gluing the piece to the right, and the Safe T planer actually bent the piece a bit too, but not too bad, I sanded and glued it and will flush it tomorrow.

Can anyone verify the cause of the 2 attempt failures? And do you guys have trouble with wood warping while using a belt sander to get a final thickness of 1/8 inch on a small piece of wood?

Thank you

Edited by esppse
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