Top potato chipped after bracing shaped

[lyricalgeek]

Well, I glued up my top with unshaped braces in an 18' dish and things looked great. Then I shaped my braces and glued in the bridge support. The humidity and temp. here in Nashville changed quite drastically over the next two weeks while I was out of town. When I came home my top looked like a pringles chip. With the radius in the wrong direction.

Should I use the top as is - pull the braces and re-glue them - or chalk that one up to experience and start over on a new top?

Little bummed as this was the first top where I installed the rosette with abalone.

[tippie53]

always check RH before gluing braces if your RH was 55% and it is now 30% this will happen. What is the RH now?

[MaineGeezer]

I had the same thing happen with a guitar back. The top or back expands and contracts across the grain to a much greater degree than the braces do with the grain, so when the top or back shrinks it pulls inward and bends the braces.

I ended up taking off the braces and re-gluing them when the humidity was lower. I had used hot hide glue, so the braces came off fairly readily with the application of some heat. As soon as a brace was removed, the curvature reversed itself to what it was supposed to be. When all the braces were off, the back flattened out. It was rather amazing to behold.

Your top is definitely not ruined.

[Diane Kauffmds]

Been there and done that too. To prevent it from happening again, I store my guitar pieces in the eventual guitar case, as soon as they'll fit, along with the humidification system that will be used (in my case, an Oasis humidifier). If they're still too big to fit into the case, or if there is no case available, I store the wood in a closed box with the Oasis.

When it happened to me, it wasn't very warped. I was able to reverse it by putting the top into a closed box, with the Oasis humidifier. If that doesn't work, it's relatively easy to get the braces out to reglue them.

[tippie53]

I have to agree if you can take off the braces and start over.

[lyricalgeek]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Good to know it's not ruined.

Time to remove the braces and re-glue.

[MaineGeezer]

I did have to make new braces. The ends where I started to pry the braces off got ruined. I could re-use the longest brace to make the next-longest brace, etc., though, so that was nice.