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Hi everyone

I was making my second attempt at making the lap joint on the x brace for my 000 build and it was working out great. The joint was tight and the angle was almost right on. I was filing a little our out of one of the braces to make the bottom of the joint a little deeper and it was like it fell apart on me.

The pictures are attached. Does this look like runout to you?

looks like you stressed it and this is what a stress riser looks like. As you flexed it , the stress is focused at the sharp corner and snap.
while all wood has some runout I think you over stressed this. Looks like sitka.

Thanks John

Yeah - it is sitka.

What is frustrating is to get replacements for these you have to call Stewmac to special order them or make them yourself. They have the dreadnought braces but not the 000. I would try to make them myself but I don't have a drum sander yet so buying the raw wood is not an option.

Anyway - I called StewMac and ordered two more sets of these things for a third attempt and have a backup just in case.

Thanks

-Pat

Definitely run-out, but of a different sort. Runout is a grain line that does not stay straight and contained along the length of a piece and the term generally applies to staight grain. Look at the grain of the piece you used for the brace - impossible not to be run out. It would be easier to work with and have better performance as a brace if the grain were straight down the length of the piece rather than have that jiggy-joggy section.

Ed

lonecedar959 wrote: I would try to make them myself but I don't have a drum sander yet so buying the raw wood is not an option.

While a thickness sander makes the task easier, one can certainly make braces without one.

If you are looking for brace wood, I might stop in at the local Home Cheapo or Blowes and pick out the nicest 4 foot piece of 1X4 that they have. You might even look in the 5/4 thick bin. Look for the straightest, tightest grain one you can find, something that will give you vertical grain up the tall dimension of the brace. You could get 2-3 guitars worth of braces out of one of these. For the level of guitar that we all build (well, most of us) this stuff works great.

Ed

ruby@magpage.com wrote:Home Cheapo or Blowes

LOL! I always call it Blowes but I never thought of Home Cheapo! I can't even type that without laughing!