Headstock Repair

[B. Howard]

Yes, I think John is right on this one. AR glue will not stick very well to acrylics like CA, not much does. Epoxy is the way to go here.

[phavriluk]

Cyanoacrilate glues (aka 'super glue') is available in various forms (liquid, gel) at any model airplane hobby shop. The stuff is available in a bunch of viscosities, the thinner it is the faster it sets. Same hobby shops are a good source of small volumes of epoxy, should you want to go that route. My preferred hobby grade epoxy and super glues sold in the US are packaged by 'Pacer'. In Ireland, I can't say.

[Zen]

I get to do a lot of head stock repairs. The best one I found yet is Gun stock epoxy. Yes the wood glues are good but here we are placing the glue into pure shear stress. Any compromise of the wood structure will show as a faliure. You naturally remove the tuners and make yourself 2 cauls , one for the top and one for the back of the headstock.
Use wax paper between the cawls and apply the epoxy and clamp. The one reason I use epoxy here is that you get gapping and most wood glues , especially the protein ( hide and fish glue ) are poor gap fillers, epoxy is a good gap filler.
Read the directions of your particular brand of epoxy. I use a brand that I get that is designed for gun stocks. I have yet to see this stuff fail. Cleans off well and helps act as a filler so the body and fender work on the finish repair is pretty good. 2000 psi 2 part epoxy will also work. Get the clear.

I bought the Devcon epoxy 2500 psi and did my repair. The owner had tried a home job by filling the crack with superglue and I tried to get as much of that out as possible but there may have been some still in there. Anyway, did the repair and used a ratchet strap to pull it all together as well as using cauls and clamps. Left it 24 hours and strung it up--the instructions says 8 hours cure time. Playing really nice --until I noticed something wrong--the crack had opened again. Failed repair !! Not happy.

Rusty

[tippie53]

When ever you are dealing with an attempted repair you have that risk as the best result is when you have clean wood.
You can reclamp this and add a spline to the headstock , this will give you a new wood surface and added glue surface.
Any joint that had an attempted repair is iffy.

[Zen]

When ever you are dealing with an attempted repair you have that risk as the best result is when you have clean wood.
You can reclamp this and add a spline to the headstock , this will give you a new wood surface and added glue surface.
Any joint that had an attempted repair is iffy.

Thats an interesting suggestion John, Is there some link I could look at to see how it works or how to do it ?
Many Thanks
Rusty

[tippie53]

can you call me ?

My favorite way it to take the head veneer off then I can route 2 channels that intersect the crack. I set in the 2 filler splines sand flush then glue it in.. I do not use strap clamps , I make a cawl from 1/2 inch lexan , one for the top and one for the back. I clamp if that way so all is flat. I will tap the head veneer down with the clamps snug than tighen the heck out of the clamps.

With doing the repair under the veneer , it can hide and is not visible.

[Zen]

can you call me ?

My favorite way it to take the head veneer off then I can route 2 channels that intersect the crack. I set in the 2 filler splines sand flush then glue it in.. I do not use strap clamps , I make a cawl from 1/2 inch lexan , one for the top and one for the back. I clamp if that way so all is flat. I will tap the head veneer down with the clamps snug than tighen the heck out of the clamps.

With doing the repair under the veneer , it can hide and is not visible.

Thanks John , but I'm in Ireland and have a different timeline . Are the 2 channels along the length of the headstock or cross ways ? And do they run down into the neck ?

[tippie53]

It depends on the crack.
As long as you can get on both sides of the crack , that can help. The worst one I ever had was on a Gibson Gospel model. The headstock was fractured across the grain and an amateur attempt at a repair made this a mess. I made a board with a 15 degree rise so I could clamp the headstock and neck. I cross dovetailed across the bad repair and epoxied the dovetail filler piece. Then I had a stabilized neck. I removed the head veneer as it had to be replaced anyway. I then ran 2 spline through the head just missing the tuner holes. I used wood glue on the splines and replaced the head veneer.
He is still playing it and that was about 6 years ago. I use a toner on the finish and made it a few steps darker but it worked.

[Zen]

This is the break and as you can see someone tried a home repair job. The strong epoxy I tried on it did not hold it for me despite doing a careful job, and it has opened up again. I'm even thinking about re inserting those bolts that he used back in again to hold it together . Would that help?

[tippie53]

you can spline from the nut up , that will get into the good wood on both sides.