Medical Clamp

[Jim_H]

Epoxy is a terrific adhesive.

It's isn't very popular as an adhesive in guitar making, primarily because of repairability issues. It's best suited to imperfect joints, which hopefully you aren't dealing with. It can also leave a glue line that can show up under finish.

I think Titebond Originial or the LMII instrument makers glue are probably your best choice.

There are a couple of threads over on the OLF that are discussing some of these issues. There is a poster named hugh.evans, who I believe is a product tester from Franklin/Titebond.

I think the most interesting thing he stated was that the ideal clamping pressure is as much as you can possibly get without compressing/distorting the wood. And that clamping pressure alone will not cause a starved joint with this type of glue.

He said the most common cause of starved joints is the glue being scraped away my moving the joint, or by clamping pressure decreasing after the initial maximum pressure is achieved (i.e. releasing a clamp to make an adjustment and then re-clamping).

These comments were definitely enlightening. Gave me some things to think about.

[kencierp]

Epoxy breaks away just as easy as Titebond or LMII imported white glue if heat is applied to break the joint. Kinkead and other makers plan ahead in the neck construction for what they consider inevitable warping caused using water born adhesives for the fingerboard to neck assembly. So I believe slower cure Epoxy is a viable alternative to water borne adhesives -- and in fact at some point I will use it.