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Sadly this is my first post after a bit of lurking. Wish it could've been a better one.

I have the StewMac dreadnought kit. I have a problem after the first step!

I removed the clamps tonight after gluing the rims to the end and neck blocks. When I removed the clamps and caul from the end block I could see there was a 'V' gap between the rims. The bottom of the rims are close to each other but at the top there's about a .2" gap (5mm) gap. I know the gap will be replace with the heel cap but the tops of the rims are no longer flat. When I place the top down with the neck block just off the workboard the rims rock. There's a slight gap between the one of the lower bouts of the rim and the workboard.

Should I just move on (seems like a bad idea) or try to remove and re-glue the end block (seems impossible). I would really appreciate some much needed advice!

Hopefully the picture illustrates the problem.

Thanks!

What kind of glue? white glue will release pretty easily with some heat. an iron on there for a few minutes should take care of it.

I used Titebond. I'll give it a try tomorrow night. Hopefully it'll be a good lesson in having patience, not working on it when I'm exhausted, and not panicking at the first sign of a problem.

Thanks for the reply. I think my blood pressure is near normal now.
LOL

As posted use an iron and you may want to find a flexible putty knife. Allow the heat to work its magic, the glue will start to beak its bonds about 155 to 165 degree. This may take about 3 minutes on a med setting. Don't go too hot as you won't want to scorch the wood.
Once the heat softens the glue you can work the putty knife in the edge. Keep the heat going and you will feel the glue slipping . Don't force it but keep working the knife and heat. As soon as you get them apart , clean the glue. When you get ready to reglue tape the outside together. You gaping happened as you were clamping. Glue is a lubricant when wet so things will slip. The tape will help keep your joint from spreading .

Thanks guys the iron worked out great. It probably took about 30 minutes. I started with the heat low so I wouldn't scorch the sides. I ended up with the iron close to the max with no scorch marks. It seemed to go really fast as soon as I was able to wedge in a putty knife so it would absorb the heat as well.

I'm sure I'll follow up with more questions and hopefully just a few problems. Thanks again for the quick and helpful replies!

Tim

I have a similar problem except it happened on the neckblock instead of the tailblock and in addition to the separation, the block is canted a few degrees (I probably didn't keep it square while pressing it down into the cardboard).

Thanks for the iron tip, will give that a try...are you saying to just put the iron up close to the wood but not ON it? Also, once they separate, is there any recommended product to clean away the old glue instead of the putty knife idea?

Go ahead and put the iron on the wood. I made sure I kept the iron moving though. Also, I think using a metal putty knife (vs a plastic one) helped quite a bit. Once I was able to get the knife wedged in there it helped spread the heat. As far as the glue goes I scraped as much off as I could while it was warm and then sanded the rest off. It was easy to clean up.

BTW, I haven't made much progress on my guitar. I decided it might be better to learn on a uke first so I put the guitar to the side and made a uke using a kit from stew-mac. It came out great and it allowed me to try things I hadn't done before (almost all of it). I added a white binding around the top and back which gave me a lot of confidence that I'd be able to do it on the guitar. Also, I made a LOT of mistakes but I took my time and corrected every mistake I made. Adding the finish was the most difficult part of the whole thing. Perhaps because there are so many different ways to do it. I'm going to be starting on the guitar in the next week or two and am so excited to get back to it. I plan on building at least three this year.

Good luck, take your time and you'll do great!

Tim

I'm building the same kit and was concerned about that problem especially since the glue makes the joint slippery, and the clamp pressure is not exactly 90 degrees to the surface. A good recipe for movement under clamping pressure.

So I drilled two 3/4 inch holes in the caul along the center line One near the top, one near the bottom) so I could inspect the seam between the two sides when I glued it up.

Another way to prevent slippage is to tap a few brads into the neck block then snip them off at the surface, just leaving a little nub (an old woodworking trick). When the parts are put together, it more difficult to reposition them, so the initial position should be initially right on.

I had a another problem in the neck block glue up because I don't think the sides were sufficiently bent, or maybe they "unbent" sitting around the stew mac warehouse. This meant that when I glued the second block (I did one block at a time), I had to fight a lot of "spring" in the sides to get them to meet flat and square.

I use tape and tape the joint together. Also Fish and Hot hide glue tack a lot faster than tite bond