Side Crack Repair

[RnB]

A few weeks ago my Collings OM3C was placed on a chair as I went to get it's case in another room. All of a sudden I heard a loud noise & immediately knew what happened. I bolted back to the where it was only to find a 3" side crack down near the tailblock. The words flew! It had slid down off the chair onto another case that's stored below my computer desk. A '97 model that 'was' in remarkable shape for it's age. Thankfully, the tailblock was OK. I did not take a before pic of the crack as I was quite upset. I first thought about getting an estimate for the repair. Then thought again...& told my wife, I'm going about fixing this myself.

Since the crack was down by the end block & the soundhole's too small for my hand/arm to reach down to the damaged area, I had to make a little plexi-glass jig that pulls the split evenly back together again. I had seen a similar jig on the Net somewhere. It took me darn near a day to brainstorm this thing. A guitar string (wound G) goes through the tuner/jig & into a 1/16" hole drilled though the crack line. It then, runs through a tiny center-hole drilled into a diamond shaped Rwd Cleat (inside guitar) that aligns the crack back together as I tighten the tuner. At the same time, gluing the cleat to the inside of the guitar on the crack. I added a few spacers & some cork to to the jig so it would conform to the curve, so there would be an even distribution of pull. It did that. :>)



After the glued cleat dried, I applied rosewood dust w/ thin CA glue to secure the crack on the outside & scraped that down w/ a blade. Next, came the harrowing part of finishing. I expected this was going to be a bit challenging, trying to match a Collings' finish.




Spent some time on the finishing part of the side crack. After one attempt of drop filling w/ more CY glue & scraping it down, applying sanding sealer, then shooting lacquer, it had sunk a bit where the crack was. I think I was getting too impatient. ~Rolls Eyes

I built it up again w/ more sanding sealer & waited a couple days between sanding & re-coating, esp where the crack was...so it was level once again. I then shot a few coats of finish lacquer on. So far, so good...! I waited a week or so before leveling/polishing & the OM was back on road.

The crack was where the 2 darker spots are...


In all, I'm pleased it came out as good as it did & didn't have to go through any wait if it was sent out for the fix. On another '99 Collings SJ I own, the finish was starting to lift. A somewhat common problem w/ Collings guitars from that period. Bad Grain Filler's the culprit. Graciously, Collings' offered to refin it for me under warranty, even though I'm not the orig owner. However, this Aug 1st will be one year it's been gone. Hopefully soon...?

[johnnparchem]

nice repair!

[tippie53]

nice
I started to use the rare earth magnets. They are pretty strong. Love the end result.

[bunny]

Great job! I still have a couple of those old school jigs with tuners we used when repairing hard to get areas on guitar sides, hollow bodies, folk and violin family. I believe the idea was in a vintage Irvin Sloane book. One is huge, with 2 bass tuners and a coil of thin steel cable, I used it once to patch a ruined neck block on an F-hole thin body guitar. Rare earth magnets are great, funny, I could easily get them 20 years ago in my Soviet era hometown, why did I never think of it??:)