Help With Side Repair During Build

[Darryl Young]

I'm hoping to get a few suggestions on repairing a goof-up I made while routing a channel in the lining for the UTB. This was the first time I've used a router for this. It worked great........but the mistake I made was the lighting was bad and I didn't take the time to add additional light so I could see while the router was on the side in the cutting position. I just couldn't see inside the trim router "window" to see the cutting line of the bit..........and I went past the lining and cut into the wall of the mahogany side. For subsequent cuts, I added extra light and everything worked great.

Well, to make matters worse, while trying to clean up the corners of the cut with a chisel, I busted through the side where it was routed thin. Now i was a bit sick about this but figured with no missing wood it would glue back in place with almost no visibility.

So for some reason I didn't take the time to get everything in place before trying to glue the split back down with CA glue. I tried holding it in place with my finger while the glue dried but it was taking a long time and my finger was sticking to the split piece and I feared it would pull off when I removed my finger. So then I made my 3rd, and worse, mistake.........I felt rushed at this point and grabbed a 3" clamp and clamped the sliver down. I actually felt good about it. After drying I went to remove the clamp........and the clamp was glued to the mahogany splinter! In my rush, I didn't put wax paper between the clamp and the wood! When I finally worked it loose it pulled up part of the mahogany which left a small gap and left an even thinner wall so the area over the end of the UTB is even weaker.

I started leveling my sides this morning and I thinking must be repaired because its weak (not to mention looks). I have the extra width of the sides that I can cut scrape from that will match well. Do you think I can cut out a 1/4"X1/4" area from the side and trim a well fitting, color matching piece from the side trim and fill the recess without it looking too bad? I can easily make it look better than it does now.

Do you have another idea to repair this where it will look good?

Here are a couple of pictures.

[Zen]

I'm hoping to get a few suggestions on repairing a goof-up I made while routing a channel in the lining for the UTB. This was the first time I've used a router for this. It worked great........but the mistake I made was the lighting was bad and I didn't take the time to add additional light so I could see while the router was on the side in the cutting position. I just couldn't see inside the trim router "window" to see the cutting line of the bit..........and I went past the lining and cut into the wall of the mahogany side. For subsequent cuts, I added extra light and everything worked great.

Well, to make matters worse, while trying to clean up the corners of the cut with a chisel, I busted through the side where it was routed thin. Now i was a bit sick about this but figured with no missing wood it would glue back in place with almost no visibility.

So for some reason I didn't take the time to get everything in place before trying to glue the split back down with CA glue. I tried holding it in place with my finger while the glue dried but it was taking a long time and my finger was sticking to the split piece and I feared it would pull off when I removed my finger. So then I made my 3rd, and worse, mistake.........I felt rushed at this point and grabbed a 3" clamp and clamped the sliver down. I actually felt good about it. After drying I went to remove the clamp........and the clamp was glued to the mahogany splinter! In my rush, I didn't put wax paper between the clamp and the wood! When I finally worked it loose it pulled up part of the mahogany which left a small gap and left an even thinner wall so the area over the end of the UTB is even weaker.

I started leveling my sides this morning and I thinking must be repaired because its weak (not to mention looks). I have the extra width of the sides that I can cut scrape from that will match well. Do you think I can cut out a 1/4"X1/4" area from the side and trim a well fitting, color matching piece from the side trim and fill the recess without it looking too bad? I can easily make it look better than it does now.

Do you have another idea to repair this where it will look good?

I feel for you and know exactly how you must have felt when that happened. I had a similar experience but worse still mine was on the top.
However, you would never know it happened now unless you went looking for it so just keep on with your build in the knowledge that there are some great guys on this forum who will probably give you much more expert advise than I can as its my first one.

Heres what I decided to do.

The hole I made was caused by the router when i was routing for my binding and was in the spruce top of the guitar

It so happened that the hole was exactly over one of the braces so I was able to carve a piece to fit in the hole. That piece sat neatly down on top of the brace. I then carver a replica piece to sit comfortably on top of that again and this last piece sat just proud of the top.I glued both pieces in the hole.
I then sanded the filler piece of spruce until it came down level with the top. It looked fine but had left a line in the shape of the repair in the top of the guitar. Didnt look too bad but I wasnt totally happy with it. So, I then used a gouge chisel to splice out a sliver of spruce from a waste piece of the top I happened to have held on to. This sliver was more like a heavy Shaving of spruce. I laid it out nice and flat on top of the repair making sure the grain of the piece matched exactly the same way the grain ran in my guitar top. Again, I glued this down and waited for it to dry before sanding it carefully until it blended exactly with the rest of the spruce top.

As I said at the beginning , you will probably get better suggestions from more experienced builders but thats my story.

Hope it works out and I'm pretty sure that it will

Regards
Rusty

[B. Howard]

Darryl, How will you be finishing the guitar? Some repairs stand out under certain finishes. Your idea of patching in with scrap from the side itself is a good one, though definitely one of the more involved repairs I can think of. Is that your binding channel I see cut around the top? How tall would you need to make your bindings to cover the damage? That would be my first suggestion, simply cover it with binding. I am going to guess that access on the inside to the damaged area is not very good at this point but if you could cut a small mahogany patch to fill in just the damage from inside without disturbing what is left on the outside, you may be left with a small defect that could be filled with dust & CA ( clear finish only, no stain) or solvent based Famowood ( will work with stain).

[tippie53]

learn to inlay
you can use some trimmed material from the back or side and inlay into the boo boo Use HHG of Fish as CA or Tite bond may let a glue footprint.

[Darryl Young]

I think you are right John, I laying a another matching piece of mahogany is likely my best option. The good news is that the area I will remove will have laminated lining underneath so it will be supported well. The binding channel you see isn't full size but I can't make the binding wide enough to cover this. I'll inlay a piece tomorrow that is a bit too thick and sand it down level.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

This is a bummer Darryl, but a patch can probably be made to look pretty good. I question whether CA is a good choice though. I've used it on mahogany and it darkens the wood. Perhaps white glue and wood dust would be better. Practice on a piece of scrap and see what shows the least before doing it on your guitar.
It also looks to be on the bottom of the lower bout so it won't be looked at while playing....this is always a plus.

Kevin

[johnnparchem]

I agree with Kevin, I have had CA stain mohogany. ALso CA in a panic is really quick both for the good and the bad.

[Darryl Young]

I agree.....I'll use fish glue or Titebond for the repair. I'll call John later today to discuss this (thanks for volunteering to help John).

[tippie53]

Mahogany and CA don't mix well. The CA runs into the pores and makes for a horrid mess when you get to the staining and finish cycle. I am not a fan of using shellac then ca either. There are better glues for the job. The more I use Fish glue the more I like it.
I still use HHG but find Fish a handy resource.