Repairing Dings and Chips in Neck

[jasonjeremiah]

I have a couple of the reject necks from Martin that are commonly sold on ebay. Structurally they are fine, but they do have some dings and chips or tear out in areas. While some of it can be sanded out, they are certain areas where it would be impractical to try and sand the flaws out. More specifically, one neck that I plan to use has tear out around the edges of the back of the peghead where it was routed out. There's also tear out around the cheek of the heel. Also there's a dent or ding along the edge of the peghead overlay. What would be the most effective or practical way to repair these areas? Fill with epoxy? The difficulty it seems is that they are along straight edges and trying to fill an area and maintain the sharpness of the lines. I have attached some pics to show what I'm talking about. Thanks for your help.

[tippie53]

sand them out, it isn't a big deal as they necks are not final sized anyway

[Darryl Young]

Also, you could add binding to the neck around the faceplate. That would route out a lot of the imperfections. You can sand out most all the little places on the heel.......going to be sanding there anyhow to get the neck angle where you want it.

[jasonjeremiah]

Actually, the neck is already set. So, sanding would be the best thing to do? I tried sanding out some of the imperfections on another neck around the sharp line of the heel, and it came out looking terrible. It distorted and blunted the sharp line of the heel and looked sort of asymmetrical.

[Darryl Young]

How were you sanding it? Don't freehand it.

[jasonjeremiah]

Yes, I was sanding by hand. How should I be sanding it and what with?

[Tony_in_NYC]

Never sand without a block. Too much of a chance to mess up. Foam or cork work well.

[darren]

I'd change the profile/taper of the heel just enough to get rid of the chipout... quick work with a chisel then blend back with sandpaper. Just what I'd do.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Jason,
I fill along edges by putting a piece of scotch tape along one side of the edge, and then filing the chipped area with sanding dust and AR glue if it is a light colored wood, like the mahogany, or using CA if it is a dark wood like a rosewood. Let it dry, remove the tape and sand it down to the edge.....you will have a retained your sharp edge this way.
But as most have said in some of the cases, you can just sand them away.
Good luck, make sure and share with us what and how you did it.

Kevin

[Darryl Young]

Yeah, what Tony said......always use some type of block to keep things level. I've even used a pink, Pearl eraser with a bit of sandpaper on the edges of the headstock. It's easier to tip a wide block and round over the edge so something small like this seems to help.