So I finally got to glue the fingerboard on to my neck, and when I took the clamps off I found two problems (well three if you count the amount a glue I need to clean up, unfortunately I had to catch a bus home before it reached the "leather hard" stage)
The first is mostly an irritation, in a couple of places there is a hairline gap between fretboard edge and neck (with glue in it), I think I may know what happened. Since when I was prepping for the glue up I didn't have any cork but did have access to a CNC I thought I'd be clever and CNC a perfect 12 inch radius clamping caul out of 12mm MDF. Well I should probably have made it something like 11.5 inches, because I don't think it had quite enough pressure at the edges at some points.
Anyway, once I've scraped off the glue squeezeout I'll take a closer look, but I don't think there are any issues structurally, and aesthetically I can probably scrape the glue back a smidgin in the gap and fill with some rosewood dust and glue. It really just is a fairline in a couple of places, it may even disappear completely when shaping the neck.
But, more worrying is that the truss rod rattles. I haven't tried tightening it at all, but I thought it was snugly held in by the fillet before putting the fingerboard on. I'm wondering how to know if it will be "alright on the night", and what to do if it's a serious issue.
All in all, I'm rather glad I ended up doing this "affordable" guitar for my first solo project (simple woods, decent made in China hardware). It's amazing how many things can go wrong without Mark looking over my shoulder.
It'll be fine, if it still rattles after set up just drill out a marker near the middle, take all tension off the rod and glue in a dowel clamping till the glue dries. Then fit a new marker.
I used this method on the last bass I built and it totally cured it.
As for gluing a board, I leave them flat till after gluing but also run to strips of hardwood down both edges and a flat piece on top. Want to make sure those edges are nice. If possible you could also rout for binding although tricky after the board is radiused.
@nsj Thanks, I thought it was probably either not an issue or recoverable, but needed a bit of assurance before I started removing more wood.
As for the hairline glues lines at the fingerboard edge I'm less worried about them because if they don't disappear when I shape the neck I can probably hide them, and if I can't then it's no big deal in that this is supposed to be my warm up build, if it plays and sounds good then a few minor defects that the audience can't see are just talking points.
But an important lesson has been learned to avoid it in the future
@jonhodgson Every day is a schoolday as they say and never truer than when making a guitar!!😂
Enjoy the rest of your build.👍😊🎸