Here for your amusement, I used cork on my fretboard caul which unsurprisingly to you but surprised the hell out of me, stuck to my fretboard to form a beautiful beard down its edges.
However some slight sanding later it was time for some carving which I managed to do a bit of before the national was on and too be honest I was knackered.
It should be okay with cork @cheesewhisk. Did you have too much squeeze out? 🤔 At least you manage to fix it. 👍
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Also even though I checked, double checked, screwed holes and hammered nails, I still managed to glue it slightly offset.
Another learning experience @cheesewhisk. 😁
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🗝️ "Life's what you make it"🗝️
Squeeze out for days.
That means you used too much glue @cheesewhisk and that’s possibly why your fretboard got off center, it was too slippery.
Practice glueing up some scrap boards aiming for a nice even coat of glue and a snall amount of squeeze out along the seam.
Did you put glue on the neck and the fretboard? The glue should just go on one side of the joint.
Practice on scrap...
I stressed about it for a couple of days but resolved to the fact I never play those frets anyway
What an odd person.
I feel slightly cheated if I have fewer than 24 frets, 21 frets on a modern guitar should be a hanging offence in my opinion.
I think at some point I'll have to try building something along the lines of the Washburn EC36, so I can annoy bats with my solos.
That means you used too much glue @cheesewhisk and that’s possibly why your fretboard got off center, it was too slippery.
It's not my usual behaviour, but I'd have to agree with @mattbeels just this once.
There's also a difference between too many clamps and too much clamping pressure. Another of Mark's mantras is that "you can't have too many clamps".
When doing some of the critical processes, like fretboard to neck and cap to body, you need as many clamps as you've got space for. That's to ensure that the clamping pressure is applied consistently/evenly across the glue joint.
The risk, if you have a few clamps, clamped really tight, is that you might distort the shape of one (or both) of the pieces, ie you get more compression under the clamps, and you end up with a hills & valleys situation. Not hills & valleys to the extent of Scottish mountains, but fractions of a mm.
You can apply a *lot* of pressure with that sort of clamp. And you've got space for at least one more clamp between each of them.
I've got a few sets of this sort of thing;
https://www.screwfix.com/p/spreader-clamp-set-4-pack/2646v
They're reasonably cheap, quick to apply, don't exert as much pressure but enough, don't take up much space, but will do the job.
(You can't do the "this impresses the ladies" trick with them though).
Also, as you tighten each clamp, gradually, check that the pieces are still correctly aligned and that you've got a small amount of glue squeeze out evenly across the join. Don't tighten each clamp to its max in one go. Do them all to 50% (ie just gripping the pieces), check, tighten them some more, check again, repeat, repeat. Only do the final tighten when you're sure pieces are aligned, and glue squeeze out is nice and even.
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The fretboard is hanging over by 1-2mm on the bass side after about the 14th fret. I stressed about it for a couple of days but resolved to the fact I never play those frets anyway
With you on that one! Saves a lot of time fretting if you just bother with the frets that you're going to use.
I find most chords can be played in the first 5 frets ....
🤣
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Sounds reasonable but in this instance I was following the course in number and type of clamps.
I’ll bear it in mind next time. It seems to have worked out reasonably well for a first attempt but room for improvement next time for sure.
Can't add much to what the guys above said re glue amount and clamping pressure but what works for me is leaving the fretboard slightly oversize when gluing (with centre lines on neck and board as a reference and locating pins through 1st and 20 something fret slots). I then trim the board to match the glue once set.
Clamping and installing frets also seems easier if you don't carve the neck until the board is on and fretted.
The other thing I've seen to prevent slip is sprinkling a small amount of salt on to the glue - sounds mad but there are videos on YouTube of it working.
It seems to have worked out reasonably well for a first attempt but room for improvement next time for sure.
This is the important thing; you've discovered what can go wrong and how to avoid next time 😀
Guitar making is the art and science of turning expensive wood into sawdust.
In all honesty I think the amount of glue was fine and the clamping pressure was firm but not wood crushing @mattbeels, I don't know maybe you can tell from the squeeze out on that photo. I genuinely think I just shit myself as this was something I've been stressing about getting wrong and I don't think I found the nail hole on the 10th fret when I lowered the fretboard onto the neck. That on top of worrying about getting glue on the fretboard when I was lining it up but I'll definitely be more confident next time.
I don't think I found the nail hole on the 10th fret when I lowered the fretboard onto the neck.
I think you've hit the nail on the head there @cheesewhisk, if the pins are located then it just can't slip. Another learning curve, you'll get it right next time.
Interesting using the nails to pin it, the technique I've seen is to drill a hole through the fret slot (I can't remember the size) and use a toothpick (with the end broken off, so it's basically a little dowel). That can just be snipped off, so no need to drill holes in your clamping caul.
I also came across a fret slotting templating system a while back which started with locating holes on the back of the fretboard that didn't go through to the front. These were then used to keep the fretboard located for fret slotting, and again for glueing (the template was used to create matching location points on the neck). I can't remember who that was by.
Apparently, a few grains of salt sprinkled on the glue can also prevent slippage.
Interesting using the nails to pin it, the technique I've seen is to drill a hole through the fret slot (I can't remember the size) and use a toothpick (with the end broken off, so it's basically a little dowel). That can just be snipped off, so no need to drill holes in your clamping caul.
I used little picture hanging nails, just the right size to fit the fret slot and a good big head on them to grip when pulling them out.