Fretboard Divots

[Matt Haugen]

Well, I have never seen a neck as badly gouged as this one. I tried Frank's superglue and sawdust method and the result was pretty great. Special thanks to you Mr Frank Ford.

One word of caution.... Through this process when I would combine the rosewood dust and super glue a smoke would start to come from the wood. I got a bit in my eyes and it burned like heck. If you do this process, be sure to be in a well ventilated area and wear goggles.

[Matt Haugen]

Here is a close up of the 2nd fret area.

[Greg Mirken]

This is certainly an application in which superglue shines. Unfortunately that's literally true, because over time the fill tends to gloss up from finger wear, because it is essentially acrylic plastic. Still, there's no better way to do the fill short of replacing sections of the board. You should caution the customer that the repair will eventually become more visible. I started doing that after having to explain this tendency to customers.

[Matt Haugen]

Thanks for the heads up Greg. I will certainly pass that information along.

[Ned Knepp]

 I've never used this on anything so deep. It really looks great Matt!  

My thanks for the tip too, Greg. I wasn't aware of the tendency to get shiny either.

[Kerry Krishna]

Matt, you have done a truly outstanding job on this. Amazing is a great descriptive word! What would we all do without Frank Ford's advice?

[Hesh Breakstone]

Plus one to what our friend Kerry said - looks fantastic!

[Paul Verticchio]

Top shelf  work. Most sincere Kudos, Matt!!!!

[Matt Haugen]

Thanks for all of the kind words Gentlemen. Once again, Thanks to Frank for the tip. It saved me a lot of work. Also, I really wanted to get the caution about the chemical reaction out there. That smoke was some bad news.

[Greg Mirken]

My understanding is that the fumes from CA kicking off are irritating [which I certainly agree with] but not toxic. Does anyone have information otherwise?

[Kerry Krishna]

 Greg, I don't mean to be rude my friend, but how could it be anything but toxic? It's a chemical reaction that is happening. It's not like working at the Kellogg's corn flake factory, this stuff is dangerous I am sure.

 I always keep my face FAR away as possible from the smell. There have been hundreds of times  I go into the other room when I can no longer hold my breath when I am working like this, or crazy glue something and put it in another room all together to dry.

. And the Accelerant?  My Gosh! I RUN away after doing a single spray of that stuff! It's all got to be cancer causing in big enough long term doses. 

[Greg Mirken]

You're not being rude, Kerry, but you're not answering my question. I don't care if you run out of the room when you use CA because you think it's pickling your brain. If you do some research all sources I find say the toxicity is very low. After all, it is used as a surgical and veterinary suture substitute.

As you probably know, moisture kicks the stuff off instantly, which means it becomes inert when it comes in contact with mucous membranes, before it can enter your system.

You sure can get quite a local burn from the exothermic reaction, though.

[Ned Knepp]

The greatest initial risk appears to be fire since the reaction can be pretty intense under the right circumstances.  

Everything I read indicates that the fumes can be an irritant and shouldn't be breathed but aren't really much more toxic than the liquid form of CA. That's not to say that it's OK to breath them. I think it just common sense not to do it but it also seems that it's not as great a risk as some of the other chemicals we may come into contact with.

Like so many other thing, long term exposure can cause allergies which is another good reason to be careful. Personally, I'm cautious about inhaling fumes or even dust because of the risk of allergic reaction in the airways.  " I really hate that when it happens."