Ideas for reinforcing head-stock break - need advice

[John Cartwright]

Hi folks, hope all are off to a great start in this new year!  ...I on the other hand, am not off to such a great start as my Hamer took a nasty spill (compliments of Gus the cat.)

The break is almost entirely across the grain ends except for about a 3/4" wedge shape near the plastic veneer, so little surface area to receive the glue.  I've been doing some odd repair here and there for friends cutting my teeth for a possible business venture into repair, but I've yet to deal with a headstock break.  I've got lots of material on how to get it glued back and even how to secure it with deeply inlaid splints or pins, like in the following link: HERE 

The catch with this sort of repair is that this is a cheap Korean made Hamer LP Jr. styled guitar from the 90's with that 'wonderfully' thick, candy-shell polyester finish which would be difficult to deal with after the repair - from what I've read anyway.

So, I had this idea - do tell it to me straight if I'm plain crazy for thinking this - but here's the idea.  Glue the neck back with hot hide glue as normal, clamp and let set.  Then, score the finish along the neck where the fret board meets the neck wood, make a cross-cut about 1/8 to 3/16 north of the first fret, remove that section of the fingerboard with heat and spatula, cut two channels for wood splints/pins, glue the splint/pins in, clean area, re-glue fingerboard section, fill cross-cut sawed space, build lacquer along fingerboard section until desired thickness is attained, sand and polish to blend with polyester finish as best as possible.

What do you think?  Is this crazy or reasonable?  I'm just figuring it would be easier and better looking than trying to do it from the back of the neck as detailed in the link above, on account of the candy-shell finish.  

As always, MANY thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.  

John 

 

[Jeff Highland]

The way I see it, you have two options

1. glue it up with epoxy, good epoxy not the 5 minute kind. Mask off the truss cavity, liberally coat the joint surfaces and leave for 10 minutes to soak into the endgrain, then bring it into contact and the final position in one move and clamp there. Do not allow the joint to open up and then reclamp. Do not move the joint until epoxy is fully set. some paste wax applied to the lacquered surface before gluing will help with subsequent cleanup.

 

2, Do the above then backstrap.

Replacing the faceplate will do nothing to restore tensile strength to the back of the neck.

Splines look bad and do little.

IMHO it's backstrap or don't bother and  just hope the epoxy works.

[John Cartwright]

I'll follow your lead here about the gluing, and do the depth drilling and hand planing method Ned describes above.  These suggestions seem the best fit given my limited tools right now.  I suppose I could at least glue it back as you, Jeff, describe, and just put it in a case until some day when I have more tools as detailed by Frank Ford.  

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts, I really appreciate it!  

[Michael P. Lemieux]

Hello,

How about this. Use double sided tape on the cradle to hold the router in place. I'd use a flatter surface to put the cradle on. The pic was just for demonstration. Just a thought.

Mike

[John Cartwright]

Hi Michael!  I like this idea!  The one hurtle would be what to do with the body and neck sticking up in the air.  I suppose I could put a hook in the ceiling with a wire from the hook to the strap button and maybe double stick tape the front of the head-stock to the table, but that's about the best idea I have for what to do with the body.  Any ideas on that part?  Thanks!

[Jeff Highland]

If you have a long enough bench just pack up the body so that the headstock lays flat then clamp it all down

[Ned Knepp]

John, 

 Just with the hobby repairs I do, I often seem to spend more time making a jig/holder/prop/.... than I do actually making the repair. Once many years ago, faced with a ballooning mandolin side, I came up with a way of making brackets with long bolts through them  to press the side back into place after it was glued up. I screwed them to a small mounting table I rigged to hold the mandolin. It worked out very well and I was fairly proud of myself for coming up with it but then I discovered Frank's site and found that he not only had the idea before I did but also made the brackets from aluminum and just screwing them to the table top. His is stronger than mine and much more reusable.  Anyway, making "tools" is just part of the process and sometimes it ends up being more fun than the repair. 

[John Cartwright]

I'll work something out for dealing with the body-up-in-the-air problem, I might be able to cut some plywood into triangles that the angle of the body to head-stock would match, use a third rectangular piece as the top with supports under it, cover it with cloth and maybe add an old belt to secure the guitar.  My brain is working better today, it seems, so out with the ridiculous "hang it from the ceiling" idea I mentioned above, LOL.  I'll take this slow and easy and keep everyone's comments in mind.  I feel like I have a better plan of attack now that I've digested things a bit.  I certainly think the 'back-strap' method looks far more favorable in mechanics and looks than the splines idea.  I'll try and report back as things progress.Thank you all!  

[Paul Verticchio]

"Anyway, making "tools" is just part of the process and sometimes it ends up being more fun than the repair."

Amen!!  It's a wonderful, fun and absolutely necessary component of the craft.

[John]

My approach is to glue up the crack then sand out some of the wood across the crack using the end of the belt sander. Then I glue in veneer in layers until I'm proud of the back surface of the neck. Then I reshape it and try to match the finish. The example I've shown here is a newer Hagstrom there was a piece missing and you could see the aluminum truss rod housing. The laminated veneer adds a lot of strength to the crack and is particularly good for short cracks. On higher end guitars I would usually match and fit in a solid piece of wood.