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I flood the back or side and spread it with a finger wrapped with packing or masking tape. I do both sides. Then I can throw the tape away. When it's dry I sand back to bare wood. It will fume again in the bender so ventilate well. I use a mask but the fumes can still get in your eyes.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Hi Filipo,

I apply a manageable amount of CA and wipe it on with wax paper.
It's difficult to do it in one shot, because the fumes are pretty strong.
So apply in small sections, in a very well ventilated area. Once dry
I sand off the bulk excess with a orbital sander.

Regards - Luc

Never tried it. Are you doing this as a pore filler?

James Burkett

James: Crack insurance I would venture....!

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Fillipo, I haven't had too much trouble with sides, so I haven't flooded them. I suppose flooding them would be a good idea after the rim is together. I flood the backs now and use a plastic (teflon) scraper to spread it around on the outside only. I let it dry in front of my spray booth, and after that I sand the outside lightly with 220 and sand any leaks (cracks) on the inside before bracing.

Hello Philippo,

I apply the CA after bending sides and bracing the back "In the White".
Grain fill is still required.

Luc

You bet. Thin CA will find pores/cracks which you can't see at all.

I recall reading that Larrivee treats all the backs with CA, after numerous minor flaws that showed up only after finishing.
Cheers
John

Hello Filippo,

I use thin or ultra thin viscosity CA, it works well.

Luc

Filippo-
Fastcap seems a bit 'different' from the CA products I've used. From the little I've read, the Fastcap instructions imply that the 'activator' is needed for the glue to set. Most CA glues set up fine without activator- and that's what you want to happen 'inside' the wood- deep in the crack.

Anyway, I'd advise some experiments before actually putting Fastcap on guitar wood.

The stuff I use is from the local hobby shop, which generally has a good supply of fresh CA.

Cheers
John

Filippo-
Well, if it works like regular CA, no problem.
And, the price seems very reasonable as well.

Cheers
John

Filippo,

Can't say I am an expert on this, but I built a madigascar RW OM recently and used CA on those rims. The rims bent fine, and I installed the neck and tail blocks and left the rims in my mold. When I got back to the project a couple of days later, I noticed some splintering along the outside of the rims. I used thin CA and a wadded up paper towel. I squeezed a bunch of CA on the rims then worked it around with the paper towel to ensure the whole area was covered. Every square inch of the outside of the rims was soaked with cA. I did this before I leveled the rims. The CA seems to have worked as the rims have been very stable since.

Good luck,

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

Flood, sand and then bend. I use Loctite 406 CA and it does not crack....I do bend on a the hot pipe.

Kinda related, I've glued add-on strips with CA (loctite)to some short BRW rims...they just were a tad short in the lower bout area to make a full depth dread. The glue (and add-ons) stayed in place until they were routed off in the binding channel.

Tim

For woods that have a tendency to split along the grain; flooding with thin CA decreases the chance of splitting significantly. I prefer to do this prior to final thickness on the drum sander prior to bending if sides. CA can be brittle if speed cured but really is not if allowed to cure on its own. When the CA is impregnated into wood it will make the wood stiffer but not increase the brittleness.

My process for flooding woods to reduce cracking is to lay the wood on a long sheet of UHMW I have 36 x 10” x ¼” thick. Just a simple sheet of wax paper on a clean flat surface will do. I lay-out a liberal amount of “EXTRA THIN VICOSITY CA” on one side and spread wit a plastic fake credit card till the surface is evenly covered. Once cured I repeat for the other side if sides. Once both sides are cured I run through the drum sander to clear wood outer surface. I always allow 48 hours before I bend to allow the CA to completely harden. I then bend as normal. (wear and respirator and goggles due to eye and reparatory irritation.)

Now I also often use “MEDIUM THICK VISCOSITY CA” for pore filling. But this is done at the typical pore filling stage. This is done just like it would be done with epoxy. When cured sand or scrape back to bare wood outer surface leaving the thick CA in the pores.

Michael-
If you are working with 'suspect' backs, do you also flood with thin CA? Or does the medium CA you use for pore filling take care of any potential back problems?

Also, about how much CA (mL or oz) does it take to pore fill a guitar? I'm wondering about the expense vs ease/speed of use trade-off.

Thanks
John

John I seldom flood backs. I have a couple sets of Ziricote but they were already splitting before thicknessing which lead me to the decision to flood them.

Most of the time once suspect backs are braced and glued to the rim they are typically quite stable at tht point. I suppose that CA pore filling does help some but med thick CA does not infiltrate as much as thin and I use med thick CA exclusively for pore filling.