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I keep hearing talk about soaking wood in CA to make the bend easier. What exactly is "CA, and where can I get it?

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Dee Tee

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"If something is worth doing, it's worth doing right."

CA = cyanoacrylate AKA superglue

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"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." - Winston Churchill

you can get some at exotic woods in burlington, but they sell it in small little bottles, and if you want enough to fill your bathtub to soak your wood in, well, that's actually not such a superb idea anyway...

CA = cyanoacrylate glue (super glue) ...

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If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason. - Jack Handey

The stuff for wetting wood to improve bending is Super-Soft II. CA is for stabilizing wood that is prone to cracking.

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Waddy

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Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Excellent! I'm headed to burlington friday. My neighbour and I are attempting to build our first acoustic guitars, and he bought a beautiful set of Zircote. We plan on bending it into a fairly tight cutaway using a heating blanket. This tip should come in handy.

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Dee Tee

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"If something is worth doing, it's worth doing right."

Ummmm.... this is certainly ambitious for a first guitar. Ziricote is not the easiest of woods to bend. Best of luck.

Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

CA (California) is a state on the west coast of the United States.

CA (cyanoacrylate) the glue isn't for bending anything, it's for gluing.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Make sure you test that heating blanket setup on something less brittle and important first!

I have actually heard of flooding with CA to stabilize punky woods like spalted stuff with soft spots before bending. Never tried it myself, and not sure if it would be any help keeping ziricote from cracking. Also, be careful of the fumes when heating the wood for bending if you try it. And buy a bottle of the solvent for it too. Using such large amounts means increased chance of finding yourself glued to something

well regardless of soaking the wood in CA, you'll have fun at exotic woods, it's quite the place

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If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason. - Jack Handey

I love questions like this. So many possibilities!

Mike

Good tip on the solvent
We've done 4 test bends with some cheaper mahogany, and two with bubinga. We will also be doing two of Indian Rosewood before we attempt the zircote. We've been soaking the wood before wrapping it in the aluminum foil(which may be too much water, and could account for the slight waving in the sides?), and sandwiching it with the blanket at two strips of spring steel. Results have improved as we've tweaked it, but there were some small hairline fractures on the tightest point of the cutaway with the bubinga.

We're bending at 0.080 and scraping an additional 5 thou off the tightest part.

Also spring back at the base is a little more than I would ideally like.

I wish I could post a picture of our bending jig.

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Dee Tee

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"If something is worth doing, it's worth doing right."

This is what confused me, I've read on a couple of the posts hear to soak zircote in this superglue. sounds a little scary to me and wanna make sure I understand this correctly before I attempt this.

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Dee Tee

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"If something is worth doing, it's worth doing right."

Ziricote is known for its tendency to crack along the black lines when bending or even just working with the wood. Some people flood the sides with cyanoacrylate glue before bending to reduce this problem. You just pour a small amount on the wood and squeegee it around with a single edge razor blade. DO be careful with the fumes though, super nasty!
I have done this to a set of sides I had that were the "crackiest" wood I have ever seen. It definitely works well.
The last set of ziricote I built with did not need this drastic treatment. YMMV

Good luck,
Mikey

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The Biggest Little City, Nevada
www.hammondguitars.com
I love building guitars!

What Mikey said is correct. I started calling Ziricote "Mexican Crackwood" many years ago, due to it's tendency to crack. In my experience, the dark grey/black ink lines do seem to be the weakest places, but it loves to crack anywhere. If you're going to flood the wood with CA, first buy the odorless version that is out there. The fumes won't kill you like the regular stuff. You'll want it very thin as well. Like any glue, CA can release with heat, but I've had some minor success bending sides (ziricote, in fact) after gluing without the glue completely releasing. I think I got lucky with that.
BTW, sometimes people flood Brazilian Rosewood for the same reasons.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."