A sure fire way of using hhg for joining the top

[Simon Magennis]

The glue up starts around 3.30.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYGJdSEnLaw

[Bob Gramann]

Neat, but more work than it needs to be.

[Markus Schmid]

Neat, but more work than it needs to be.

Yes, two minutes is too much work to join a top, but that's what it takes me too. I never got it down to less than that.

[Bob Gramann]

Tape it with one side propped at an angle. Turn it over. Run the HHG down the crack from a bottle with a nozzle. Drop it flat on the table. Go on to the next task.

[Markus Schmid]

Taping takes me more time than the method with wedges.

[Todd Stock]

Everyone gets to waste time in their own unique way. Could be worse...he could be using Titebond and telling us just how wonderful that evil substance is...

[Markus Schmid]

Waiting for the vegan telling us how evil HHG is.

[Clay Schaeffer]

What? Waiting for the Vega telling us how evil the HHR is?

[Dennis Duross]

What is the purpose of running a flame along the joint?

[Jason Rodgers]

Fiiiiiiish gluuuuuue!

[Bob Gramann]

In Romanillos' book about Torres, he talks about Torres wetting the top to rim joints with alcohol and lighting it to reactivate the glue. I learned a lot from that book. While I don't flame my joints, I do reheat them sometimes if I get a bad bond. That's just one of the reasons I like HHG.

[Waddy Thomson]

You can do the same thing with an iron. Unclamp, iron, re-clamp, all the way around.

[Todd Stock]

It amazes me how little heat will remelt HHG...a pass or two on a plate with my Milwaukee heat gun is all it takes. Would love to light stuff on fire, but my insurance carrier has enough heartburn with my usual practices .

[Thomas Yerkey]

Wow, I have been over thinking this task. That is way faster than building jigs and clamps.

[Chuck Tweedy]

I'm with Bob. This is WAY more complicated that it needs to be.
The real work is in getting the mating faces of the joint to be perfect. After that, any method that holds the faces together, and aligns them - with glue in between - will do.
Tape - for instance - work really well.
Or 4 nails in the bench with a wedge or 2 is about as fast as tape.

[Barry Daniels]

Yeah, but those methods do nothing for my pyro tendencies.

[Markus Schmid]

Tape - for instance - work really well.
Or 4 nails in the bench with a wedge or 2 is about as fast as tape.

Good luck with re-heating a joint held by tape, or tucking away a bench (or several benches when joining a batch of tops).

I don't use, and wouldn't recommend a flame as heat source though. It's a bit like dodgy tablesaw practices which may go well for many years - until it goes wrong.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Marcus, I've never had to heat a top/back joint done with tape, because the method aligns the joint along its length and brings the faces together perfectly every time. There is plenty of time to adjust the tape by playing with the plates as a book prior to applying glue.
Once you apply the glue, it is seconds (as in 2 seconds) before the joint is closed, so there is no danger of the glue jelling. None.

And you can stack these very easily if you want to do a batch of glue-ups. With some stickers, I could do 100 easily in my shop - probably many more.

Do you know the method we are talking about??

[Todd Stock]

There's the join quality issue - I tape for alignment and handling, and clamp to get an invisible glue line. I'll spend a few minutes more if it gets an invisible joint every time. When a student complains about not being able to find the joint on a joined and sanded plate that wants layout for rosette and bracing, it's a good thing. As a repair guy, I see way too many failed center joints on Taylors and a range of other higher quality instruments...I am guessing their owners would have paid a little more to avoid the issue.

[Chuck Tweedy]

taping - at least the way I do it - produces an invisible glue line. I can never find it on spruce.