Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Lining it Out
Last night I figured out a good way to remove the linings that I had poorly installed before. I had been frustrated trying to figure out a good way to remove them without damaging the sides.
I had tried using my heat gun (like you'd find at Walmart for removing paint) and pulling on the lining, but it seemed like I couldn't get the glue to soften up enough, and I didn't want to badly scorch the wood.
I tried heating up a putty knife that I had grinded thin, and then trying to insert that thin hot edge right into the glue line. I've removed the back from a guitar this way, and it worked pretty well. I wasn't having any luck with this. That's a great method for separating long smooth joints, but this is a series of many small gluing surfaces that I'm trying to break. There's also the danger that the putty knife will dive in to the grain of the sides.
So I had been trying the heat gun method last night and once again it wasn't working well. So I was about to give up, when I decided to stick a tiny screwdriver right into the slot (or kerf) of the lining. I lightly twisted the screwdriver, and it popped off the little section of the kerf next to it. It turned out easier to break the glue joint in shear (sideways) than in tension (pulling away).
So I just moved the heat gun back and forth over a 4" section at a time (that orange blur in the photo), and put a light twisting force on the screwdriver. I got a good sense for when the glue was about to break it's bond, so it got quicker as I went along. In no time I had the linings on both sides cleanly removed. A little sanding removed the remaining glue residue on the sides. Last night I glued new linings into each side, and put extra clamps over the clothespins at the waist to make sure I didn't have to redo it yet again.
I had tried using my heat gun (like you'd find at Walmart for removing paint) and pulling on the lining, but it seemed like I couldn't get the glue to soften up enough, and I didn't want to badly scorch the wood.
I tried heating up a putty knife that I had grinded thin, and then trying to insert that thin hot edge right into the glue line. I've removed the back from a guitar this way, and it worked pretty well. I wasn't having any luck with this. That's a great method for separating long smooth joints, but this is a series of many small gluing surfaces that I'm trying to break. There's also the danger that the putty knife will dive in to the grain of the sides.
So I had been trying the heat gun method last night and once again it wasn't working well. So I was about to give up, when I decided to stick a tiny screwdriver right into the slot (or kerf) of the lining. I lightly twisted the screwdriver, and it popped off the little section of the kerf next to it. It turned out easier to break the glue joint in shear (sideways) than in tension (pulling away).
So I just moved the heat gun back and forth over a 4" section at a time (that orange blur in the photo), and put a light twisting force on the screwdriver. I got a good sense for when the glue was about to break it's bond, so it got quicker as I went along. In no time I had the linings on both sides cleanly removed. A little sanding removed the remaining glue residue on the sides. Last night I glued new linings into each side, and put extra clamps over the clothespins at the waist to make sure I didn't have to redo it yet again.
