Making heel cap purfling

Beau Hannam Ukuleles · Feb 4, 2015

Gluing up heel cap purflings- I like to do enough for 10 or so instruments.

I use 5 min epoxy (or West systems if im mixing up a batch anyway).

Using epoxy makes the sheets dry and stay flat.

If you try making a small batch with Titebond it will curl. Titebond is fine if your going to use it straight away.

Here im using 10 B/ 20 W/ 10B fiber (from RCtonewoods) to match my binding purfling (from stewmac)

Beau Hannam Ukuleles · Feb 4, 2015

glue it to the heel cap

Moore Bettah Ukuleles · Feb 5, 2015

......or you can just buy the sheets from Gurian. Any size and dimension you want.

Beau Hannam Ukuleles · Feb 5, 2015

rctonewoods sell 36" x 5 or 6 " for $9 a sheet- pretty good price

Chris_H · Feb 5, 2015

That amount of clamping pressure seems on the weak side. The spring clamps really do not do much, when spread out across that much area, especially with 5 minute epoxy, as it will start to gel pretty quickly. No that it probably matters much, though. 30 minute epoxy in a vacuum bag. Then there is minimal glue remaining.

Moore Bettah Ukuleles · Feb 5, 2015

Beau Hannam Ukuleles said:
rctonewoods sell 36" x 5 or 6 " for $9 a sheet- pretty good price

I mean already laminated.

Beau Hannam Ukuleles · Feb 5, 2015

Chris_H said:
That amount of clamping pressure seems on the weak side. The spring clamps really do not do much, when spread out across that much area, especially with 5 minute epoxy, as it will start to gel pretty quickly. No that it probably matters much, though. 30 minute epoxy in a vacuum bag. Then there is minimal glue remaining.

These are only 6" long x 1" wide- 2 clamps probably would have been fine- they came out super flat

Moore Bettah Ukuleles said:
I mean already laminated.

MMMmmm...pre laminated.... (in homer simpson voice)

chuck- do you buy big sheets of pre laminated stuff then cut it it purfling, heel caps etc?? how much is a sheet??

Timbuck · Feb 5, 2015

I use thin acetone based adhesive on my BWBWB rosette laminations.

..Works for me !

sequoia · Feb 5, 2015

This is a great post because I did pretty much the same thing and got not so good results. I laminated with CA glue. It looked great until sand out when the lines got ragged and tiny sheets came off. I was very disappointed. I must have done something wrong, but the fiber stuff did not sand well for me at all. See below. Note ragged white line. (please ignore crappy healcap join to body. please)

Beau Hannam Ukuleles · Feb 5, 2015

Fiber is pretty hard stuff- especially when hit with ca glue- i usually chisel, file and sand the excess off

Kekani · Feb 5, 2015

Chris_H said:
30 minute epoxy in a vacuum bag. Then there is minimal glue remaining.

I just sealed up my reservoir for my venturi vacuum yesterday. Making my bridge clamp now. This should be fun when I start doing preshaped braces, on a radius.

Yes, plan on doing some veneering as well. Got some carbon fiber sheets, maybe I'll see what kind of layups can be done.

Beau Hannam Ukuleles · Feb 6, 2015

Kekani said:
I just sealed up my reservoir for my venturi vacuum yesterday. Making my bridge clamp now. This should be fun when I start doing preshaped braces, on a radius.

Yes, plan on doing some veneering as well. Got some carbon fiber sheets, maybe I'll see what kind of layups can be done.

I was thinking of going to go the vacuum clamping method for bridges on ukes- let us know how it all goes!

Kekani · Feb 6, 2015

Beau Hannam Ukuleles said:
I was thinking of going to go the vacuum clamping method for bridges on ukes- let us know how it all goes!

When I'm done, I'll call it out of the box. . .

Tested it, with a makeshift clamp - I need to install the fitting in the frame, and not the rubber (the hose is too heavy for that small an area). Clamped a bridge blank to my bandsaw table, holy crap! I was concerned about "atmospheric pressure" not being enough, but I get it now. Is it needed? Probably not. Is it cool? Definitely!

Beau Hannam Ukuleles · Feb 6, 2015

How much do you think it would cost to get a cheap vacuum setup going???

Kekani · Feb 6, 2015

If you have a good compressor, Joewoodworker.com has the plans. Veneer supplies has the parts (same guy). Less than $200 for the V2plus, unless you want to go with a pump, then less than $400. I should've bought the whole kit from them, instead of trying to piecemeal the fittings (was more $$$ in the end).

Beau Hannam Ukuleles · Feb 6, 2015

Did you buy the vacuum bridge clamp from LMI or just make one??? --- https://www.lmii.com/products/tools-services/vacuum-tools/vacuum-bridge-clamp

Im a bit of a dumby when it comes to making jigs n things.

Kekani · Feb 6, 2015

I'm making mine. I went with a venturi because I have a compressor, so I didn't need the pump. If I couldn't make the system, I probably wouldn't have bought it and just do without. But, this thing looks to be very cool.

Chris_H · Feb 6, 2015

Here is mine. I made it. The hose goes to a nice vacuum unit made by vacupress.

Beau Hannam Ukuleles · Feb 6, 2015

It seems SOOOOOOO much easier then clamping into small instruments- Tenors are just ok witht eh short stw mac clamps but concerts are frustrating.

Is it hard to make a bridge clamp like this ???????- What kind of material is needed on the face that touched the instrument?

Moore Bettah Ukuleles · Feb 6, 2015

Seems like a lot of fuss and expense just to clamp a bridge. Then again, I am not a tool freak and I only glue 4 bridges a month. As far as clamping on smaller sized ukes I've made my own cam clamps. Easy peasy.

Making heel cap purfling

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Similar threads