Help!!!!

yeah, I'm building my cigar box uke, right, got the soundboard glued on, which is a three piece, some bookmatched spruce, and some red oak to go in between it. I've got the bridge plate and the two braces glued on last night, I was just taking off the weights used to clamp them in place. I take one feel of the soundboard and realize that the thing is out of shape, it's bowed, unevenly, and obviously, inward, making the contact between the braces and the soundboard kinda crappy. the area surrounding the bridge plate is flat, but the area around the braces is bowed. this is my second cigar box uke, but my first solid-wood soundboard, is there anything I can do to save this, without taking it off and scrapping it????

Hi PieMan,

I think I've had a similar thing happen. Pics of your situation would be most helpful. Once during a rainy day I had a top curl up to about a 6" radius. I tried shaving braces, pressure, nothing worked. A few days later, when it dried up, it came back.
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BTW did it cup 'backwards', like opposite to what a radiused top would be?

Hmmm. Could you post some pics? That might help.

I made a CBU back out of flat sawn red oak, and it would shift as you say--impossible to keep flat, even braced. As a result, I didn't use it. I think you may be in the same boat, and your best bet is to pull the top and try again, perhaps with some quarter sawn red oak, or leave the oak out altogether.

unfortunately I don't have pics, but it's really a very subtle curve I don't think you'd be able to see it from a snapshot, and yes it would be "backwards" the opposite of a radiused top, inwards would be more accurate. But I think it was about moisture, because I use water to thin down the glue I use (just some standard hardware store wood glue I'll get some titebond when I get better) because the glue is really thick, and generally makes better contact when its thinned. I actually took the braces off, then sanded off the glue, and got some transformers (not the robots in disguise kind, the electrical kind) and applied them to the inside of the soundboard, to weigh it down against the tabletop, then used an electric hair dryer, on a high heat setting, to hopefully take out some moisture, and just clamped it in place, so that it would run all night, the soundboard has dried out, and is flat now, so I've re-glued the braces on, without thinning the glue.

my whole hypothesis is that I am using scraps from wherever, which are likeley flatsawn, so when I water down the glue, it adds moisture to the wood, which caused it to warp, so I guess I won't be watering down my glue anymore. Also, dose anybody have actual proof that glues like titebond and hide glue work better than this stuff? I mean, it probably does, I'm not trying to troll, I'm just kinda musing

PieMan,
I don't know about the glue, I just use Titebond or LMI glue, depending on the weather and my mood. Basically because that's what those that came before me seem to use most. I don't have a glue pot so I'll have to leave the hot hide glue review for someone who does.

I have found from my own experiences that when I've applied glue to the braces that it wets, and expands that side of the brace. Then when it dries, that side shrinks, cupping the top or back. I think it was on this forum I read that if I wet the opposite side of the brace lightly to counter act the moisture from the glue, then when it dries it doesn't cup.

Probably not the highest tech solution, but it has worked for me. Good luck

Steve