Can I rescue this side?

[Pat.Hawkins]

I read some words of wisdom in a woodworking magazine once........
Repeating an action is guaranteed to produce the same result.

I've had to remind myself of that on many occasions.

In this example, I've ruined a fair amount of figured sides with cracking at the apex of the bout or waist.

I finally stopped repeating the action and did some homework. Thought I had it as the first side went ok.
The main changes were:

• Use a thin metal back-strap around the worked area;
  Be patient, let the pipe reach full temp. before using it; and
  Stop often and give the dry patch a squirt of water with 10% cloudy ammonia;

Back to my question...... is there some way to fix it?
I was thinking maybe a sound hole in the upper bout?
I've never done one of those and would prefer not to if I can get away with it.
Cheers - PH

[kiwigeo]

Is there supposed to be a photo with your post Pat?

[Pat.Hawkins]

Oops!

Uke side.jpg (126.72 KiB) Viewed 16328 times

[56nortondomy]

Make an inside and outside caul flood it with ca and clamp it, you can also squeeze titebond into it and clamp it. Once the glue cures it should sand up ok. Wayne

[johnparchem]

I agree with Wayne that the crack can be glued down. Your picture caught my eye; how thick are your sides? I bend at around 2 mm actually .075-.080".

[kiwigeo]

What Wayne says. Give it a go.....the worst that can happen is you fail but even worse is chucking a side when you could have saved it.

Key things to watch are side thickness and support for side during bending.....and dont work on a bending iron in shots and tank top!

[Taffy Evans]

Hi, I have done as described above a few times over the years and ended up with a hardly visible hairline. On the other hand, I have also straightened/flattened out a bent side and used the inside after repairing the damage.
It is one reason I do not shape my sides before bending, it gives me a choice of which side I can put on the lower side of the guitar if I have an accident like this.

In one build I managed to salvage the sides by using them on another build which I made with narrower sides, cutting out the damage. I was surprised when somebody snapped it up and loved it.
Taff

[Pat.Hawkins]

Thank you for the encouraging replies.

The sides are for a Baritone Ukulele. They're 2mm. I have it gluing up now between cauls. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

PS. a little voice was telling me not to as it's pretty cold in the shop today. Wet, rainy and a bitter wind. A max today of 8°C.
Lovely Tassie..... beautiful one day bloody freezing the next!
My concern is whether Titebond is ok with that.

Why didn't I move into the lounge?

[kiwigeo]

My concern is whether Titebond is ok with that.

6 degC here in Adelaide Hills when i did a glue up today

[Jim watts]

One thing that can help is to heat up a larger area of wood, several inches on either side of the area you’re working to bend. Not just heating the local area where you want to bend.
The backer is a good idea also.
I think the backer and the ability to heat the entire side is the reason side bending machines are so successful.

[JacobH]

I just did that on my latest, luckily I had the off-cut from that end and turned it into a cutaway. I have tried glueing them back before but while it worked the repair was very obvious when looking closely.