Wood issue, looking for some tips/recommendations

[ejendres]

I bought some 8/4 KD ash from a local lumber yard last week. Before I started milling the wood to make a body blank I noted a small crack at one end of the board and a hairline crack near the middle. I put some black CA glue into both cracks and proceeded to mill the board.

I'm planning to make a thinline tele so after I squared up the 2 halves of the blank I resawed them to create the top.

I brought the boards inside and noticed after sitting for the day both the edge crack and center crack have developed into hairline cracks down the entire length of both boards. What are my options here? The boards have nice grain and I'd like to use them. My first thought is to flood the cracks with more CA, continue and planned, and glue the top onto the cracked face to lock them in place. Do I have other options?

 

[ARandall]

Looks like you might have brought them into a hotter drier environment.

If I buy wood from anywhere I tend to let it sit in a cool place for a while (a few weeks at the least) before I do anything to it........and more importantly I add (or don't get rid of) endgrain sealer.
I think the issue is that its probably got a 'potential crack' issue all the way through the length, and if it doesn't show now it will do at some point either in the build or in the life of the guitar. Remembering that this is a thinline, F-hole or not you will always have unsealed wood in the inside of the chambered areas.

The CA glue (plus some clamping) is I think your only option......I have had similar bits of wood where I've had to repair splits that have developed. But in my cases they have all been solid body guitars where the wood is fully enclosed.

 

[cmjohnson]

I think you know the answer already. Trash it and get another piece. This time get it from a high quality supplier who provides fully air or kiln dried stable woods.

Know when you're looking at an eternal problem. Don't build something based on it.

 

[Marty M.]

Cut it down the crack. Let the wood sit for a while and then rejoint the wood and reglue it into a 3 piece top. Check the moisture content before you use it to make sure it is dry to your conditions. Use wood glue...

 

[ejendres]

Looks like you might have brought them into a hotter drier environment.

If I buy wood from anywhere I tend to let it sit in a cool place for a while (a few weeks at the least) before I do anything to it........and more importantly I add (or don't get rid of) endgrain sealer.
I think the issue is that its probably got a 'potential crack' issue all the way through the length, and if it doesn't show now it will do at some point either in the build or in the life of the guitar. Remembering that this is a thinline, F-hole or not you will always have unsealed wood in the inside of the chambered areas.

The CA glue (plus some clamping) is I think your only option......I have had similar bits of wood where I've had to repair splits that have developed. But in my cases they have all been solid body guitars where the wood is fully enclosed.

Yeah, I usually hit the inside of my thinlines with danish oil to seal it before a glue on the top, but either way I think you're right.

 

[Lester]

Yeah, either get new wood, or what @Marty M suggested: Saw the crack out and reglue. That might not be the look you want. Or maybe you need to do two cuts to make it symmetrical to get a look you like. Anything you do to fix that crack will be temporary... that wood is going to move again in the same spot.