Starting a DB Project

[Ruben E garcia]

Originally Posted by wayne holmes

Easy, big fellow, with that chisel! If you are going to chisel after you glue the cleats-you might want to put tape around the cleat in case (or inverted diamond shaped cakes of lipstick) don't want to damage the top-Ruben, if you ain't careful, this could be disaster coming down the road.

I guess it would be considered butchery to use a sander on the edges of the cleats before they are glued?


cleat-look I don't know, but looks like your hand is healing up good. How did you do that- the wounds look like about 2mm shy of the width of the chisel...

Hi Wayne I guess the traditional way is chisel out the Cleat after Gluing… I don’t think that sanding before gluing it’s a bad idea… for now I am sticking to what I have seem (don’t want to be very creative).. I am going to tape around the cleats for sure, don’t want to nick the top… to be honest I did make few nicks the first time

The hand its fine, it was a 10mm wound and it hit the bone.. Lots of blood and all that, I lost some tactile sensation on the skin of my finger, I got a none feeling in a good part of that finger right after the accident, like local local anesthesia feeling… I was tacking down the cleats and old hide glue from the top with the small chisel and guess what! my hand was on the way… and the chisel slipped….. Boom… work time was over

Now I am very careful and aware where my fingers are all the time…

[Matthew Tucker]

I guess I saw your microbevel and thought it was a burr ...

i think you'll find that no amount of tape will save the top from a sharp chisel.

Better to be careful and use a slicing movement in an upward directon. You'll work it out. Your cleat looks fine to me.

[Thomas Erickson]

I hate to derail the thread any further, but -

If you are stropping your chisels, the microbevels probably aren't worth the effort - but I haven't tried both (together) either. It just seems a bit counterintuitive (to me) to put a tiny little bevel on a blade and then polish it on a soft surface. But hey - whatever works!

[Adrian Levi]

the cleat looks fine , but as we've come to realize ....

'' one mans cleat is another mans poison ''

[Ruben E garcia]

Originally Posted by Adrian Levi

the cleat looks fine , but as we've come to realize ....

'' one mans cleat is another mans poison ''

That's right

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by wayne holmes

If I ever spend 5 times longer to install cleats because I am using a chisel rather than making and shaping the cleats BEFORE I glue them, I would put down tape-layers if you have to---one slip- and you could crack the top-helloooooooooooooo

Wayne, how can you get even clamp pressure if the Cleats are already beveled?

Also, isn't it easier to Bevel/shape them AFTER the are glued down to something?

[Matthew Tucker]

Wayne whatever works for you is fine. Your descriptions are detailed, but I'd love if you would share some pics of your work.

[Ruben E garcia]

Originally Posted by Thomas Erickson

I hate to derail the thread any further, but -

If you are stropping your chisels, the microbevels probably aren't worth the effort - but I haven't tried both (together) either. It just seems a bit counterintuitive (to me) to put a tiny little bevel on a blade and then polish it on a soft surface. But hey - whatever works!

I though so too, In fact I did post a little thread about it in TB... and every one seems to agree that micro bevel was the way to go...I just make sure the are sharp one of my test is to shave few hairs of my arm, stroke a piece of paper on the edge with the chisel(this is a hard one to pass Lol).... if I only have learned something working with wood is that if your tools aren't sharp you are not going to go far....

[Ruben E garcia]

Originally Posted by Matthew Tucker

I guess I saw your microbevel and thought it was a burr ...

i think you'll find that no amount of tape will save the top from a sharp chisel.

Better to be careful and use a slicing movement in an upward directon. You'll work it out. Your cleat looks fine to me.

I got a good camera but not as good as yours I can really get cl ose details as your pictures... I guess you are into Photography too hum?

Tape, I did save the top from few nicks last time, but u are right no tape is going to offer 100% against a sharp chisel, that is for sure.

last but not least... yes I saw ur video shaving those cleats, u are using a totally different technique as I did, I was using downward force (not a great idea), u also cut with the flat part I was using the bevel part... the cleats closed to the bass bar are specially hard to shape (keep posting your restoration project it really helps a lot and more videos if thats posible )