Mixing sawdust and wood glue together to make filler

[danglybanger]

...how ok is that?

I have a pile of alder sawdust from my recent routing jobs, and a ton of woodglue, and am wondering if mixing the two and using that rather than bondo is anyone's idea of a workable solution to filling a route.

Or should I go with bondo? Any reason why making alder paste shouldn't work?

thanks.

 

[scottish]

Re: Mixing sawdust and wood glue together to make filler

id be worried about using paste only because i dont think you will be able to get it packed in there tight enough. id rather use small dowels and glue them in really tight.

that being said, ive never tried it with paste.

 

[scottish]

Re: Mixing sawdust and wood glue together to make filler

a quick thought. if all you are doing is filling something in so you can paint over it or whatever then the alder paste should work. if you actually want to redrill and mount anything on there that is going to apply stress to the fill then i wouldnt go with a paste.

 

[danglybanger]

Re: Mixing sawdust and wood glue together to make filler

haha, no, nothing is going to be mounted to this at all, it needs only to fill the space and be relatively smooth... Not make a crater or do anything silly after finishing, etc.

I figure I'll concoct the alder/dust composite fairly heavy on the glue side, coat the old cavity with glue, let dry, and sand a hopefully smooth surface upon which I can prep?

No prob if this winds up not working as the cost is near free, as long as I find out that it won't before I lay down paint lol.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Mixing sawdust and wood glue together to make filler

You'll get much better results filling in the cavity with a solid piece of wood. Doesn't matter what it is as long as it's flush with the top of the body. Fill the sides with eboxy and let dry, then sand smooth. Once painted, you'll never know it was there, if done right.

www.projectguitar.com. Look at the conversion to hardtail tutorial for pics and apply it to your application.

Since this is a project, learn and do it right.

 

[danglybanger]

Re: Mixing sawdust and wood glue together to make filler

hmm, I thought about that, know someone who used a block of wood to get rid of a strat trem cavity, the thing swelled/dipped later and it looked like ****, which made me wary of that method...

In any case it's not such a very large area, and cutting a piece of 2x4 sounds easy enough and also near free, though I had my doubts on it... I'll read up.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Mixing sawdust and wood glue together to make filler

When done right, there's no way that piece will move. It has to be glued in place with either wood glue or hide glue (which I've read is better to use from a woodworking perspective). If you're just filling a pickup route, wood glue will be fine. For a trem cavity, hide glue would be better.

I'm about to tackle a trem cavity fill myself here soon so I've been reading up on what materials are best to use.

 

[Fikealox]

Re: Mixing sawdust and wood glue together to make filler

I'd be a bit worried about the paste cracking with humidity & temperature changes, because being of a somewhat different composition to the surrounding wood I'd imagine it would expand/contract at a different rate.

I've seen pictures where someone used a sort of putty-fill to fill a pick-up cavity. He ended up with cracked finish and stuff. On the other hand, it looked like he did a pretty dodgy job of everything anyway. It might not happen with paste, too-- it's just a thought!

 

[Redmist]

Re: Mixing sawdust and wood glue together to make filler

Bear in mind that it is going to shrink a bit on drying, and that it will not sand very smooth after it dries unless the dust is very fine and dense.

 

[theodie]

Re: Mixing sawdust and wood glue together to make filler

Slade, it works alot better with darker woods rather than light colored woods. I can fix chips in a rosewood board after pulling the frets using this method and after the repair, I can not tell where they even were. Same goes for Ebony.

Here is how to do it, Use dust from what ever wood you have, use 10 wt super glue, and accelerator. Fill in the small void with the dust, hit it with the super thin glue, then hit it with accelerator to instantly cure the glue. Sand it out and you are done. I dont think this will work good for youe application but, this is a handy nugget to store in your head.

 

[theodie]

Re: Mixing sawdust and wood glue together to make filler

If you have a whole cavity to do, I make a pattern of the void, then cut out a piece of wood to nearly exactly match the cavity. I use wood glue to glue the piece in then, I use the method I mentioned in the prior post to fill in any gaps.

Erik H, you can use this method on a trem cavity but, it takes about 3 different pieces of wood.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Mixing sawdust and wood glue together to make filler

If you have a whole cavity to do, I make a pattern of the void, then cut out a piece of wood to nearly exactly match the cavity. I use wood glue to glue the piece in then, I use the method I mentioned in the prior post to fill in any gaps.

Erik H, you can use this method on a trem cavity but, it takes about 3 different pieces of wood.

Dave, have you seen the pic tutorial on projectguitar.com where the guy uses two piece to do that? He does some initial cutting at first but I can see why he'd do that even though it's not completely necessary.

I'll be filling in trem cavity here soon and will have to cut it some to get straight edges to minimize any filler.

 

[theodie]

Re: Mixing sawdust and wood glue together to make filler

Nah, I didnt see it Erik.