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My Keda wood dye finally arrived so after a little time spent tinkering with colours I found something I was happy with and stained the top, which means one step closer to finishing. I still need to put a burst on the headstock to cover up some spots where stain from the sides bled onto the face, and then on to clear coats.
Nice colour. That will really come alive with clear coat.
So apparently i like to make my life harder than it needs to be. I wasn't happy with how my tests turned out regarding painting the binding to cover the stain pulled into the cracks, so I decided to rebind the body. The binding has come off relatively well so far, but even though i was taking as much care as possible to not heat the body too much, I've noticed the crack near the neck joint has been opening and closing fairly significantly.
Does anyone have any advice on how to stabilise this prior to clear coating? The last thing I want is for it to crack the finish over time.
I say good on ya for undertaking the rebinding on your first build.
As for the crack, if that was there when you opened the kit, I probably would have sent it back for a replacement myself, but we're past that now.
What I would do is get some thin viscosity CA (superglue) and wick it into the crack. If you can physically close the gap by clamping, do that. Otherwise it may take several applications to fill, and you want the final application to dry slightly proud of the timber. Then use the "single edge razor and sticky tape" trick to scrape the dried glue level to the timber without marring the adjacent stained timber (see video link below).
Drop Filling & Razor Blade Trick - This video is doing a repair on an existing finish, but the principle behind building up the CA and the scraping with the razor is still relevant. FWIW, I have not found it necessary to burnish the blade as Dan does in the video. Also I would skip the "strip sanding" since no clear coat has been applied yet.
Once the CA is cured and levelled, you can apply whatever clear coat you want over it. The split may be visible through the clear, but it should be structurally sound.
You'll need to get the thin CA from a hobby or modelling store. You won't get it at general hardware stores like Bunnings.
In hindsight you're right it is probably something I should have flagged but I'll call it a learning experience.
Thanks for the help, I'll have a crack (excuse the pun) over the next few days and come back with an update.