Need some help from the woodworkers out there. My wife brought some nice boxes back from a trip to Houston, and I want to start on projects, but I need to repair a bit of damage and don't know the right way to go about it. Hope someone here can help.
The first is this Cohiba Toro box - absolutely perfect except for a small ding in the leading edge of the lid. I've heard of steaming out wood dents but don't know how or if it would work on this:
Second, She brought me a nice Padron box with a beautiful grain on the lid, bit the lid is warped. If I brace it down and steam it, will it stay unwarped, or will the plywood always stay warped? Will I need to add permanent bracing underneath? I don't want any screws showing.
Any help would be great! Thanks!
Tags:
Hal-
For the first one, here is how I steam out dents: Get an old towel and a really hot iron. Make the towel damp but not sopping and lay it on the dent folded in half. Put the iron on top of the towel for just a couple of seconds and remove. You should hear it hiss, if not it is not hot enough. Do that a couple of times and the dent should start to steam out. Careful not to scorch the wood, though. Streaming only works so far, but it should raise the grain back a little. Here are a couple of caveats: This process can (but does no always) cause the plys in plywood to separate, so it if is a plywood box, do it at your own risk. Also, the steam will raise the grain of the wood around the dent as well, so you might need to sand back the wood around where the dent is.
Now to the warped lid: Wood (as you probably know) expands when it gets wet. So what likely happened here is that the bottom ply got moist and expanded. Often cigar boxes have dehumidifiers in them so the inside of the box is much drier than the outside. Once the dehumidifier is removed, the very dry wood on the inside absorbs moisture from the air and expands. So how to counter act the swelling of the inside ply? Steaming the top as you mentioned above seems like a good shot to me, just do it in light passes and do it carefully. That might make the outside ply swell and remove the warp. If you resort to interior bracing, you should not need screws, just glue and clamp them on and let them sit for a couple of hours.
Hope this helps, looking forward to seeing the finished pieces.
Hal-
For the first one, here is how I steam out dents: Get an old towel and a really hot iron. Make the towel damp but not sopping and lay it on the dent folded in half. Put the iron on top of the towel for just a couple of seconds and remove. You should hear it hiss, if not it is not hot enough. Do that a couple of times and the dent should start to steam out. Careful not to scorch the wood, though. Streaming only works so far, but it should raise the grain back a little. Here are a couple of caveats: This process can (but does no always) cause the plys in plywood to separate, so it if is a plywood box, do it at your own risk. Also, the steam will raise the grain of the wood around the dent as well, so you might need to sand back the wood around where the dent is.
Now to the warped lid: Wood (as you probably know) expands when it gets wet. So what likely happened here is that the bottom ply got moist and expanded. Often cigar boxes have dehumidifiers in them so the inside of the box is much drier than the outside. Once the dehumidifier is removed, the very dry wood on the inside absorbs moisture from the air and expands. So how to counter act the swelling of the inside ply? Steaming the top as you mentioned above seems like a good shot to me, just do it in light passes and do it carefully. That might make the outside ply swell and remove the warp. If you resort to interior bracing, you should not need screws, just glue and clamp them on and let them sit for a couple of hours.
Hope this helps, looking forward to seeing the finished pieces.
Those spots you're trying to remove .... that's called character and Mojo. If you fix them boxes, they might never sound right!
AFKAM ;)
Started by Bill Andy in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by Southern Ray May 7. 11 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Bill Andy in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by Taffy Evans May 5. 6 Replies 0 Likes
Started by J. D. Woods in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 26. 8 Replies 1 Like
Started by Southern Ray in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 26. 6 Replies 0 Likes
Started by J. D. Woods in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by BrianQ. Apr 25. 4 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Rich Butters in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Crazed Fandango Apr 22. 4 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Nomad Jack in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by J. D. Woods Apr 17. 7 Replies 2 Likes
Started by Moritz Voegeli in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 14. 6 Replies 2 Likes
Started by Timothy Hunter in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Apr 10. 14 Replies 3 Likes
Started by Tom T in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 9. 9 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Southern Ray in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 4. 7 Replies 1 Like
Started by Timothy Hunter in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 27. 1 Reply 2 Likes
Started by Taffy Evans in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 10. 1 Reply 3 Likes
Started by Cigar Box Nation in Feature Articles. Last reply by BrianQ. Mar 9. 4 Replies 3 Likes
Started by Ghostbuttons in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 9. 5 Replies 1 Like
Started by Justin Stanchfield in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 8. 6 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Ken I in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Brian partington Mar 8. 8 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Southern Ray in Cool gear discussion - that's not cigar box related. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 6. 5 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Taffy Evans in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 5. 4 Replies 2 Likes
Posted by Vlad on March 31, 2024 at 11:48pm 0 Comments 1 Like
Posted by Vlad on March 6, 2024 at 2:32am 5 Comments 2 Likes
Posted by billy jones bluez on February 28, 2024 at 2:09pm 0 Comments 0 Likes
Posted by billy jones bluez on February 17, 2024 at 11:00pm 0 Comments 0 Likes
Posted by Vlad on February 11, 2024 at 1:06am 1 Comment 1 Like
© 2024 Created by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker. Powered by
Cigar Box Nation is presented by C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply, your one-stop-shop for Cigar Box Guitar parts and accessories!