Filling Crack on Gibson Headstock Break (Pt. 3 of Gibson ES-225 restoration)

So I unclamped the cauls and took a look at the headstock crack repair.

I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out.  One of the issues I was concerned about was the fact that there was a fairly large gap (a millimeter or two) at the neck end of the break.  By that, I mean that the whole headstock was tilting a couple degrees forward, toward level, rather than the angle it was supposed to be.

The clamping and gluing fixed that. The crack is very tight and very strong.  I can't budge it. Which is a good thing, since it will soon have about 150 lbs of string pull on it.

Some folks might stop here and call this a finished repair.  And indeed, you could go ahead and string it up now.  (Well, if the thing had tuners and a bridge on it, you could!)  But I'm not overjoyed with having such an obvious crack line there.  Surely I can do something to improve the cosmetics of the repair?

I'm going to use some amber medium viscosity super glue (CA) to fill the crack.  I think the amber will be a decent match for the color of the wood.

I drop some CA on the crack with some of those Stew-Mac applicators...

...and wind up with this.

There were two divots near the repair that I decided to fill as well.

I did 2 passes with the CA to build it up some.  After it dries, I'll scrape and sand the glue level with the wood.


The entire ES-225T project:
1. Starting - making a custom moulded caul for headstock break
2. Headstock break repair using hide glue
3. Filling headstock crack pt 1 (This page)
4. Filling headstock crack pt 2
5. Repairing divots in top
6. Installing the tailpiece, bridge, enlarging tuner holes
7. Making a bone nut
8. Installing tuners, and wiring
9. Installing nut and pickup
10. Completed - photos of completed ES-225T
Updates March 2015:
11. Bigsby B11 Installation, Pt. 1
12. Bigsby B11 Installation, Pt. 2