Re-cutting a nut slot.

Devil#20

I need to re-cut the  A string nut slot on my recently acquired Tele thinline I picked up on here. Well happy with it and this is the only minor issue. If I fret on B there is no clearance at the first fret. I can't remember if I use superglue and baking soda or superglue and bi-carbonate of soda or does it not matter. Is it a chemical reaction with the powder and glue or is it just providing a material for the glue to bond to as a solid material?  

BigPaulie

Bicarb

Funkfingers

BigPaulie said:

Bicarb

Twin Webers, please.

BillDL

"Baking powder" is just sodium bicarbonate / bicarbonate of soda with added "cream of tartar" and something else I can't recall.  Pure bicarb (an alkali) fizzes up immediately it comes in contact with anything slightly acidic in liquid form.  The additional ingredients in "baking powder" make it work as a raising agent only when it warms up, so it's a delayed raising agent that allows cooks / bakers to leave mixed dough lying for a while before putting it in the oven where it will then rise.  The term "baking soda" is often used for bicarbonate of soda, especially in other countries, so in baking you really need to know what you have in the container.  Alka-Seltzer, sherbet, etc, are just a mix of bicarb and acid in powder form (tartaric and/or citric acid) that mix in water and react to neutralise each other while letting off carbon dioxide.

(Ethyl/Methyl)Cyanoacrylate glues form a "rock" from a lot of different powdery stuff like cement, graphite dust, and even fine sand or very fine sawdust.  It wicks in quickly and dries faster, bonding the dust together as it draws in moisture from the air to cure it, and works even better if there is a slight amount of moisture in the powder.  With bicarbonate of soda the chemical reaction is one of polymerisation where a reactive ion is created that then rapidly forms polymer chains.  The reaction is exothermic (heats up) and any "puff" you see will be water (steam) and carbon dioxide.

I have found that pure bicarb works better than baking powder for building up nut slots.  Just make sure that the slot is free from anything slippery that's been used to reduce friction, or your "rock" won't adhere in the slot.

Something has just occurred to me.  I've never tried filing bone dust from the top of a bone nut into the slot and dropping in superglue.  It may work quite well.

Alvin

BillDL  ....."Something has just occurred to me.  I've never tried filing bone dust from the top of a bone nut into the slot and dropping in superglue.  It may work quite well."

  I have done this , i slotted a nut to deep on one slot and thought i would give it a try to see how long it lasts before replacing .   So far two years  and played regularly .  It 's a bone nut and has made no difference as far as i can tell .   I got the dust by simple sanding the top of the nut above the slots and pushed it into the slot with a needle . 

BillDL

Good to know @Alvin I've done it with "synthetic bone" and hard resin type plastics like Corian / Urea-Formaldehyde (Yamaha) and it worked well for a long time.  Personally I would now just prefer to knock out the problematic nut and replace it, but on Fender style guitars with thick lacquer around the nut I would likely stave that off for as long as I could with the CA/Bicarb "hack".