iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

Gonna do some maintenance and repair on the instrument belonging to the Chooky Dancers/Josh, there's a split in the mouthpiece area which was previously fixed with duct tape and there are two chips in the bells from rough handling, plus some hairlines throughout. The instrument was soaked for a prolonged period, then left in the sun... not the way to look after a trad instrument from Arnhem Land lol.

Will fill the crack with a flexible adhesive and a filler then make two wedges to fill the missing chips. Will look great when finished. Currently plays in F or F# fundamental with G or G# overtone, needs a little tuning for a rip-roaring sound though.

Guan

That crack doesn't look too much of a problem but I would drill a very small hole at the very end of the crack first , to stop it cracking down even further, then fill it. Some people try to glue the two parts by clamping them back together but that's just asking for it to split again(or split somewhere else to relieve the stress) I would just fill the gap with some resin (I use alaphatic wood resin) mixed with some wood dust, then rub it down and re-paint that bit, should be invisible when done. You can repair the chips various ways from filler to making some wood filler pieces as you have mentioned, should look great, post some more pics when done, would love to see your handy work

Paul

Nice one Paul, yes aliphatic wood glue is good, otherwise known as yellow glue or carpenter's glue if people don't know and need to Goolge it, it has a different chemistry to PVA. It has greater strength than PVA too. The thing is it dries to a very hard material and resembles epoxy in the end and I don't like epoxy. The Gurruwiwis use epoxy, a 2-part 5 minute epoxy is what they can get in their local hardware store. Depending on how epoxy is used and mixed, it can be unreliable though in that it can crack. PVA is better in that regard as it moves with the wood, there's flexibility in PVA which is missing in aliphatic glues and epoxy resins.

What else do people on here use? There are so many different types of glues and resins, from the old-fashioned animal hide glues to that weird thing called Shellac (an insect secretion), to modern day synthetic creations. What works best for you?

The drilling thing too, how many people do this and is it actually effective? I guess the difficult part is trying to see where the crack actually starts.

I started work on the repair yesterday and am still going on it, will put up some pics when done.

Guan

We used to use that animal glue(horse glue we used to call it) at school back in the early 60's, it stinks when you warm it up but is very effective I seem to remember. My parents are still using tea tray I made at school back in 1965 which was stuck together with the stuff!! As regards the aliphatic wood glue, I have just used it on a didge given to me by Gerald Appo, whose family make and sell the Naiuwa aboriginal instruments (non Trad),when I visited them in Queensland on our last visit. He couldn't sell it as it had a small crack (which had been filled)so he gave it to me. I scraped off all the old varnish and stain, the filler fell out, so I re-did it as above and repainted it in yellow ochre....plays fine now, it is a C a bit low for me but a good practise instrument. With the drilling of a crack, I examine it with a 30X magnifier(like a hand held mini microscope) with a pen in hand, find the extreme end of the crack and mark it, you can almost guarantee that is goes down further than what you see with the naked eye. Shellac? thought that was used for French polishing? Looking forward to seeing it when it's done

Paul

+1 for drilling the little hole to prevent the crack from expanding further.
+1 for filling the gap without clamping the didj.
+1 for using a glue that will remain flexible in order to move with the wood.
As for the name of the glues... we do not have the same names around here, so...

Good one bro, I agree with you there. I'd add that clamping is illogical as it ADDS tension to the wood, theory would tell us that to restore the wood to its natural condition we also need to restore the moisture content. Actually my first proper mago split very badly as I plunged it into the family swimming pool daily, sometimes even leaving it in there overnight, and with repeated wet-dry cycles, it cracked all over. I fixed the mago by soaking it entirely in water, and in doing so, the gaps closed. Whilst the instrument was still saturated with water, I sealed the outside of the instrument first with Bondcrete, then plugged one end of the mago and poured Bondcrete into the bore and left it mixture standing for a few days, with occasional agitation so there's good mixing of Bondcrete and water. Worked a treat. Pics elsewhere on this forum.

I've never needed to drill a hole but it kinda makes sense on a cellular level trying to imagine the rate of moisture loss and the gradients that are likely with and without crack in the near vicinity.

Guan