Once the 0151 and the saw dust was mixed more Mesquite and African Black Wood was added. Here's what the glue looked like after mixing...

Kind of like a custom wood putty. Had some 6.5mm diameter mother of toilet seat dots, so I super glued one onto the top of the center bridge bolt and applied the 0151 wood putty into the bridge gouge and around the dot inlay.

Hysol 0151 requires 72 hours for curing and it stays pretty sticky for much of the cure time so I had to wait before shaping the dot inlay and cutting away the excess flashing around the gouge. After the glue cured, it was easy to chisel and sand everything flush.

The result is that the center bolt's head is visible under the inlay dot just like the other two dot inlays (only difference is the "+" head rather than the "-" head of the other two) making the whole bridge area look like it's endured normal wear and tear. The gouge is filled really nicely to the point of being unnoticeable (although noticeable in the pic) too. Finally, I used some WATCO Oil to apply a light finish.  

One final thing for this session; As I was wet sanding the entire top with 400-grit sand paper, I noticed that the finish that was gouged when I gouged the bridge had disappeared! Also gone was the routing groove that was left by my Dremmel when I routed the back of the saddle off. The finish gouge and the routing groove were much shallower than I had thought! That means instead of spraying a thin new layer of polyurethane, I can just wet sand, polish and buff the current finish and it should be as good as new! Thinning down these thick poly finishes might even help the sound board respond better (although I doubt my ears would be able to tell the difference)!

Feeling like I'm making my move up (maybe down?) from "regular" hack to "master" hack! Lol! Really happy with the results so far; and getting real close to the finish! Woohoo! Thanks for the encouragement and for letting me share OFC/BFLG!

LOL, Thanks Al!

I used to tinker with tiling a bit myself, but I never used any thing other than regular grout. I mean, grout is grout, right? I didn't even know they came in different colors! Mix grout to customize colors? Very cool!

And Yes, the Big Guy is "un-fool-able" and I wish the disappearing hairline crack was a "divine gift from above!" Alas, it was not to be! Let me explain in this episode of "TO REINFORCE OR NOT REINFORCE. THAT IS THE QUESTION!"

So... sanding down the poly finish off the neck was a bear of a job. I tried heating the poly (like when I ironed the poly finish off my 1868 way back when), scraping, and filing. Tried a drill sander too - all of them too powerful. Sand paper was too whimpy, but I didn't want to take chunks out of the neck so whimpy was the only way forward (with some help from my Dremel sanding sponge). Oh, and chemicals were out of the question because I didn't want to save my 1115 only to murder one of our dogs who taste tests everything that moves or smells. Away I went, sanding and sanding. This was one of those "Gosh, how boring and messy can guitar hackery get!" moment after moment after moment... and after many of these moments, the poly finish was finally off the neck! YES!

However, (as seen by the glue line where the crack used to be) with each passing sanding session, I pushed down on the head stock just to make sure the crack was really gone - call it doubt, faithlessness, heck maybe I should change my name to Thomas - but after  a while, the crack re-appeared! Being "the cup is half full" kinda guy, I thought "this is probably a blessing in disguise" and some high viscous CA glue will fix this neck crack forever. Applied the glue and pushed the headstock up and down just a bit, and sure enough, the glue just wicked in there really nicely as would be expected. So here's how the crack looks now.

The glue is holding and the crack is not growing. Just as a comparison, my 1868, 1612, a Celebrity, Aria, and Yamaha necks were pushed down at the head stock. As suspected, this 1115 neck moves more than all the others. Weird! Not sure if the wood softened over time, the truss-rod issue weakened the neck/headstock area over time, or if the original design of the 12-string slot head head stock was questionable, but the head stock movement is quite significant when compared to the others (unfortunately no other 12-string slot head to compare with in my fold).

With this in mind, I was hoping the BFLG will help to provide some advice, direction, comments as to reinforcing this neck. Does it need to be reinforced? If so, carbon fiber? African Black Wood? Birch/Maple? BTW, the CFRP reinforcement that I installed to help the neck from twisting is not going to help strengthen this cracked area at all. Your input would be most highly appreciated! Or will the CA glue repair be sufficient?

In either case, once this issue is resolved I'm onto the neck finish and final polishing and buffing to take this 1115 past the finish line! Your help would be most appreciated! Thanks BFLG!

Waited 30 minutes to start the finishing process using a single component (as opposed to 2-component like Dan's goto Eastwood 2K finish) oil based polyurethane spray finish that is popular among furniture makers in Japan. After practicing on some flat pine boards, I begin to apply the finish without any primer or sealer coat as recommended on the rattle can. Unlike the nitro used on my 1868 this rattle can poly finish went on horribly AND unlike my practice board, the paint bubbled up like soda on my neck as it was being applied (it even sounded like soda as it gets poured into a glass). Maybe reacting with the naphtha? Naw, I waited long enough to make sure the naphtha evaporated. The bubbles disappeared as the paint began to settle, but the paint went on quite unevenly. Thought maybe the rattle can was defective so opened a new one, but no difference.

You can see some bubbling on the lower left side of the neck above. The rattle can directions say two coats is enough, but the paint went on so unevenly, I used both cans and ended up applying 4 coats. The directions also said the paint cures fully in 4 hours in temperatures over 20 degrees. The neck was left to dry for 8 hours in a room at 27 degrees, but it did not dry completely. Waited 24 hours before starting the challenging process of leveling off the finish. After a lot of elbow grease this was the best I could do with the neck.

Really dissappointed with this polyurethane finishing product. In Japan, rattle can nitro and rattle can poly finishes are not created equally! While I'll never use this product for finishing again, the issue is merely cosmetic and won't affect this 1115's sound or playability so it was time to remove all the masking tape and polish and buff the entire guitar. Poly cures harder than nitro so the polishing and buffing processes take much more time. Lose patience and it's really easy to burn right through the finish so progress was slow until...

I bought some D'Addario EJ41s (PB extra lights) to finish this project, but they were no where to be found under heaps of junk in my project room so strung up the 1115 with some 80/20 extra lights that were sitting around. For now, the hairline crack in the volute area of the neck is holding...

After stringing her up the final touch was applying the TR Cover courtesy of David Witko who sold me two Legend TR Covers on FB. This one needed to be worked just a bit for a nice fit (the lower screw hole areas in the cover are slightly visible at the bottom), but no need to make a dimple to cover the previously protruding TR!

YES! Not perfect, but relatively clean and the TR cover stays on with one screw. Cool! Oh, BTW, if anybody wants a Legend TR Cover, I've got an extra one. I'll be glad to mail it (free) to whom ever - if it helps. Just PM me, and I'll put it in the mail. So in its current condition, the string height at the 12th fret is 2.1mm for the eE (6th) strings and 1.8mm for the ee (1st) strings with no buzzing! AWESOME (I might need to add one more shim under the saddle)! So before closing this thread down, I'm gonna leave this 1115 tuned to concert pitch (well actually 432 Hz) and make sure everything is stable over the next couple of days. Of primary concern of course is the neck crack and the CFRP re-worked bridge... stay together... please stay together...

okay, time to catch some Z's! Thanks for letting me share OFC/BFLG! Oyasumi nasai!