As a first cab build, I am quite pleased with the result. the corners are not perfect, but I got quite a bit of practice doing it!
First off - glue. I used evo stick timebond. I tried a few before deciding on that. I used some scrap wood and made up both internal and external corners to practice. The ones I tried included :
PVA - to slow to dry - would be a pain holding a complex corner until it set.
Evo Stik solvent free - this feels like a latex glue. If I was more patient, or better able to plan it may have been better, but I found that particularly on the tolex it too an age to dry to tack stage.
Standars evo stick - very "stringy" it tends to stick to the tin or anything it passes along the way, and also tends to somehow string from part way up the spreader.
Contact adhesives are good particularly for corners, as you press it down and it is stuck.
I used the timebond because it is more of a paste - I scoop some out of the tin and it just comes - no stringing back.
It also dries to tacky quite quickly. The timing I worked to was apply the glue, rub the glue off my fingers, the spreader and the scraper I was using to scoop the glue out of the tin, and it was then round about tacky to put the cloth to the cab.
I only realised as I was starting to think about the covering that I had set myself a particularly challinging covering job. The control panel cutout has six corners close together. There is also no easy approach to it - planning some piping somewhere would have broken up the tolex a little, so I may not have needed any joins.
I did lots of googling for tolex hints, and two things I found useful were Casey4s' tutorial - words at http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum11/HTML/008611.html pics at http://s238.photobucket.com/home/Casey4s/allalbums and an article on recovering a slant 4*12 at http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=70200&highlight=slant+recover
The way I decided to do it was to use a "cross" of tolex. Attach the front, then I have top bottom and sides to cover. From there the bottom was next, so joins side-bottom could be underneath, leaving onlt two joins really visible.
I added about 6 inches to the top-front-bottom and side-front-side measurements. and then sat the cab face down in the middle and drew round it. I added two inches all round to give flexibility when covering
I then cut the cross.
I then put the cab back on and drew through the speaker and control cutouts, and then again 2 inches inside the speaker cutout.
I used the offcuts to practice corners and try different glues on scrap wood. Once I was getting the hang, it was time to start on the cab.
I put the corner inserts in first.
I used a heat gun (a hot air paint stripper) frequently - we are in the middle of december and I was working in a cold garage. The heat gun I have has an adjustable temperature and I had it set toeards the lower end of the heat range. In this case it just helped form the flat tolex to the compond curve of the internal corner. I did try using the heat gun to form flat tolex for the whole corner, but all the texture went where it stretched.
Glue was applied to the front of the cab, and to the tolex. I kept the glue on the tolex to just the bit for the front panel, to the 2" marks for the speaker cutout. I kept glue away from the control cutout - I wanted all the practice on other corners first, as the plan was to put corner protectors on. Once tacky, I put a couple of rulers on top of the tolex, and put the cab on them, lined it up then pulled the rulers out.
I cut out at the 2" marks for the speaker cutout then into the corners, flipped the cab over and rolled the front of the cab, warmed the tolex and then stuck it down through the speaker cutout.
The flash does make the insert more conspicous.
Aftert that I flipped the cab back and trimmed the excess using a ruler to keep cuts straight.
A rubber is quite good at removing excess glue while it is still tacky.
There's quite a bit there, so I will continue in another post shortly.
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