Acoustic Guitar Construction

loving threads like this, really helpful.

Dietz - where did the cam clamps come from? I notice they are all-wood construction?

Dave - I made those out of some scrap sycamore and maple. There are 3/16" spring pins in them to hold the cam or act as guides on the bars where I used a 1/8" aluminum bar instead of a hardwood bar.

As they say, you can never have too many clamps. I should make a few more with shorter jaws just for the halibut. Most of these have throats of 8" and have plenty of clamping force btw, and I added a small piece of rubber pad on the jaw to give them more grip on the workpiece.

Squeeze out is desireable because it lets you know the joint it well covered in glue. But I know what you mean about too much glue.
If you have ever watched the Taylor Factory Friday videos, they have one where the guy is putting the braces on a top before vacuum pressing them on. He runs the brace over a roller that is attached to some sort of glue pot and that applies the glue for him. He does nothing else, i.e. run a finger over the glue, or anything. He simply runs the brace over the roller, and puts it on the sound board.
I picked up my technique from the KMG instructions for gluing the top and back. I apply a bead of glue to the brace, then I spread it with my finger, then I "pinch" the top of the brace so that my fingers leave a small, triangular gap in the middle of the brace, and I run the brace through my fingers. This removes some glue and leaves a little on the edges. It also leaves a bit more glue in the center of the brace. When I clamp the brace down, I get minimal squeeze out, but enough that I know the joint is not glue starved.
On my first two guitars, I had massive amounts of glue to clean up after the clamps were applied. Now, I have a small bead to clean up. I use a stick with an angled point on it, similar to a chisel tip, to clean the glue off from next to the braces. The shape of the point allows me to clean the side of the brace in one pass, then the soundboard in a second pass.
I need to try that straw trick. I have plenty of them in my house.

Pix pix pix pix pix. :-) Especially the bridge glue clean up - do you fellers get a perfect clean up each time, clean like the factories get? Like no glue has ever touched the top at all? Drives me crazy, getting any glue signature at all around the bridge.

I'm at work so no pics, and honestly, I don't take close up shots of me putting glue on my braces, and I have no braces left to glue, so you are out of luck for now. I think they achieve the clean look with that glue-roller-applicator-doohickey. It must apply just the right amount of glue.
For the bridge, you could put tape around the bridge area, glue the bridge on, then pull the tape before the glue dries. I use a stick or spruce to clean that area. It is soft so it does not mark the lacquer too much. Tape messes up the lacquer much worse. But, to be honest, I am still not satisfied with how mine turn out. I always scratch the lacquer next to the bridge. Maybe some moistened Q-Tips might be the way to go?
Do you use Ken's SS bridge clamp to glue on your bridges? Clean up is a breeze with it as there are no clamps in the way. But again, I still get little scratches even when I am being careful.

Tony, I've got no problem putting on glue, but I know that in the future some new builders would like a better idea of what the procedure looks like.
But yeah, I too have the troubles around the bridge. Always a scratch or two, or discoloration from a glue signature, something like that. I now use KMG's vacuum bridge clamp and I'm getting the best glue joints I could hope for. But even with rubbing a little soap around the perimeter of the bridge, I manage to not get a perfect clean up.

What someone needs to invent is glue tape - put a brace or a bridge on the glue/tape, cut out the profile of the part, place the glue/tape and part where you want your part to go, and use a hair blower to melt the tape while clamping. Always the perfect amount of glue. I've not been able to find such a product.