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Looks good, but why does it only have a few frets?

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

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Good morning Peter,

This insturment, like many American folk insturments the design is derived from, utilizes a diatonic scale as opposed to a guitars chromatic scale. The diatonc scale contains only the whole notes of the scale whereas the chromatic scale contains both the whole notes and the half notes. Why the origianl designer added the F# fret to this insturment, I don't have the answer. I did add the 3rd fret (C) yesterday before the first coat of finish.

Steve

Sheesh, you're almost done and here I am rebending the sides I screwed up

It looks cool though - looking forward to here what it sounds like.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I started with this one to get a good jump start to the challenge. Simple, cheap and easy to build. With that small soundbox they have a plunky, thin sound. A bit like a broken banjo. Fun to play though.

So I'm calling that one done for a total of $2. $1.25 for frets, $.50 for the finish and $.25 for the nails to hook the strings to. Are we counting the price of strings? I haven't seen those on anyone else's list yet.


So I've never built a mandolin, an archtop acoustic or an acoustic with a cutaway. So I started an archtop mandolin with a cutaway. The lumber is from the scrap pile and from a pile my friend Joe dropped off with me when he moved to Hawaii.

The douglas fir for the top was a stair tread that I saved after replacing an exterior entrance to a house. Out of five treads this was the only one with decent grain. The fretboard and headplate will be from a piece of jatoba flooring. The bridge will be the leftover piece from the wishbone part of the pickin' stick.
From Joe's pile, some reasonably flamed maple for the back and sides and a chunk of mahogany for the neck and end blocks.

So I started by cutting the top and back pieces to size and jointing them. Both will be slip matched as that's what you get when you scrounge. Then I made a plexiglass template and traced the shape onto the boards and cut them out on the bandsaw.



In this photo you can see the good side of the back. Yep, you're supposed to flip the template for the back.

Here's the top carved and awaiting thicknessing.

Wow you work fast.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I got a bit more done yesterday. The top and back are carved and the tone bars are in. I haven't the first clue on how to voice one of these so I'm going to wander over to the mandolin forum and try to scare up Chris Oliver for some tips.

Here is the back.


And some brace work.

When you use this,


to do this,


you get this.


I missed the memo about using a cork tip on the post. Good thing for wet rags and clothes irons.

Regarding all the little dents: Yep, that will even happen on some hardwoods. I put a bunch of those on a carved, arched walnut back once. But, as you say, lesson learned, and the fix isn't such a big deal.
Patrick

Wow! You are cracking on with the work Steve! I can't believe how much you've gotten done so fast!

Looking forward to seeing/hearing the final products!

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

How about a Vid on the " Using "this" to do "this" to get "this" Process ?

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

I had an hour to spare this morning so I fired up the pipe bender.


Dave F's words kept echoing in my head. "Cracking". Thanks Dave.


Wound up with this which will need some touch up. Might be a few days though, paying work is on the agenda.

Hey Jim,
I'm a bit video challenged, maybe Dave F can come over with his camera. I do have some stills for you.

You set up a dowel with a cork tip (see Filippo's pic above) centerd below a drill bit and secured to the drill press table. Mine is glued in a piece of 3/4" plywood and the plywood is screwed to the table from below.


Make a gauge block with the various thickneses called for in the carving of your top or back. The plans for this inturment called for 1/4" under the bridge, 3/16" for the bulk of the top and 1/8" for the edges. Since the edges were carved to 1/8" from the top side I'll only be using that part of the gauge for a handle. I made this on the table saw. A similar gauge was made for the back using it's proper thicknesses.


Use the gauge to set the drilling depth.


Mark the top with the area that you want drilled and make a bunch of holes.


Using your gauge reset the drill depth and make a bunch more holes.


You'll notice in the above picture that the 3/16" depth holes are drilled right up to the 1/4" depth holes. Don't do that. Leave yourself some space so you can make a smoother transition between the different depths. That will help tremenduosly with fitting the braces and help with the strength of the top. I don't think I over carved this one, I'll find out in a year or so.

With my carving weapon of choice it's good to have a downdraft sanding table. The one is made from some used hollow core doors, a used furnace fan and a 3/4' MDF top. Someone posted a plan for this here on the forum a few years ago. Rod True or Todd Stock or ???, not sure.


Said weapon, 4 1/4" angle grinder with a 60 grit flap sander. I think I'll order a scorp for the next time I do this.


Grind away until your close.


At this point I switch to some more civilized tooling.


Here it is all done and ready for braces.

Thanks I kinda figured that was the idea , but seeing some info in pics helps .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

I've been back at it an hour or so here and there for the past couple of weeks. Haven't been taking many pics as shop time has been sparse. Here are the highlights up to yesterday.
After I got the top braced, it was f-hole time.




Then I bound them in jatoba (cut offs from the Stick's neck). First time doing that, now I know what Todd Stock was talking (typing) about.

A little neck action. Mandolin... little neck... that's funny stuff. I slay me.




I cut the angle at the wrong point so I had to glue the headstock the way I don't like to have enough length. I'll get over it after I add a back strap.

I glued in this corner block,


and seemingly like magic, the box was closed, binding channels were cut and the neck was roughed to shape.



This is the binding jig I built for my arch top flat back electrics. Worked fine for this, I made a carriage out of 1x6 pine to hold the body level. There is just a big hole under there that is cut 1/4" in from the body outline and a piece of 1/8" birch plywood stapled the bottom.

That looks awesome. I like the shape a lot. What are the dimensions of the body, looks similar the size of the flat-top I'm making. Those f-holes are great. I'll have to resist the temptation to steal that shape.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I like the look of it too. Bound f-holes look nice.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Those F-holes look great.

Filippo, you do make some handsome jigs and fixtures. What's with the rounded corners and dust collection? Don't you want to look like you went to war when you come in from the shop?

Bryan,
The body is 9 1/4" x 13 1/4" with a 7 1/4" upper bout and 5 5/8" waist. It uses a standard 13 7/8" scale neck. The plan was purchased from a guy in southern Illinois. Do a google search for "Don's Plans". He has plans for ukuleles mandos and others, they are fairly cheap and you get what you pay for.

The F holes are really just the standard ones adjusted a bit to loose those unsightly bulbs. It took about a minute with a pencil and a french curve to fix the mistake people have been making for centuries. Glad everyone approves.

Here is a nice shot of the binding process.

More neck stuff.
Fret slots.


Found a piece of 3/32"x1" steel in the shop so I cut it up to make a non-adjustable truss rod.


Ran the pieces through the thickness sander to clean them up. This takes a while as you can't take much off at a time or you will bugger up your drum.


Glued the two pieces in with polyurethane glue. The package claims the adhesive works on metal so I thought I'd give it a shot.