Aakoo Posted February 10, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 Yes, I bought a cheapish digital caliper as seen in photo below. I just need to fix the tops of the "jaws" having slightly higher knobs. I hope you understand what I try to explain. I am a bit exhausted from not sleeping so well in a few weeks, so I think it affects my ability to produce verbal output on foreign languages Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 11, 2017 Report Share Posted February 11, 2017 That should work nicely and, your explanation is perfectly understandable, and no different from what I would say as an English speaker. In fact you give very little clue in your writing that English is not your native tongue. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted February 11, 2017 Report Share Posted February 11, 2017 Agreed. I find that most Finns can speak English better than they think they can. The problem is that it is usually taught as a book language rather than conversational language, so it isn't taught through use. More in theory. That and Finns feel embarrassed because this makes them feel they might not be able to use the language outside of the classroom. In reality, get a beer or five on the table and you find that many Finns speak English better than some English-speakers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aakoo Posted February 14, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2017 Thanks for the kind words! Today I started with reducing the thickness on the sides of the top. I found a nice way to get the thickness just right. I put a 4mm thick plywood strip between table and the chissel, next to top when carving. This made the chissel not to bite too much in to the top wood, next I drilled some holes under the top, which purpose are to give rough estimate how deep I should carve, to get the top thickness right. After this it was time to start carving. Man, that was fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 14, 2017 Report Share Posted February 14, 2017 2 hours ago, Aakoo said: Man, that was fun! I know, right? That's the best part. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aakoo Posted February 25, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2017 Top is carved from underside too, I really enjoyed the chissel work. Unfortunately The photo here under kind of suck, sorry about that. I tried to fit both top and underside on the collage, but didn't work at all. The underside seems very flat on the photo, but it's more curved than the photo shows. Next week the class will have winter break, so I don't expect much progress. I might glue the kerfed linings for the top, but that depends a bit how I find time and if I get to borrow the clamps from the course leader for the task. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted February 25, 2017 Report Share Posted February 25, 2017 I see that your sandpaper is off either pitkänauhahiomakone or levyshiomakone? Abranet is far better :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aakoo Posted February 28, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 I think the sandpaper in the photo is just regular hand sanding paper, not sure where it came from, there was a roll of the 40 grit in my shelf. I used the 40 grit to even some bumps, but turned out that a scraper was also very good for the task. Abranet, is that some special kind of sandpaper? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted March 1, 2017 Report Share Posted March 1, 2017 10 hours ago, Aakoo said: I think the sandpaper in the photo is just regular hand sanding paper, not sure where it came from, there was a roll of the 40 grit in my shelf. I used the 40 grit to even some bumps, but turned out that a scraper was also very good for the task. Abranet, is that some special kind of sandpaper? Hi. Loving this build! . It's renewed my long time wonderings about doing at last a carved top semi-acoustic Abranet is a commercial set of products that are based around fitting an abrasive pad to a holder that is, in turn, attached to a household vacuum cleaner. The abrasive itself is set into an open matrix material, fixed to the holder by Velcro hooks and so while sanding, the dust is vacuumed away. This makes it almost clog-free and allows sanding in sensitive places such as the family room when my wife is not in the house a spare room. I have one - it's great for certain things but it is harder to get some real bite into hard woods. Good for finish sanding. Bit expensive, especially for the initial holder system and the abrasive does dull quite quickly, but it is nice to have largely clog-free sanding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aakoo Posted March 1, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2017 Thanks for the kind words @Andyjr1515! I've been really enjoying this build, althought the progress has been slow. Reason mainly is that I can't work at home with this, and the course I am attending is once a week, during the school season. When I started this, I wanted to do a bit more challenging build. I had done previously a few electric guitars, and an acoustic guitar. Now I had two options in my mind: a violin, or a mandolin. I am not interested on playing violin at all and mandolin has at least something in common with a guitar, so mandolin was my pick here! The course leader, who built a lot of different acoustic instruments decided to give a go to F-style mandolin, He is Using the same set of drawings that I bought. He has the instrument now put together, but not ready yet, and last time I met him he stated that this has been the most challenging instrument he ever built. So I think I made a good choice for the project! Good luck with the semi-acoustic, just go for it! i have a hunch that I will be building a few more instruments later, and arch-top would be also in my list 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 1, 2017 Report Share Posted March 1, 2017 Exactly, @Andyjr1515. Not so much about the household vacuum cleaner bit though....hahaha....however I have been known to hook up our Dyson once or twice.... Abranet is definitely clog-free. The biggest cause of swirl marks with ROS sanders ("epäkeskohiomakone" if you like) is buildup of waste on the abrasive material. Normal papers with punched holes just don't evacuate dust well enough. Abranet is wonderful stuff, even for basic hand sanding. That said, in my opinion any sandpaper with velcro-compatible backing is going to be slightly softer and less flat over edges. Especially when using pad savers such as those on the Mirka DEROS machines I use every day. Nonetheless, the results are always better. Avomax paper is commonly used on larger belt sanding machines, hence the directional arrows (because of how the backing is wrapped) and it being antistatic. The last thing you want in a high volume of dust is a source of ignition. And lots of air being supplied. The students at the school I studied really have no conception of how expensive those belts are. One belt in the thickness drum sander ("leveänauhahiomakone"! like this one) is about a couple of hundred Euros, and it uses two grits. They are poorly stored, and students walking past easily puncture or add creases, making them useless in the machine where they'll just blow right out or damage workpieces. Still, those damaged sheets are worth nothing from that point, making them ideal to glue onto a large plywood sheet to make a sanding flattening platen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 1, 2017 Report Share Posted March 1, 2017 "Just näin"! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aakoo Posted March 1, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2017 I guess it is normal that equipment at schools are misused and get damaged. There's always one or a few airheads in a class, and when the teacher turns back, these guys do dumb things, often breaking things. I know, I've been one. Not a mean one, but young and dumb Funny story about breaking school machinery; a congregation in a village next to my hometown had decided to renew the wooden benches in the old wooden church. The instrument building class leader got hold of one of the old spruce planks, that people had been sitting on and praying for century and a bit more. They decided to cut the wood to smaller pieces. The wood was extremely tough, and they pushed the table saw pretty hard, to cut through. The saw run hot and finally caught fire! The fire department came in, and investigated the place. Luckily the engine just burned, and no further damage happened. Now part of that church bench is used as braces in my first self made acoustic guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 2, 2017 Report Share Posted March 2, 2017 Old Kuusi? Nice. Especially for braces. You can probably shave them slightly thinner because of their quality. I presume that your course tutor will help you with tuning the top as you do this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aakoo Posted March 2, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2017 Yes, Old spruce, or six The guitar where the braces are in, was completed last year, so little late for shaving the braces thinner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 3, 2017 Report Share Posted March 3, 2017 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 3, 2017 Report Share Posted March 3, 2017 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aakoo Posted March 4, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2017 @Prostheta, I see your Finnish language is very good. The Fingerpori jokes are often difficult also for us, native speakers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 4, 2017 Report Share Posted March 4, 2017 It's okay. Not brilliant though. I manage well enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aakoo Posted March 9, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2017 This week I cut the f-holes to the top and glued the kerfed lining on top side. I was planning to use the electric version of jig saw to do the f-holes, but the blade was so lousy, that I decided to do this by hand. The blade was lousy on that one too, but at least I had far more control on where it went than I would have had on the electric version. Kerfed lining elueing was pretty straight forward. Except on the scroll area, where I was not able to fit any clamps, and had to clamp the linging to the side by pushing wooden strips between the lining strips and the mahoganny scroll. If I ever do a second mandoline, I will deffinitiely use a bit more thick strips to do the linings. Next week, make the top braces. What should you suggest to use as the braces? i suppose spruce is good, but how about using mahogany or birch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 10, 2017 Report Share Posted March 10, 2017 The kit I built came with maple braces. I think birch ought to be just fine. Come to think of it they weren't actually braces either, The arch carved into the top and back provide all the bracing it needs. They were tone bars and meant to influence the vibration of the top. many woods would be suitable for that. Various pieces would need to shaped differently to achieve the desired note. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 10, 2017 Report Share Posted March 10, 2017 Birch is more flexible than Maple, or at least can be. In that respect, it's probably a good choice. I wonder if using particular resonant woods such as Wengé or Bubinga might work well in bracing to influence the top? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 10, 2017 Report Share Posted March 10, 2017 I don't see why not. The instructions I was following was geared toward tuning the top to a specific note (tap tone) by influencing the vibration rate.If resonant woods can influence the rate of vibration without dampening it or causing it to decay too quickly, I'd think that was a good thing. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 10, 2017 Report Share Posted March 10, 2017 My knowledge of the physics sort of falls flat here. On one hand I want to explore the idea that similar materials for the brace as for the top would be more uniform. On the other - like any composite material - the result of dissimilar materials combined appropriately may yield a product greater than the sum of its parts. Suck it and see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aakoo Posted March 23, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2017 Mahogany braces it is. Glued and shaped the braces and started sanding the body so that next time I will glue the top to the body. Next week is break again from the course, but I try to get hold of a few more clamps, so I can do the glueing at home Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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