Popular Post Professor Woozle Posted December 30, 2022 Popular Post Report Share Posted December 30, 2022 For a long, long, time I've had a set of plans for making a flatback mandolin and kept thinking I ought to do something with them. After a number of inexpensive acquisitions on Ebay, I'm now finally in a position to do something about it Sorry for the rather poor photo, but what we've got there is: A back, sides, and headstock faceplate of Brazilian rosewood (bought from a retiring luthier, who kindly threw in a load of other of his offcuts so I have other bits for future projects), I've already glued up the faceplate with a couple of strips of marquetry inlay in between. A fingerboard of kingwood, that I've already stuck the template onto and cut to size, there's the largest offcut below it though this photo sadly doesn't do justice to the colour. A neck of Cuban mahogany (or so it was sold to me, as a cabinet maker's offcut) - it'll be a laminate neck as the piece wasn't wide enough, so there'll be a tapering centre strip of rosewood (type unknown) cut from a tabletop piece (to right of the mahogany piece). I've cut the piece roughly, though with my bandsaw out of action at the moment I did straight cuts with a tenon saw, cut guide curves using a gouge of about the right radius, then pulled out an old coping saw to finish the cut. Four binding pieces of Indian rosewood - I got a bundle of ~8mm square offcut lengths, and I've resawn two, though I had to do this by hand with the tenon saw due to the aforementioned bandsaw trouble. A bit of a pain, but do-able with a steady hand! Not shown on the photo is the soundboard, ribs and kerfing (spruce), or the tuners (Schaller M6N minis) but I've got those ready. I've also roughly cut two pieces for a body mould out of MDF. The intention is that this mandolin should be similar in looks to my beloved 1991 Valerio Gorla cittern - that's got a single piece mahogany neck, full size Schaller M6Ns and mahogany back and sides, but I'll be mirroring the headstock shape on this build. Photos of ten-string thing below, just realised I can see a freaky distorted reflection of myself in one of the tuners... Next steps - final trueing of the edges of the back pieces then glue up, that'll be the old-school string and wedge method. Glue up the neck laminates, which I'll do in two stages so I can get the taper on the insert right, and make up the heel block out of the mahogany offcut. I'll scarf the headstock, need to check the plans and remind myself what the angle should be, and add on the wings from the offcut in the centre of the neck block. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted January 1, 2023 Report Share Posted January 1, 2023 i have a hard time getting a boner over mando just cause I could never play one... but you did what looks like a real nice job on this. from here it looks like nice tight joinery, great job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Woozle Posted January 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2023 Much as I'd like to claim credit for the cittern shown above, it was made by the Italian luthier Valerio Gorla - I've got to turn the collection of bits in the first photo into a mandolin with similar looks to it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted January 2, 2023 Report Share Posted January 2, 2023 ah, got ahead of myself. you've got your work "CUT OUT" for you then hehe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Woozle Posted March 19, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2023 Progress report on this one... first off, in making the laminate neck I found that the tabletop I'd been sold as rosewood wasn't after all, on sawing into it I found it was mahogany. Oh well, I can still make use of it. I also over-thinned it in places when planing down, but fortunately the most obvious edge gap will end up under the headstock veneer: I made a simple guide for cutting the scarf to 15 degrees, some blocks glued to a bit of ply. Sharpened up the tenon saw, which is probably twice as old as I am but a good quality Sheffield-made one. On with the cut... Not a perfect result, looks like it didn't stay completely vertical and there's a little tear-out on the bottom edge but planing will fettle the first one and I think the torn bit will be coming off in shaping, so OK for a novice I reckon! I've also glued the back pieces together, and gone for a low-tech approach. I'll take the string off tomorrow and see how well the glue's stuck but hopefully the wedges have upped the tension to a sufficient level. The blocks holding the backpieces level have had waxed paper sellotaped on to them to stop them sticking to the rosewood. Finally, here's one I did earlier - the headstock veneer glued up with the central strip and marked out, pilot holes for the tuners drilled by hand with a pin vice. Unfortuately, I found there were a couple of worm holes, I think one will likely be under a tuner bushing but I'll sand a little off one of the edges and mix it with glue for a filler. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted March 21, 2023 Report Share Posted March 21, 2023 "nice joint" -sounds like something a hippy would say... still... nice joint! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Woozle Posted March 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2023 Sometimes, you just want to channel your inner Father Jack and shout rude words very loudly... I've just realised I put the wrong strip of rosewood in the centre of the back and it's too narrow! Guess I'll have to take it apart again and redo with the correct, slightly wider strip but at least I know the string and wedge approach gives a decent joint. I have however dealt with the wormholes, a little filing dust and glue has gone in and hopefully won't be too obvious. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted March 22, 2023 Report Share Posted March 22, 2023 16 hours ago, Professor Woozle said: Sometimes, you just want to channel your inner Father Jack and shout rude words very loudly... I've just realised I put the wrong strip of rosewood in the centre of the back and it's too narrow! Guess I'll have to take it apart again and redo with the correct, slightly wider strip but at least I know the string and wedge approach gives a decent joint. I have however dealt with the wormholes, a little filing dust and glue has gone in and hopefully won't be too obvious. "father jack"... oh feck. gonna have to watch some of his stuff. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Woozle Posted March 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2023 Yes, "Father Ted" was an absolute classic comedy, and such a shame Dermot Morgan's untimely death made sure there never would be any more. It's my intention to turn into Father Jack in my old age, spend my days propped up in a chair with a plentiful supply of whisky, swearing loudly at inappropriate times! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted March 23, 2023 Report Share Posted March 23, 2023 22 hours ago, Professor Woozle said: Yes, "Father Ted" was an absolute classic comedy, and such a shame Dermot Morgan's untimely death made sure there never would be any more. It's my intention to turn into Father Jack in my old age, spend my days propped up in a chair with a plentiful supply of whisky, swearing loudly at inappropriate times! hehe it's good to have goals! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Woozle Posted May 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2023 Not had a great deal of time to work on this of late, but a little progress - put the wings on the headstock Started planing down the gluing surfaces for the scarf (and managed to plane the top off a fingernail while doing this!) and discovered that the reason the cut wasn't true is that I hadn't squared the block properly before cutting. I'll correct this with the planing, I'll probably also glue the headstock veneer on, cut to shape and drill the tuner holes before gluing up, probably do the tenon dovetail too. Next job will be to redo the back, I've got some bits on rosewood to cut so that this time, the back is sufficiently wide... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Woozle Posted July 10, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2023 May and June ended up being largely a write-off for actually doing anything due to my wife being hospitalised after a heart attack (she's home and recovering fine, BTW) but I've managed to get going on this again, and another long-running project I really ought to start a thread on the inlay chat about! Anyway... the mandolin build is finally progressing, I got the neck pieces glued. The slightly skewed cut is still causing issues but I'm correcting it with planing, and I'm starting to shape the neck with spokeshaves. Other side projects are ongoing, @henrim's mention of making a fret rocker out of scrap stainless reminded me i've got a load of 50mm x 6mm bar offcuts in the garage , so I've made my own, I'm making a couple of hoofpicks out of that and offcut black walnut, and mending my wife's good anglepoise lamp - the lamp clamps were pot metal which broke on the narrow points so I'm making replacements out of stainless. The neck is slowly taking shape, I still need to cut the neck dovetail. Also need to re-glue the back and joint and glue the soundboard, I've got the body mould partly done, needs final shaping and I also need to find a bit of suitable steel pipe to make the bender, an old inspection lamp with an incandescent bulb will provide the heat. The holes on the fretboard face are where I used a couple of small screws to stop slippage during clamping - they'll disappear when I cut the slot for the carbon fibre neck reinforcement. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 11, 2023 Report Share Posted July 11, 2023 Sorry to hear about your wife's challenges! Glad she's OK. A mandolin has been on my own 'must do' list for years...oh, that and the cello, and the guilele, and the.... I watch with interest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted July 11, 2023 Report Share Posted July 11, 2023 On non-structural pieces wormholes just add character. Not that my two cents mean anything. For a long time, I've wanted to make a 1/2 scale acoustic guitar shaped like a mandolin. The small body would look silly with the wide guitar neck, but so what. I've -zero- interest in learning another instrument. A 12'-16' acoustic guitar would be an interesting project. I could easily make it like an 8-string mandolin and just tune it like a guitar. Anyway, it's good to see something other than a guitar being built. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Woozle Posted July 11, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2023 That idea sounds rather like a bandurria or a laud - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandurria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laúd so there's precedent for you to start from! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted July 11, 2023 Report Share Posted July 11, 2023 On 7/10/2023 at 1:27 PM, Professor Woozle said: May and June ended up being largely a write-off for actually doing anything due to my wife being hospitalised after a heart attack (she's home and recovering fine, BTW) I'm sorry to hear about your wife's ha. I have been there in more ways than one. Had to take my wife to hospital this am because she was having back pain that was making her unable to breath (she's fine now). This is not about me... but I also had a heart attack... but it wasn't so bad compared to sitting on the sidelines and feeling useless while your significant other is suffering. I'm sorry you had to go thru that as well. Building things is a nice distraction from all that! Looks like your neck is coming along nice. Good job. Keep well (the both of you). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Woozle Posted July 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2023 Thank you - we were fortunate that the ambulance got to us within half an hour, so she got prompt attention, and glad to hear your wife is OK . Yes, having things to work on is good to take your mind off other troubles - just sanded and oiled the hoofpick handles you can partly see and boy, does that black walnut look nice when oiled. Since they're made out of offcuts from the side wing pieces I got for the Rick build, I'm thinking that an oil finish would look pretty good on that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermikev Posted July 13, 2023 Report Share Posted July 13, 2023 9 hours ago, Professor Woozle said: Thank you - we were fortunate that the ambulance got to us within half an hour, so she got prompt attention, and glad to hear your wife is OK . Yes, having things to work on is good to take your mind off other troubles - just sanded and oiled the hoofpick handles you can partly see and boy, does that black walnut look nice when oiled. Since they're made out of offcuts from the side wing pieces I got for the Rick build, I'm thinking that an oil finish would look pretty good on that. right on, always: walnut for the win! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Woozle Posted July 24, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2023 A bit more progress - decided I wanted a deeper body at the neck than the plans I'd been using, so I glued an offcut onto the neck heel. With that roughly shaped, time to cut the dovetail tenon: ing Looking at sorting out the back next, I need to cut one of my offcut pieces of Brazilian in two to get the back wide enough, then glue it all together. I've got a centre strip ready. There's also the heel block to do, I'm on the process of getting that squared up then I'll cut the mortice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Woozle Posted August 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2023 Progress is still slow due to shortage of time and energy, but I've done a few bits. Cut out the mortice for the heel block by doing the side cuts with a tenon saw, then joining up using a jewellers saw - I want the offcut to bolster the sides, hence not just whacking it out with a chisel. Got a bit of carbon fibre for the new reinforcement, and started cutting the slot for it. I marked out and scored side lines with a scalpel before cutting the slot sides with the tenon saw. Something went wrong somewhere as the slot has gone off-centre. Oh well, I've got some bits of veneer kicking around that I can use for packing on the overcut side when I glue the CF rod in. That last shot shows one annoying thing that's shown up, namely a shake in the wood. I guess wicking thin CA glue in would stain the surrounding wood, and having laminated the neck I hope it won't move more when strung so I'll probably leave it alone. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Woozle Posted January 14 Author Report Share Posted January 14 Ages since I posted an update on this, progress has been pretty glacial... the slot was slightly off, so I had to glue a sliver of mahogany into one side to correct it. With the slot right, I masked off then epoxied the CF rod into place, using the offcut as a clamping caul. I then glued a strip of mahogany veneer over the slot and sanded back. Next job is remark the centre line, check and re-check, then glue the headstock plate on and cut the tenon to its final profile 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Woozle Posted April 12 Author Report Share Posted April 12 There are glaciers retreating faster than this build is progressing (largely thanks to work being a total nightmare at the moment), but here's a bit of new stuff with putting the headstock veneer on. Firstly, pinned/taped in place, but I should have been looking a bit more carefully at this point - can you see what's not quite right here? I didn't spot it, so on with the glueing and clamping... On getting the clamps off I then notice the slippage, and the centre strip is off the centre line on the neck by about 1mm. To quote Father Jack, "ARSE!" Okay.... I can try and take it off, risking breaking the thin Brazilian Rosewood or I can live with it. Since the idea behind this was to build something that was little sister to the cittern, and that has a truss rod cover, I'm thinking a fake truss rod cover would mask the centre strip being slightly out by the nut, as you'll no longer be reckoning its position relative to the strings on the nut. Another thing I've done is a slightly unusual volute, the whole headstock ended up with a keeled profile after I cut a bit too deep on one side with the spokeshave. This build is really going to be one big creative mistake fixing exercise... I've also made up some cardboard templates, one for half the body and one for the headstock: The other thing I'm looking into is bending the sides. I found I had a Murray McDonald tin case from a long-since drunk Caol Ila, and an old garage inspection lamp - marry the two up with a heat bulb and that will do the job. Or, it will when I've worked out a way to mount the tube on the lamp base as it has a rubber surround which won't take kindly to hot metal! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted April 13 Report Share Posted April 13 11 hours ago, Professor Woozle said: The other thing I'm looking into is bending the sides. I found I had a Murray McDonald tin case from a long-since drunk Caol Ila, and an old garage inspection lamp - marry the two up with a heat bulb and that will do the job. Or, it will when I've worked out a way to mount the tube on the lamp base as it has a rubber surround which won't take kindly to hot metal! I'll be interested how you get on. The only problem might be that the thin tin won't be able to retain much heat and the dampened wood will quickly cool it. As such, you will be very dependent on how much heat the lamp is kicking out. Good to see this progressing - the headstock plate will look fine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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