mattharris75

It's just a matter of game preference, I reckon. Personally, none of those games was really my jam, so I didn't spring for the trackball when I built my arcade cabinet kit...

I had thought that a Jamma board would simplify things over a Raspberry Pi setup, but you're not giving me a lot of hope here...

If you're just wanting to make 2D templates, then something like Inkscape would work. It's a free vector drawing software similar to Adobe Illustrator, which is what I use.

Here's my 'gDola-1', a guitar bodied mandola. 

Top Wood: Redwood

Back and Sides: Locally milled Cherry

Fretboard: Bloodwood

Headplate/Backstrap/Finger Rest: Macassar Ebony

Finish: Shellac and Tru Oil

Build Thread: 

Video (recorded prior to the finishing process, obviously):

Pictures:

Thanks guys. 

A few 'better' finished pictures. They don't really show off the contours as well as I'd like, but so be it. I don't have the mental energy to do anything better.  Really glad to have this one done...

No glamor shots yet, but I got her waxed and buffed, pick guard mounted, and everything reassembled. I'll let her settle in and see how the setup is and see if I need to tweak it. 

I had a couple of screw ups assembling, so it was a frustrating night, but I guess I should just count it as 'vintage character' since I was going for that feel anyway... 

18 hours ago, killemall8 said:

Not nearly as hard as people think!

 

You say that, and yet I've finished enough instruments to know it's not as easy as you make it look!

Man, I wish I could produce finishes like you! Always been very impressed by them.

4 hours ago, Drak said:

It is not science that need be brought under scrutiny or the lash.

It is more the culture of voodoo and its various offshoot -ism's that is the central suspect here.

Could one 'really' think the steerhead is 'simply' a symbol of a bull and that's as far as it goes?

Would that not be a rather limited interpretation of what lies behind the steerhead, hidden in plain sight?

Otherwise, wouldn't a simple surface-mount inlay 'do the trick'?

Once could wonder whether this goes much, much further than that simple observation...

Yeah, that would be really cool , but I don't know how I'd manufacture that out of titanium. There's another competition mid April, and I've got a whole bunch of small tweaks for the next version of the robot, including using carbon fiber for the chassis plates.

This build is wild, I like it. And I especially love the tweed.

Thanks guys.

I still have to put the last coat of Tru Oil on the neck and get that and the back and sides rubbed out before I can mount this, but I decided to go ahead and get the pickguard/finger rest ready to be mounted. I went back and forth several times about how I wanted to attach it over the course of the build, and I've ended upgoing with a very traditional mandolin method. I glued a scrap piece of ebony to the back side. The leading edge of the ebony is actually sanded at several degrees of angle so that the finger rest will slope down slightly away from the strings. I glued a couple of pieces of 16 gauge steel wire into holes in the ebony, and once the neck finish is complete I will drill some corresponding holes into the fretboard extension.

I also changed the shape of this thing multiple times since I started the build, and I'm finally happy with how it matches the aesthetics of the body shape.

Looking forward to watching this one progress! Last year I bought a full sized arcade kit with a Raspberry Pi 3b. It was a good learning experience to build and configure everything. I'd like to build one from scratch with a Jamma board one of these days though... It's 'on the list'...

On 2/5/2021 at 12:05 PM, komodo said:

What is Gus Gus's method of attack? I mean how does it win?

Gus Gus is a control bot. The plow is designed to break horizontal spinners and keep vertical spinners from getting any bite. It's worked quite well through these first few competitions. It's also got a really fast and powerful drivetrain usually used in larger bots, so I'm able to push other bots around, another means of control. So I can break them, pin them against the wall, push them around, and eventually hopefully push them into the 'pit' area, which is a corner of the arena with a 1" wall that you can push other bots into. They have a 10 second countdown to get out of the pit or it's a 'knock out'.  I managed 3 knock outs in 5 matches in this past competition.

Thanks guys.

Really, really, really hoping that this was the final coat of Tru Oil for the back and sides. I am extremely ready to get this thing finished and move on!

I thinned the Tru Oil down even more with naptha than I often do, trying to get really nice flow out and hope it smooths itself. I was about 1/3 oil to 2/3 naptha on this coat. Don't need a thick coat here, just need to get the sheen even everywhere.

Got through my robot combat event and got back to working on the mandola.

Sanded the runs out of the back and sides and need to put on a really thinned out coat of Tru Oil and see if that will be enough to call it good.

Then I sanded the top and the front of the headstock from 2400 through 12000 micro mesh then polished with 3M Finesse It and Meguires Mirror Glaze. It's not perfect, but I think it looks pretty good. It has a nice shine, but it still manages to look thin, showing just a tiny bit of the grain through. And that's pretty much what I was going for.

So, get a thinned coat on the rest of the instrument, wax, attach the pickguard, re-assemble, and call it finished...

Almost un-killable, Scott. We lost in the event final to an articulating saw bot who managed to slip his saw into one of the slots in the top plate and punctured the LiPo battery, releasing the magic smoke and earning us a trip to the sand bucket of shame... Still, 2nd place, I'll take it.

Here are a few of the fights, sorry for the video quality:

https://youtu.be/7_03xZuVc9U?t=6498

https://youtu.be/7_03xZuVc9U?t=10436

https://youtu.be/7_03xZuVc9U?t=16670

Lots of projects going on around here. In addition to shop and house stuff, a new more sophisticated version of my last combat robot Gus Gus. Got a competition next weekend. Maybe after that I can get back on the mandola, the top is ready to be rubbed out...

Well, my nieces and nephew loved the wands I made for my kids, so Christmas presents complete!

Put it in your build thread.

Have I mentioned before that I despise the finishing process? Well, even if I have, it can never be said too much...

I took a little break during football season, but have been back at it for a few weeks. I could never get the tuner ferrules out through any other method, so I finally ordered the StewMac tool. Even with it some of them were tricky, but I finally got them out. A little tear out on one of the holes, but no big deal it will be covered by the ferrule. Managed to fill the grain in the headstock with the tried and true 'wet sand with tru oil' method. 

So, progress on that front.

As far as the top goes, all of the ridges and undulating surfaces make this the hardest piece I've ever finished. By far... It's apply thinned finish, see a drag mark some dust or some other flaw, sand and sand some more, and try again. Hoping I'm close, but who the heck knows. Here's where it stands:

Wrong forum...

Wrong forum...

What a cool idea! Looks like it was very controllable and smooth. Nice job!

So, this is the 'In Progress and Finished Work' section. Why don't you start a build thread and put all your updates in there. Makes keeping track of things easier for everyone!