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Sunday, January 11, 2009

Progress at last

I made good on my intention to get restarted on the instrument making, and over this weekend glued up the back of the octave mandola. The two bookmatched pieces are only just big enough and I have have no spare at all. There may be enough for the 'button', but this might have to be made from a separate piece of figured walnut.

I also glued the tone bars to the yellow cedar belly. I had forgotten how quickly the Titebond glue sets and had to scrape some half set adhesive off the bars when I made a hash of it the first time through. With the bars its better to use too much glue to start with and squeeze out the excess. It was much better on the second attempt.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Back to the lutherie


I'm happy to report that the cloakroom is now done (except for wiring in the shower which I will get a proper sparky to do) and I can back to making instruments. I have sharpened up my chisels, plane irons and cabinet scrapers and I'm ready to go. I have even tidied up my garage to celebrate the start of the new year.

I have done some of the calculations (string tension, nut spacing etc.) and set these out on two design sheets (one shown to the left). Next I need to make the octave mandola back from the e-bay walnut.