Nuts

Well, I dressed the frets without mishap, and then decided to cut the slots for the strings in the nut. All was going well until the bit between the two 'G' strings broke off and fell onto the garage floor (the bone is more brittle than I thought). After grubbing about in the sawdust for a bit, I gave up searching for it and made a new piece (it's about 3mm x 3mm x 3mm!) and stuck it in with superglue. After I had ground it down, I refiled the slots and knocked it out...onto the garage floor. After grubbing about... (you've heard this bit already). So I made another bit, and this time it seems to be fine. I am now ready to apply the finish - I've chosen Tru-oil, nornally used for the stocks of guns.

Fretting

I kept staring at the frets and in the end I decided that the were not good enough. Especially near the sound hole, several were sitting too high, so I ripped seven of them out! The slots needed cleaning out, and I refitted the frets after filing off the tangs, and then stuck them back in with the use of some superglue.

fretting about the nut

Nut and frets

Lists

In daydreaming about making musical instruments I have been making a mental list of some of the tools I would like to have:

A safe-T planer for my drill press
A thickness sander
I may make my own, perhaps along the lines of the one in the stew mac catalogue.
Finger planes for when I carve an archtop instrument
A router table, perhaps an overhead pin router - maybe I'll make my own
A 1/4 sheet palm sander
A better way of getting rid of dust!

I reckon the list will grow

Slow Progress

I have fitted the nut, and the first five or so frets. I had to refit the first one as it wouldn't go right in- I think the bottom of the slot had some glue or something in it. This bit is a bit more difficult than I thought!

Bone Smells!

This afternoon I fitted the nut and made a bone saddle for my new bridge. Bone smells horrible when its worked (especially with power tools), and I also have the BSE question in the back of my mind as I generate clouds of bone dust. I have the vacuum cleaner running the whole time, but still I worry... The nut will be fine I think, but the bridge looks as if it will make the action too high. I may have to remove rather a lot of material from the feet and so will get close to the little winged holes.

New Bridge

I have just made a new bridge out of hard maple based on the Red Henry design. I will add a bone saddle.

The snail inlay

I decided to put the the snail inlay in the mandola, and I'm glad I did - it didn't work out quite as I had hoped. When I sanded and filed down the silver wire it heated up and lifted out, so it got thinner and thinner. Finally it crumpled up, hence the repaired gap. Still, I've learnt something for the next inlay.

Machine heads

I have just ordered a set of Schaller Machine heads (M6 mini in chrome) - sixty quid (gulp). Also some bone for the nut and bridge saddle - nut and frets next...

Most of the woodwork is finished

The fretboard is glued on and I've tidied up and chipped off a bit of excess glue. I have found that if I sand the belly up to the edge, the dust from the ebony bindings stains the pine. The scraper seems to work better.

Fretboard & inlay

I've just glued on the fretboard, so an anxious six hours awaits. Also, I had a play with a an offcut from the Ablam shell. I have found that even a light sanding exposes areas of resin, so I'm going to hold off on inlaying the peghead at the moment.

Fully bound

It's been a productive day in the workshop. I have glued on and scraped down the ebony bindings. It was a bit messy, and there are a couple of very small gaps to fill. Also, it took ages to scrape down the excess, which I will have to remember for the next instrument. I have also made the wooden shim that goes under the fretboard, and shaped the end of the fretboard to match the soundhole.

The peg head inlay

While I was waiting for the glue on the bindings to set I had a crack at the peg head inlay. The spiral is silver wire and the rest is Ablam (shell & resin which comes in a sheet). The coulourful bit is abalone, and the whitish bits are green snail shell.

One more thing

I have been helping my daughter make a cookie tin banjo today - great fun! Also, my lovely wife bought me the Robert Benedetto archtop guitar making book for Christmas - another project methinks...

Binding Ledges

I cut the ledges for the ebony bindings using the little dremmel tool that came from Stew Mac. Unfortunately, it was a bit more brutal than I thought it would be, and was not quite as accurate as I had hoped. However, my homemade scraper (old bit of saw blade in a beech housing) came to the rescue and I reasonably happy with end result.

I will try and put the bindings in before the new year.

Here's the belly in place...

It looks like a mandolin

Its nearly midnight, but the belly is on and trimmed and sanded and I'm mighty pleased with progress.

Gluing on the belly

I took a last look at the inside and then stuck the belly on with Titebond glue. I feel that this bit is quite important in how the mandolin will sound so I am keeping my fingers crossed until tomorrow morning...

a sound attempt

Herewith an attempt at a short recording made with the solid-body mandola. Not exactly rock and roll I know, and it took a while for me to figure out how to do it. The recording was...

made using the line-out from my little amp plugged directly into the line-in on a computer
transferred as a .wav file to another computer on a floppy disk
burnt onto a CD
ripped back into an MP3
and finally FTP'd

phew