A brief respite

I apologize but with the Christmas season upon us my progress has been entirely stopped. I will resume working on the mandolin (and the next step is an exciting one!) shortly after Christmas.

Neck bolt hole

I went out to the shop today to accomplish several non-mandolin related items while my wife and son were napping. While out there I took a moment to drill the neck bolt hole. The instructions recommend just turning the bit with your hands using the predrilled neck block as a guide since a drill is unlikely to fit into the glued-up mandolin sides. I happen to have a right-angle drill, so I could have used a power drill for this purpose. However, upon reflection I decided that the bolt hole was being drilled through the very thin sides and drilling by hand might do somewhat less damage to the sides than drilling with a power drill would. I resolved, then, to twist the bit in by hand. First, of course, I had to go to the hardware store to buy the bit (it's a 9/32" bit and such a size is not a part of any set of bits I currently own). I twisted it in by hand, which turned out to be easier than I expected, but of course it bound when it reached the outside of the wood. I then turned it once with a pair of pliers to complete the hole. To ensure that the hole was clean I then retwisted the bit in by hand from the outside.

To add ridiculousness to the situation I did not have my digital camera at hand, and so the photo of the completed hole was taken with a cell phone.

Good news

I've been down for several days because the weather turned colder recently and as a bonus my kerosene heater took a hiatus. I ordered new wicks for it, which I received and installed today (what a pain in the neck!) so I hope to be working again tomorrow. While I was out there working on the wick I went and looked at the blocks and sides I glued up a few days ago today in order to satisfy myself regarding the issue with the sides being wider than the blocks are thick. To be honest I was worried that I had a major mess up on my hands because I failed to notice the problem until after the neck block was glued in. When I noticed I was at least smart enough to keep both blocks level with the same edge of the sides. However, the bolt hole for the neck (which is a bolt-on neck) is eccentric relative to the thickness of the neck block (it's closer to the back side of the block) and I didn't know whether I had set both blocks level with the top or back edge of the sides.

As it turns out I set them level to the top edge.

This is unbeliveably good for several reasons. First it means that the neck will fit as it sits right now. I was worried that I would have to do alot of adjusting to make this fit work out. Second, the back really isn't under any tension when the mandolin is strung up. However, the front bears the loads from the strings. I therefore want the front to be completely glued to the blocks if necessary. I can live with the back being slightly imperfectly glued (if absolutely necessary) since it serves mainly acoustic purposes, with the added benefit of adding stiffness to the instrument.

This is great news since it means that while I will have to make some adjustments to the instrument to make the back glue on properly it will not affect the construction of the front of the mandolin.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

Out of the clamps

Just before leaving for my dad's place for Thanksgiving dinner I took the tail block glue-up out of the clamps. Like the neck block glue-up this one went swimmingly. Please ignore the wrist strap hanging down in the photo to the left.

Tail block

I went out this morning after breakfast and some playing with my son, Owen, to glue up the tail block.

First I took yesterday's glue-up, the neck block, out of the clamps. It looks like everything went very well. The joint seemed strong and tight with no obvious gaps in it, so I was happy. Here's what it looked like after I took it out of the clamps.

The issue with the sides being slightly wider than the neck block seems somewhat less disturbing than I thought yesterday. The difference is less than 1/16" - I think that, if necessary, I can correct this by some careful sanding.

Having removed yesterday's clamps I set about readying today's work. The process is similar to what I did yesterday - applying masking tape to hold the ends together, marking the centerline of the block, applying glue to the sides and block, and clamping everything up for a few hours.



To the left you can see the parts laid out after the dry fit.






And here is the complete assembly after glue-up and clamping. After this step the final shape of the mandolin is already clear.



Interestingly, I went to our local Lowe's to buy the clamps I used for the glue-ups. It was my intention to buy simple C-clamps, but when I got there the C-clamps were expensive and I saw these little Bessey clamps I am using in these pictures. I thought that the Besseys might be more flexible so I bought them instead, but I was a bit nervous about whether they'd be strong enough. I noticed this morning that if you look carefully at the instruction photos for the neck block glue-up you can clearly see that they used the same Bessey clamps. I really like them, too, so I'm glad I bought them. They have a strong grip and are very easy to adjust for width and to tighten.

My first glue-up

Well, it being the day before Thanksgiving I got out of the office a bit early. I headed out to the shop to actually start the project.

The kit is organized into neat little steps for the do-it-yourselfer. I guess a professional might do things a bit different, with their experience (and with their larger collection of tools), but these bite-sized steps are great for me. Today I glued the neck block to the sides, which is the first step in the plans. Helpfully the manufacturer provided a caul for gluing the pieces together, making clamping the glue-up easier. In the photo to the left you see the dry pieces as they are delivered in the kit. The sides are taped together to the right in this photo, and the neck block is the smaller piece in the center. The block in the center that has a curve matching the negative space of the neck block is the caul provided with the kit. Gluing was fairly simple - first you tape the sides together end-to-end so that they tightly fit at the top of the neck block; then you mark the centerline of the neck block (because you want the sides to join at the centerline); and then you glue everything together. I used some blue masking tape to tape the sides end-to-end and then did a dry-run to make sure everything was going to fit at the time because you really don't want to be trying to adjust clamps to span the item while the glue is wet.

Here you can see the sides taped together with the neck block and caul. You can also see some waxed paper I used to keep the entire assembly from getting glued to my work table.


After preparing all the pieces and getting my glue-up tray and a cup of water to hand I was ready to start. I spread glue on the neck block using a plumber's flux brush (recommended by the instructions, but also how I normally spread glue in my shop when working on other things). After spreading the glue as evenly as possible I carefully aligned the seam in the sides (where they are taped together) with the neck block centerline and pressed the entire assembly into the caul. While doing this I noticed that the block is slightly narrower than the sides. Since the instructions recommend working on a flat surface to keep everything level and flat and do not tell me how to arrange the block relative to the sides I just kept one side of the block and one edge of the sides flush to my table, which is made of MDF and is actually very flat. I'm not sure how this is going to work out for me but that's what I did. Hopefully it won't end up being a terrible mistake. Anyway, I then applied three clamps to the block/caul system to allow the glue to set, making sure that the block remained aligned with the seam and that the edge of the sides/edge of the block remained aligned as noted above. After some consideration of the clamping force I added two clamps to the glue-up from the other side to try to get more even pressure. The resulting glue-up is shown in the last photo to the right. I used a piece of waxed paper between the caul and the sides to ensure that the caul would not become a permanent part of the mandolin, too.

Failure to launch

Unfortunately I was delayed in getting home tonight by unavoidable work-related circumstances. As a result I will not get out to the shop to start my mandolin until tomorrow. I did get to buy the supplies I needed, though.

A single step...

My wife gave me a mandolin kit from Stewart MacDonald (link to right) for Christmas last year. For various personal reasons, like the fact that I've only barely gotten my workshop going and then had to build some toddler furniture for my son, I haven't gotten around to starting it yet. I finally got around to getting around to it today.

I play the guitar but have never built a real instrument before. In addition to that fact, I am an inexperienced woodworker in general (but I do have a shop full of tools courtesy of a good bonus of a few years ago and a fortuitous Pennysaver find by a friend ). I'm not sure how this will work out but I am excited. To be honest I can't imagine ever going out and buying a mandolin under other circumstances, despite the fact that many of my favorite bands rely heavily on them (Jethro Tull, The Band, etc.) and the fact that I like the mandolin's sound. I get home from work about an hour earlier than my wife on the average and I am planning to do this work in this little bonus daily time for the most part.

Tonight I cleaned up my worktable and, covering my tablesaw with a half sheet of plywood to make a second table, laid out the kit. You can see the parts laid out in the box it arrived in here in the photo. I spent the rest of my time preparing to start working by sharpening some chisels. (I also had to spend some time tinkering with my kerosene heater to get the shop warmed up a bit, since there's no heat in there again this year despite the fact that it has a Reznor-style natural gas furnace. But that's another story.) I have to get some supplies, notably some of the recommended wood glue (Titebond - I usually use Elmer's yellow wood glue in the shop but Titebond is what they have recommended) and a few big C-clamps (I just don't have that many of these and with an instrument this small a look at the instructions suggests that they will be helpful because my one-handed bar clamps lose grip over time much more quickly than I would like). I hope to start work in earnest tomorrow, but I have to get an allergy shot first.

I plan to keep track of my costs over there to the right - since the kit was a gift it is not included in this list. My first thoughts are that the kit is very nicely appointed - the woods are nice, especially the rosewood fingerboard - and that the instructions are very clear and simple. I believe that it should be possible (but not necessarily likely) to make a very nice instrument with this kit even if you are a rank beginner.

Like me.