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.