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.