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.