DLP Mandolin - 8 - More Neck Work

The neck on the Mandolin will be fixed and glued into place, there is a tenant under the top cover which will be hidden but I need to cut out a pocket in the top cover to accommodate the rest of the neck.  I laid this out and used a fine saw to cut inside the line giving me a nice clean edge.

I then carefully chiselled out the end of the pocket and then filed everything until I had a nice sung fit.  I had to attach the top to the body with double sided tape while I laid out the neck pocket.  

At this stage I don't want the top permanently attached as I still have to decide on the position of the volume and tone controls and need to glue the neck in place.  It's nice to see the instrument starting to look something like I imagined.  The proportions are great and the weight is nice although none of the hardware has been fitted yet.

 
I had a chance to use my new drill press this weekend as well when I drilled the fret markers on the top and side of the fret board.

I spent some time setting up the depth stop and carefully mounted the neck in my mitre block and drilled each hole using a 'lip and spur' drill bit which gives a nice clean round hole.

The drill press made short work of the holes in the top of the fret board and so I mixed some black epoxy putty and squeezed this into the holes and left it for 24 hours before sanding smooth.

I chose not to drill a fret marker for the 21st fret as the gap between the frets is just too narrow.  I think the dots look ascetically balanced anyway and a 4th dot above the twelfth fret might have made things look a little clamped.

The neck is now ready for fretting, I have cut the 21 frets ready to install and will get on with this over the next couple of days.  I can then shape the back of the neck, fit a laminate on to the top of the head and drill the machine head holes.  So still plenty of work to do!

DLP Mandolin - 7 - Working On The Neck

Over the past week or so I have continued working on the neck.  I want it to be set in place and glued into the body so the first ting to do was align the neck's centre line with the centre line on the body and mark out for the neck pocket and tenant slot.

As with most of my work at this stage I like to use hand tools where possible, as part of my apprenticeship!  So I carefully laid out the neck pocket and used a tenant saw to cut the edges of the slot to the required depth and then used a sharp chisel to carefully remove the rest of the material.

Once I was happy with the depth of the neck pocket I cut the tenant flush to the centre of the body as the top will be glued here for extra strength.

There is a question about the angle of the neck, I had assumed I would need to angle the neck slightly but I laid the neck out with the bridge and nut in place and used a straight edge to simulate the path of the strings and it became apparent that any angle would make the strings too low where the neck meets the body so I made the neck pocket flat.

I routed out the truss rod channel and also cut a groove into the tenant to accommodate the wires from the neck pickup.  I also sanded a slight taper into the head, not something I had done before but it is something that some manufacturers do and I liked the idea!

Next I moved onto the fret board.  I'm using mahogany again for this build, but I'm confident that a little glue in each slot will prevent the frets from pulling out and I cant imagine wear on the board been an issue for may years.

I mounted the fret board blank to a block of wood with double sided tape ensuring that one side was square to the centre line of the blank.  I was then able to use a set square to mark the position of each fret.  I also used the set square as a guide when cutting each fret slot.

I started each cut using the set square, then carried on by eye once the cut had been started down to just over 2mm depth.  I then trimmed the top and bottom of the blank and glued it to the neck been careful not to get any glue in the truss rod groove.

The truss rod could have been a little further back in the neck as the adjustment nut stands proud of the face of the head.  This can be easily corrected though with a veneer to compensate but I also ground a little from the adjustment nut before the fret board was glued on anyway.

DLP Mandolin - 6 - Binding the F-Holes

Earlier today I cut out the two F-holes on the front piece.  They are obviously not traditional f-holes, I want to make all my guitars with my own signature cutout so it seems appropriate to do the same on the Mandolin.

I marked out the two cutouts using a cardboard template ensuring they both measured the same distance from the edges of the body and then drilled a couple of holes with my drill to allow me to drop my jigsaw blade in to start the cuts.

Now I guess I could have just sanded down the edges once they were cut but I decided to bind them instead.  Not only to give a nice professional look to the cutouts but also as good practice.  I had a bit of black binding in the garage and set about securing each piece with superglue.

Each side needed 3 pieces of binding and the angles were gentle enough that I did not need any heat to melt them into shape.  Its a fiddly process but well worth the effort and the results speak for themselves.

I left the binding slightly proud of the surface of the top leaving enough to scrape back and sand level once the glue has completely set and hardened.

DLP Mandolin - 5 - Cutting Out The Neck and More Bodywork

After gluing together the two pieces of oak I found for the neck I then cut out the shape of the neck from the template I previously made.  The neck will have an angled head but I want to get fairly close to the finished shape before cutting the scarf joint.

As the piece is so small I used a spoke shave to remove most of the material from the sides of the blank, I then used a sharp chisel to create the curve from the nut to the sides of the headstock.  I have left about 1.5mm extra material on each side which I will tidy up later once I'm happy with the rest of the neck thickness and dimensions.

While I am looking at the neck I should mention that I am going to use mahogany for the fret board.  I had a piece in the garage and have already started thinning it the correct thickness and planed it to approximately the correct width and length.

I cut and glued the neck joint as well, not my greatest joinery moment but I'm happy with the end result enough not the chuck it in the bin!

Onto the body, I want the top to appear thinner than what it actually is.  It will do little for the sound or the weight but is a great bit of psychological kidology!  So I started off by using my dremel tool to route away the material millimeter by millimeter but this was slow going to I stuck the middle to the top  as a guide and used the full size router to quickly take away half the thickness of the top.

When the f-holes are cut it should look like the top is much thinner that it actually is!  I routed both sides to the same depth and lightly sanded the new cavities although they will never be seen.

I can't think of anything else to do with the back so I might as well glue it to the middle section.

I used plenty of glue and almost every clamp I own to secure the back of the body to the middle piece.

I will let the glue dry for 24 hours before removing the clamps.  There is still a lot of work to do to the top before it is attached to the body, I need to route for a pickup and the neck, cut the two f-holes and decide where to position the volume and tone controls yet.

DLP Mandolin - 4 - Neck Blank and Body Skeleton

This weekend I found a couple of pieces of scrap Oak in the garage (I'm really running low on lumber now!) and decided to glue them together to form the neck of this project.  they have a couple of holes drilled in the ends of the boards but I should be able to work around them.

I will have to source something for the fingerboard though, another project I'm working on has a mahogany fingerboard so depending on how that turns out might prompt me to use mahogany again.

Even if one of the holes intersects it should only be in the tenant joint and hidden when the final project is complete.  I have laid out the neck template on the blank and will set the neck at an angle with a scarf joint.

I also cut out the back, front and middle of the Mandolin.  I used my jigsaw and cut a couple of mm away from the line to prevent chipping and rip out.  I started to route the edge of the back but had problems with my router so moved to my drum sanding attachment mounted on my drill stand to sand back to the line.

I sanded the back edge to the pencil line and then applied a coat of sanding sealer then sanded what will be the inside of the back of the Mandolin smooth.  I plan to cut two f-holes in the front so I want the inside to look nice.

The front and back are made of ply wood, 5 layers including an MDF core and the nice laminated front and back.  The sides, when sanded, will look great although I might yet cover the edges with binding.  I have not decided yet.