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.