Putting it all Together: The Body
The Big Glue Up
This was the most
stressful glue up of the project. I used every clamp I had that was
small enough. The spool clamps where made with
long 1/4 inch bolts and toy wheels from a craft store. I glued both the
top
and back of the mandolin at the same time. This assured that
everything would fit together, but it also made the job a bit tougher.
There's a lot to line up between the three pieces.
Shaping the Fretboard
While the body dried, I
cut out the fretboard on the band saw. The fretboard started as a blank
with precut fret slots. I used the belt sander (not running) to smooth
and straighten the sides. I made the fretboard as accurate to the
template as possible so the neck and body could be carved using the
fretboard as a guide. To attach the fretboard, I drilled small holes
through two of the fret slots where they would later be covered by
fret. I used thin copper wire to align and attach the fretboard to the
neck for carving.
Carving Everything Flush
I used a rasp and file to
carve down the overhanging edges. At this point, it was finally time to
carve the neck flush
with the fretboard, carve the transition to the peghead, complete
the final carving of the heel and carve the transition from the neck to
the sides.
The base of the neck was the trickiest as far as carving. Matching
the sides to the sides of the neck was difficult as far as keeping
everthing straight and even while not carving the parts that don't need
carving.
Installing the Tuners
I really like these
tuners from Grover. They are very smooth and small enough to work well
with a mandolin's size.They aren't excessively costly either, which is always
a plus. I got them from International Luthier Supply, which sells them
in sets of eight for mandolins, even though Grover sells them as mini
guitar machines in sets of six.
The Tailpiece
With everything carved flush,
I could drill the holes for the tailpiece system I
came up with. I really put this step off as long as I could. I
spent a couple of days just coming up with other designs for the tailpiece so I could put-off/ avoid drilling into my newly minted body.
Finished
The body, ready for
finishing.
