Weekend Work

The weekend went by pretty quick, but I managed to get some work done. The temperatures got up to 98 this weekend and the lows barely made it below 80. I had to start work about 6:00 in the a.m. so I could get stuff done before the shed got too hot. That was about 9:00 because the sun beams right down on it first thing in the morning and of course it isn't air conditioned and a fan only moves wood dust around. I was able to glue the kerfed lining in on both sides on Saturday morning and then sanded it down Sunday morning. I first glued the one side in and then after two hours, I removed the clothespins, flipped it over and did the same thing again. I left the lining about 1/16" above the sides so I could sand them flush later. The clothespins are modified so that the mouth of the clothespin meets the contours of the side and kerfed lining and then a rubber band is added to give the jaws more clamping power.




After the glue had set overnight, I sanded the linings down flush with sides. To do this, I used a pencil and marked the sides black all around the sides. I then took a flat board the length of the mandolin and stuck a piece of 80 grit sand paper to the end with spray adhesive. With one end of the board on one side of the mandolin, I used the other side with the sandpaper to sand the opposite side of the mandolin. This is done to ensure that the linings are sanded flat so the top and back will have a good glue connection. I kept an eye on the pencil markings on the side of the mandolin and when I had sanded them away, I knew that the linings were now sanded flush with the sides. I continued sanding around the mandolin in this fashion until all of the pencil markings were gone. I then repeated this process on the other side. Below is the finished rim assembly ready to accept the back and top. My next step is to carve the top and back plates.

Cut kerfed lining

This afternoon during my lunch break, I cut another piece of kerfed lining that is going to be glued to the inside of my rim set. I bolted a board onto the miter fence on the band saw. I then clamped a rail into the miter slot to stop the miter fence just before it made contact with the blade. Yesterday I cut the wood to be used for the lining. It is 3/8"x3/8"x24" with a 45 degree down the length of it. I marked it every 1/4" so I would know where to make the cut. I put the piece of wood against the miter fence and pushed the fence forward. It cut into the lining and stopped just before going through the other side. I slid the fence back and moved the lining down 1/4" and repeated the process until I had made a cut at each mark. Doing this makes the lining very flexible so that it can bend around the curves of the inside of the instrument. Here is a picture of the bandsaw setup I used.

Rim set almost complete!

Well, I have been off for quite a while now. I got my new band saw from Uncle Dave and have been using it a lot. I have a couple of Christmas gifts in mind this year and the band saw is going to help me out a lot. I finally got around to gluing in the blocks and now my rim set is almost done. The blocks didn't make a perfect fit in the points and the head block so I had to sand them to fit better. You want as much surface contact between the sides and the blocks so you get a good glue connection. To get a good fit, I used a block of white pastel and rubbed it on the side where I was going to glue the block. Once I had the side coated in pastel, I rubbed the block against it to transfer the pastel onto the block. Then I could see what parts of the block were making contact with the side. I took some sand paper and sanded the areas that were making contact with the side to remove the chalk and then repeated the process. Each time I would sand the chalk off of the block, I would get a better fit and more and more chalk would be on the block the next time. Once the block was completely covered with chalk transferred from the side, I knew I was getting a perfect fit. I did this to all sides of each block and then glued them in place. I only have to glue in some kerfed lining and the rim set will be finished. The kerfed lining is a 3/8" x 3/8" piece of mahogany that is cut and glued along the top and bottom of the rim set. This will give the top and back piece of the mandolin a larger surface for gluing while not adding a lot of bulk to the instrument. As you can see in the picture, mine is starting to look like the one on the cover of the book. On the cover, the author is gluing in the kerfed lining and that is my next step.

Hungry!

My veggies continue to grow. I am gettting flowers on my Tomato plants, beans are starting to sprout on my bush beans, I ate a radish yesterday, jalepeno's, anaheim, and bell peppers are all forming and I made pesto last night with my basil. On a side note, I have begun working on the mandolin again. I split a piece of mahogany that will be for another back.

Garden Update (No mandolin content)

Well as my mandolin building is still at a stand still, my garden is starting to really come along. I have finished all of the construction and everything that has been planted is up. I have some flowers on my pepper plants and can see one little anaheim pepper beginning to form. I get to pull a couple of radishes later today. Anyway, here are a couple of pics.

New hobbies

Well my OCD has taken over again with a new hobby. Hopefully it is just something to keep me busy while I wait on a bandsaw to get delivered from Uncle Dave. Then I’ll be able to get back to work on the mandolins. I checked out a book from the local library called “All New Square Foot Gardening” and the pictures are the result. All in all in 2 4’X6’ raised beds, I will have the following:

2 Heirloom tomato plants
2 Big Boy tomato plants
2 Roma tomato plants
2 Sweet 100 Cherry tomato plants
1 Anaheim Pepper
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Orange Bell Pepper
1 Jalepeno Pepper
16 Carrots
4 Bush Beans
16 Onions
9 Beets
16 Radishes
1 Rosemary
4 Basil
9 Flat Leaf Parsley
1 Thyme
9 Cilantro
4 Tarragon
1 Sage
4 Chives
8 Cucumber
14 Pole Beans
4 Cantaloupe
1 Eggplant
4 Squash
4 Zucchini

The bed on the right is covered because we were expecting severe thunderstorms and large hail today.

And all of that will be protected by my three attack dogs that watch for garden pests.

All work and no play . . .

Well I have to admit that I was really rolling along there for a while but it seems that I my work in progress has come to a screeching halt. I tried cutting the mahogany blocks for the points and the head and tail block but they just don't fit right. I don't want to waste any more mahogany so I am going to have to go to a friends house to cut them out on a band saw. Hopefully when I get that done, I can glue them to the sides and then the rim will be complete. Once the rim is complete, I'll be able to continue working on the top and then I'll get it glued to the rim. Then it should look really good! In my spare time, I've been working in the yard and working on getting my garden started. I'll have to post pictures of all of my seeds growing before too long.

New Fixture

Over the weekend, I built my new fixture out of 3/4" MDF. I also found out that the template I used to trace out my original top and fixture was not accurate and was too large. This means that the top that I have been working on isn't going to be the correct size. It should be o.k. because it is just a little large in a couple of places and I can just cut it down to size. With my new fixture built, I was able to bend the long side with the scroll. I ended up getting a little split in the scroll area and kept going. Once I had the scroll shaped right, I continued bending the long gradual bend around the instrument. I got a little ahead of myself and cracked it again. I figured since I had gotten that far, I should just go ahead and put it in the fixture and figure out how bad it was later. When I took it out of the fixture the next day, I was able to sand to the bottom of the split so all was not lost. Here is a picture of all of the sides in the fixture. The next step is to cut out the tail block, head block, and the point blocks. Then I will be ready to glue the sides together.

Bending the Sides

Over the weekend I worked on my bending iron. If I was to buy one from a luthier supply company, I would spend up to $200 so I tried to build one myself. Those that don't use an electric bending iron, use a piece of steel pipe and a propane torch. I thought about doing it that way but I thought it would be hard to get the pipe to the correct temperature and keep it there. I have been checking out a lot of books lately from the library about woodworking and I found one called "Makin' your own country instruments." In that book, I found plans for building your own bending iron. I modified it a little to accommodate the materials I had. Basically it is three pieces of 2X4's glued together with a piece of 1 1/4 pipe filled with sand mounted to the 2x4's. Inside the pipe is a hot water heater element that is wired to a light dimmer switch. The sand helps dissipate the heat evenly along the pipe and the dimmer allows me to control the temperature. I got the pipe to 375 degrees which was too hot and scorched my piece of practice wood.

I also worked on my rim fixture over the weekend. The rim fixture is what is used to form the sides of the instrument. I cut it out of 3/4" plywood and was not too happy with it. I just couldn't get it right so I rigged it and quit. I will probably make another later.

This afternoon during lunch, I grew impatient because I haven't made any progress since I prepped my sides for bending. I figured I would just heat up the pipe and try bending a piece for fun. Once I got started I couldn't quit. I used the rim fixture that I wasn't happy with and before I knew it I had two of the three side pieces bent. Basically, you take the piece of side wood you are going to use and spritz some water on it. Then you let the water soak in the wood for a little bit, maybe 30 seconds, and then you bend the wood across the hot pipe. The hot pipe turns the water to steam and makes the wood pliable for a brief moment. You continue to spray the wood with water and check your progress on the rim fixture. Once you get it the way you want it, you clamp it to your fixture and let it set for at least 24 hours. I only used the scrap piece of wood to make the two sides. If they turn out good, I will use them. I have the more difficult long side left to bend and I might need the other two pieces if I break one of them during the bending process.

Here is my version of an electric bending iron that costs less than $20 and my rim fixture holding the two sides.

Finished planing the sides

I didn't do anything new today but I did finish up prepping the other two side pieces. Tomorrow I will probably try and cut out my fixtures that will help me bend my sides.

Preparing the sides

This afternoon I went home for lunch to try and thickness the sides with a scraper. I honed the scraper blades like I had read and then burnished the edge. This is supposed to create a burr or a hook along the length of the scraper to microplane what ever it is "scraped" against. Once again all my scraper did was make dust and not nice fine curls. I then tried my big bench plane to see if I could plane it smooth without breaking the sides. This went fairly quickly taking the smallest shavings I could. The sides began about .140 inches and was rough from the bandsaw cuts from the mill. Once I planed both sides, I had them down to a fairly consistent thickness of .100 inches. That is supposedly on the thin side but it will make them easier to bend.

Once I had the side at a good thickness I had to make them the right width. I first tried to use a small backsaw but I couldn't get a nice clean and straight cut. I then figured out I could clamp the sides to a 2x4 and run my block plane down the edges of the sides and get them down to the width that way. Once again, a tablesaw would have made quick work of this but you work with what you have. So, today I was able prep sides, well one of my side pieces, for bending. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to prep the other two pieces.

Weekend Update

I spent a couple of hours on Saturday morning working on the top. I drew out the outline of the scroll and cut it out using a scroll saw that was a hand me down from my grandfather. After I had the scroll cut out, I placed a piece of scrap leather in the cutout so that I could carve around the button of the scroll without chipping the button. I only carved it part of the way. I have heard that others only carve it part of the way, and then finish the carving of the scroll once the top is glued to the sides. Just a little more shaping to do on the top and then I will carve out the inside of the top. I think I am going to put the top on hold for a while and start concentrating on the sides. I have a workshop I am going to be going to in a couple of weeks that will show me how to bend the sides and I have a few steps to do before then.

My new favorite tool!

I started to butcher my top before I figured out what the problem was with my smallest finger plane. The problem was that I didn't have the sides flat enough and no matter which direction I was passing the plane, it would dig in and chip the wood. This afternoon during lunch I began cleaning up what I had destroyed. Once I took off a good bit of wood from middle down to the sides, I was able to use the small finger plane very easily and with out much tear out. I still have quite a bit of wood to remove so everything that I messed up will come off anyway. Here it is at this point of the game. I have the light I use for tying flies pointed at it from a low angle to show the contours of the arch. This helps me see what else needs to come off and allows me to keep my symmetry right.

I found a couple more photo's showing the step after I have planed the top down from the center cirlce to the edge of the mandolin. After I have that planed down, I drew a bigger circle and then began making a convex arch going from the edge up to the circle and then a concave arch in the middle of the cirlce.

The top for my #2

Well, I haven't really done much more on my top but begin to butcher it. I have been having some problems with my smaller finger plane and it has been tearing out some of the places in my recurve. I'll post pictures later to give an update on how it looks.

Over the weekend I went to a freinds house and planed a couple of pieces of wood that are going to be another top. The pieces were seconds meaning they weren't good enough quality for a high end instrument. Looking at the pieces, they don't look good enough for any instrument. They did clean up a good bit and I think I'll manage to get a mandolin out of it.

New tool

Worked a little bit with scrapers this afternoon. I'll have to work on getting it sharper because I was only able to make sawdust and not thin shavings.

I didn't do much today. When I went home for lunch, I played for a few minutes and planed a little more off of the top. I have about 1/8" to go around from the beginning of the scroll on around. Maybe I'll finish that up tomorrow.

Beginning to shape the top

Well, I just couldn't help it. On my lunch break, I clamped up my top and began carving with the block plane. Before I clamped the top to the workbench, I marked the edge of the top 3/16" up from the bottom so I would know where to stop. The binding that will go around the outside of the top and back is 3/16". Before I knew it, my lunch break was over and I had to head back to work. Maybe I'll work on it again tomorrow.

Created Blog

At first, I planned on recording every step of the process, how long each step took, and the cost of each step. Now, I am three weeks or so into building my first musical instrument and I haven't written a thing down. Here goes.

I built my workbench in my 10'x12' shed in our backyard. The bench is small so I am going to have to keep everything organized and clean. Basically, all of the tools that I have were given to me as Christmas presents, including the vise. I put my Kentucky A model in the vise just to see how it would fit. I am really pleased with my setup and have since added computer speakers and a MP3 player to keep me entertained.





Also, in my shed, I have a climbing wall that doubles as some storage shelves. You can see my wood setting on one of the shelves waiting to be carved.




I took the Adirondack Spruce pieces up to a friend's house and ran it through his jointer. I then put it in this fixture to glue the pieces together. I copied this fixture from a website documenting the construction of Chris Thile's mandolin by Lynn Dudenbostel.








After I took the piece out of the fixture, I sanded the back smooth on a belt sander. I then took a hand plane and planed the top to a thickness of 21/32". I measured my thickness periodically with the homemade thickness caliper you see in the picture. It is accurate to .001". Once I had to it an equal thickness in the center to my desired height, I traced the outline of the body onto the wood. I then used a coping saw to cut out the shape. After reading the text in the book by Siminoff, I found that I was supposed to take it down to 5/8". I took the measurements from his blueprint and must have been trying to be too precise. Oh well, it looks like my arched top will be high by about 1/32".