Beginner's Mistakes

[timeoutlaw59]

Hey i was just thinking that it would be nice to have all you guy's and gal's post some of the mistakes that you made during the cutting and assembly of your first mandolin.I just thought that this info would be helpful to us green pea's that's just getting started.Just wanted to hear some of the diffrent problem area's of building a mandolin that some have encountered along the way.This info i feel would be very helpful to pass on and may save others time and MONEY! So please feel free to pass on your learning experience and wisdom for i know it will be very appreciated...........thanks

[Darryl Wolfe]

Keeping the back joint on the centerline of the mando
Not accidentally cutting off the heel cap tab on the back
Doing things in the wrong order so that step 3 takes 5 times as long as it should
Generally rough cutting things too close http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif
Not leaving enough of a nice 3/16" high reference flat around the perimeter of the top and back prior to binding
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[joshags03]

Never get too excited and rush to get the job done. Slow down, take your time and think through what you're about to do. When you do a good job the first time you save countless hours of having to repeat and repair.

[yoyoecho]

Spent many an hour caving the top looked great until I found out the scroll was on the wrong side. #Still hangs in my shop and reminds me to check everything twice and the check it again.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

On Mandolins: Carving the arch on the top too steeply. I now have a decorative top hanging in my shop on the wall of shame.

Not making sure the sides were horizontally straight in the form when I glue in the blocks. I discovered this before I glued up the entire body. The 3 pieces that make up the points are now firewood.

On Mountain dulcimers: Screwing up with the roundover bit in the router and carving a big dent into a headstock. I have 2 headstocks on my wall of shame.

Sanding right through the binding of a dulcimer.

Giving a dulcimer to a music store in the mountains that has no humidifier in the store. I now have a dulcimer with 3 large cracks in the top because it hung in a store with about 12% humidity for a month.

Guitars: Building a classical gutiar bridge. Place the outside 2 holes for the proper spacing of the E strings. Measure the gap between the holes and divide by 6. Place the bridge in the drill press and drill those holes. Take the bridge out of the drill press and realize that I now have a bridge with SEVEN holes instead of six.

[Chris Baird]

Think through the whole process and consider even the smallest details before you do anything. Lack of patience is often the biggest problem begginers have. It is much better to take a long time on your first rather than bang out a bunch of poor mandolins before you figure things out. Some things I've messed up on are:
Laying out the fretboard onto the neck without the binding then rough cutting the neck wrong.
I've had a couple bad top joins. One failed on my first mandolin and another failed while I was applying thumb pressure while carving. I now do not allow any glue line at all. If I can see the joint I rip the join out and redo it. It is also important to note that the top thickness infront of the tailblock should be no less than .125" preferably thicker.
I've had a peghead and a fretboard creep after clamping. I've not had this problem since I switched to hideglue.
I could probably go on much longer but am out of time.

[Flowerpot]

Had a top fail -- too much up-arch from the tailpiece to bridge, too little material there.
I made my first form before getting a bandsaw, and cut it by hand... the angle of the sides was something other than 90 degrees from flat. I ended up adding bent popsicle sticks and chiseling them down to compensate, but it still wasn't perfect.
Cutting my first binding notch in the top with a router, I tried to go the whole depth (width) in one pass. Ouch -- big hunks of tear-out, not a good idea.
The first F-holes I cut, I measured their position from the outside of the rough-cut top; then when I glued it on to the rim and shaved off the excess, they were too close to the edges. (No big deal, that was the top that failed, anyway.)
Inlaying some green paua shell: cut the mortise too shallow, and sanded off the prettiest layers of the shell to get it flush.

[Brookside]

I did the same thing with my shell inlay and binding notch as flowerpot did. I also did a poor join on my back billets, put a truss rod in too deep at the headstock end which resulted in cutting into it as I was squaring the back of the headstock with my bandsaw which caused the truss rod nut to unscrew and fly across the room. Last but not least I tried to straighten a crooked tailpiece by yanking on it. In general, I built my first with no patience and my head in my arse. It's hard to imagine such poor building habbits could ever improve but my next two are going very well. I don't think you ever progress as sharply as you do from your first to your second.

[timeoutlaw59]

Gee so much good info,i for one am very pleased to hear all this.I feel that this info will help all the new builders including myself and remind us to slow down and think it through.As always i find that this site has very good people and that they are always more than willing to help anyone that has a question.So i say thanks for all your input and keep on letting us know these problems,after all we are trying to reach the same goal only some of us will take a little longer.So to you MR.MANDOLIN BUILDER, ALWAYS TAKING THAT WOOD TO THE NEXT DIMENSION,ALWAYS SHARING YOUR THOUGHTS TO HELP OTHERS ALONG THE WAY AND YET STILL ABLE TO REACH THE SOUND OF PERFECTION>>>>THIS BUD"S FOR YOU!! So got carried away??

[peter.coombe]

I dropped my first right on the endpin on a concrete floor just as I was about to put the strings on.

[Yonkle]

Took a coping saw and rounded off the excess wood on the front, no problem, then did the back, and as soon as the piece hit the floor I just relized I cut my back button off. The piece glued right back on but on mando #2 if you look hard you can see the seam across the button.
Not cutting binding channels deep enough, then having to sand down the binding instead of the wood, and getting close to the black line in the binding, which gives it that beautiful "gray" binding look! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[austin]

Oh yes, let's not forget using the wrong router bit for the binding and watching the lower point go flying across the shop in about 30 pieces!

Oh, yes, that spruce top with the painstakingly handrubbed beautiful sunburst that turned into a muddy looking bog as I brush on a water base sealer..... (I now spray a shellac sealer!)

and, realizing that while ca glue is great for filling gaps when mixed with sawdust, it does not hold stain well...

- binding really can catch fire...

- coping saws have very specific uses...

-don't mix up your mando neck stock and violin neck stock...


and, and , and......

[Mandopickr]

Wow....I made all those mistakes, except the dropping one. I however did have #1 take a tumble off a stage onto a concrete sidewalk...the sound was sickening. On #2 I used spring clamps, you know the ones that look like big clothes pins to clamp the top on...while getting the top into the correct position one of them slipped and exploded the top. It looked like a bunch of toothpicks stickin up....it was me that made the sickening sound that time.

[Brookside]

- binding really can catch fire...
Almost forgot that one. I saw a guy make reference to using a blowtorch to bend binding on a post here some months ago. I realize now he was joking. Careful with the jokes. Someone may just be fool enough to believe it.

[tope]

Don't try to flat sand a finished rim assembly in a thickness sander. Mine went fine the first few passes then the sander ate it. I have a few pieces taped togeter hanging on the wall as the reminder. It doesn't take long to do it by hand on a flat surface. And I've pulled a few of the other
mistakes also.

[Jim Rowland]

Done most all of them except dropping the Mando. I did have a guitar body shoot off the work table while I was trying to get a one inch rubber band around it. I forget now why I was trying to get the one inch rubber band around it,but I remember the sickening sound of it hitting the concrete.

[Magnus Geijer]

I DO bend the binding with a blow torch. Used to do it with the direct method, which works if you're careful enough, but I have found that heating up a piece of metal, say your side bending pipe for example, and then using the heat from it frees up a hand that would have otherwise been tied up holding a heat gun.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

Right now I'm trying to brush shellac on an instrument instead of endless padding on with a french polish pad. It's seems that when I sand (with 320) the coat to smooth out any runs from the brush I keep sanding through the low spots and having to touch refinish spots. That leaves witness lines that have to be sanded out, which sands through the finish again, etc. Trying to get a smooth, even finish without a spray booth is a real bear. Not sure if it's my lack of skill or lack of a spray boooth. (oh wait, people made beautiful furniture for centuries without spray booths. OK, it's skill).

[yoyoecho]

Don't forget the mistake of not keeping you tools sharp. #Not sharp enough to carve well but sharp enough to put seven stitches in my thumb. #That adds $700 to the cost right of the bat. #I did let me give all my glue joints plenty of time to dry.:D

[John Zimm]

I tried to cut side material from an old cherry block on a cheap bandsaw. I ended up wrecking the block, the side material, the bandsaw blade. In the resulting tantrum, I also tossed everything I had managed to make before this time-back, top, neck, out into the woods, swearing like a sailor. I have since given up trying to make an instrument, for the time being.

-John.

[sunburst]

Don't try to flat sand a finished rim assembly in a thickness sander. Mine went fine the first few passes then the sander ate it.
I do sand one side of my rim assemblies with the thickness sander to keep it evenly thick (evenly wide if you consider the sides). but I do this with the rim securely clamped in the form.

And, yes, I've made most of the afore mentioned mistakes at least once.

A mistake that I made on the first and other early mandos was not writing enough down.
Keep good records of what you do, right or wrong. It makes for a good reference when you get to a point on a later mandolin and you're wondering what to do.