View Full Version : How many do you throw away?
StevenS
Mar-10-2010, 12:54pm
I was inserting a piece of inlay and heard a little "tick" as I popped it into place. Of course, even with thin CA wicked in, you can see the fine line in the crack of the MOP
. . . and I thought to myself, "Dang, I'm keeping it."
Then, the picture of the fireplace brimming with burning tops came to mind and I wondered --
How often (and at what points) have you decided to throw away a top / back / neck ?
How do you make that painful (but ultimately liberating) decision to chuck a part or project and start fresh?
billhay4
Mar-10-2010, 2:08pm
Was just finish sanding the rosette I painfully put in a mandolin top when I heard a crack and a 4" appeared just beside the glue line. I glued it up and it looks and sounds fine, but I started a new top anyway. The cracked one will end up in the fire unless I want to build a slop job to experiment on some things.
I've got parts of instruments all over the shop for one reason or another, mainly amateur incompetence.
Bill
Lefty Luthier
Mar-10-2010, 4:16pm
My worst experience was doing the final set-up on a very high end mandola when the top collapsed on one side. The autopsy indicated that a tiny slip of my chisel when trimming the end of the treble tone bar had raised a nick, which grew under the pressure of the bridge when the strings were brought up to tension. Chucked a beautiful top but managed to salvage the balance.
sunburst
Mar-10-2010, 4:41pm
I've scrapped quite a few broken inlays, but I have very few necks, tops, or backs lying around, and those are usually because of imperfections that showed up in the wood, other than one very early neck that I installed the truss rod too deep. I sanded into the truss rod just before it was ready to finish.
I've been lucky enough to avoid making very many catastrophic mistakes for some reason, and I think that's largely because I'm mostly free to work at my own pace and I think things through thoroughly.
I made a lot more mistakes when I worked at a mostly-production cabinet shop and felt the pressure of the boss wanting more speed in the shop.
Pete Hicks
Mar-10-2010, 4:53pm
At the moment I have a too thin F-5 top and an F-5 neck cut too short in the trash pile. I'll probably turn the neck into some other kind of mando eventually.
Dale Ludewig
Mar-10-2010, 4:53pm
Yes, John, you're right. But sometimes that "boss" is yourself, not meaning that literally as to you. We all push too hard sometimes and then hear the "pop". Oops. That's going to be expensive.
I've tossed tops and backs and sides when I've made mistakes that no customer would get from me. On the other hand, as a builder, these errors can make fine instruments for one's own playing. If you trust your repairs. As to inlay, with MOP, it's pretty hard to hide it. It's not necessarily structural but cosmetic. CA is your friend and if I have a break, I'll glue it up before trying to put it into a cavity. One thing I've learned is that a few very small holes drilled into the bottom of the cavity will help alleviate hydraulic pressure when gluing in the inlay- the glue has somewhere to go other than up against finger pressure. JMHO.
grandcanyonminstrel
Mar-10-2010, 5:13pm
http://www.condino.com/detachment.html
There gets a point when you just have to let go if it and get on with things. I've done some variation of this five times in 3 dcades; every time when it was done, I was amazed at how liberating it felt and wondered why I didn't do it a lot sooner...
j.
www.condino.com
Magnus Geijer
Mar-10-2010, 6:37pm
I carved a top to .06" at the recurve. Put it in a box because I couldn't stand throwing it away. Misaligned a template for a head on a blank and had to put that neck in the same box. Drill stop came loose on the press, and I had a line that made a back about .04 in a three-inch stretch. Put it in the same box. Fret board with misaligned dots due to table issues with the same drill press, which is now, incidentally, resting at the bottom of the Kentucky river.
At this point it occurred to me that all I was missing was a set of rims, so I finished carving the top and back to insanely thin specs, recut the head, and turned it into a four-string. Haven't played an 8-string since.
Then there's other stuff, but my therapist says I shouldn't bring that up.
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=51117&d=1221650057
/Magnus
crazymandolinist
Mar-10-2010, 7:26pm
The drill press or the fretboard? I've got many many "lost cause" instruments laying about in my room. I won't throw anything away because I know sometime I might find some use for it. Here's to the versatility of solid bodied instrument carcasses!
StevenS
Mar-10-2010, 10:51pm
Here's one I'm saving for all time . . . When an octave just isn't enough!
sunburst
Mar-10-2010, 11:16pm
That can be fixed. I've done similar before...
Jim Rowland
Mar-11-2010, 7:46am
Anyone have a fix for this one? It still burns in my craw like a flaming arrow.
Jim
billhay4
Mar-11-2010, 7:53am
Great post, Magnus!
Bill
shawnee creek
Mar-11-2010, 8:02am
Jim, I've got one of those cut to shape that I use for a template. Mike
thistle3585
Mar-11-2010, 9:12am
Several months back, I had a hand injury while routing some ash bodies then had a bunch more of problems with related necks and components for those same instruments and I figured that I wasn't meant to make Tele shaped instruments from ash. So, I have 4-5 ash bodies sitting around. The bad necks I save thinking I'll make a cigar box mando.
Andrew
Here's one I'm saving for all time . . . When an octave just isn't enough!
Um.... is it just me, but I can't see anything wrong with that, maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?
John.
StevenS
Mar-11-2010, 10:23am
Tavy,
That was exactly my problem too . . . until I started lining up to drill the side dots. Amazing what one can carefully, precisely do wrong, thinking "I am doing great work here ----- What the ? ? ? ---- Doh!"
Steve
David Newton
Mar-11-2010, 10:24am
Jim, it took me a moment, but that is a hoot!
I can't think of a thing to do with it however.
EdHanrahan
Mar-11-2010, 10:35am
...I can't think of a thing to do with it however.
Maybe change the REAL fret markers to big rectangles. Then add a background of "random" polka-dots??
dunwell
Mar-11-2010, 11:06am
Not to mention laying out an F-style with the template upside down for the arch of the glued up wedges.... at least I've heard that _someone_ might have done that. Not that I'd know... but I do have one hanging up that has "Don't be Stupid, Alan" written in Sharpie...
Alan D.
Wudwerkr
Mar-11-2010, 11:24am
I carved a top to .06" at the recurve. Put it in a box because I couldn't stand throwing it away. Misaligned a template for a head on a blank and had to put that neck in the same box. Drill stop came loose on the press, and I had a line that made a back about .04 in a three-inch stretch. Put it in the same box. Fret board with misaligned dots due to table issues with the same drill press, which is now, incidentally, resting at the bottom of the Kentucky river.
At this point it occurred to me that all I was missing was a set of rims, so I finished carving the top and back to insanely thin specs, recut the head, and turned it into a four-string. Haven't played an 8-string since.
Then there's other stuff, but my therapist says I shouldn't bring that up.
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=51117&d=1221650057
/Magnus
Pretty dang good looking set of mistakes there !:mandosmiley:
Tavy,
That was exactly my problem too . . . until I started lining up to drill the side dots. Amazing what one can carefully, precisely do wrong, thinking "I am doing great work here ----- What the ? ? ? ---- Doh!"
Steve
Ah, looking again I see the um... polkadot problem. I don't play that high up the board so I didn't pay enough attention... who needs to know where the octave is anyway ? :grin:
John.
Dennis Davis
Mar-12-2010, 6:23pm
Anyone have a fix for this one? It still burns in my craw like a flaming arrow.
Jim
Interesting Jim, I have one just like it.
Dennis Davis, builder