I'm 10 days into a new mandolin build and am spraying the lacquer finish at this point. I thought I'd share my method and thoughts for this design and build scheme. There are many paths a person can take to get from the starting point to their final destination. I'm using what I call the Male Mold method to construct the body and use a simple solid neck/body join.
I have nothing but respect and admiration for the commercial, boutique, and advanced home builders who produce the bling infested high-end museum pieces we see on this and other internet sites. I wish them all well and the greatest success, but we all can't, or don't want, to follow that righteous path.
I consider myself to be a Shade Tree luthier. I get great satisfaction from building unique, excellent sounding stringed instruments on the cheap. Much of the work gets done on the patio of my little slice of single wide heaven. I don't have the luxury of a nice shop with lots of storage. I therefore had to come up with other ways to skin the proverbial cat.
Exotic woods and high-end hardware can be stunning, but they drive up the cost of ownership past the reach of most players. I don't want to own an instrument that will make me cry when I put that first ding in the sound board. Woods and materials available locally can be used, if you know what to look for, and I've found that economy hardware looks and works quite well.
It's easy to make a beautiful portrait of a beautiful girl, but it takes a real artist to produce a beautiful portrait of a butt ugly one.
Day 1
"Plans! Plans! I don't need no stinking plans!!"
I used a straight edge ruler, compass, and french curve to make a half template of the body out of 1/8" MDF. This is used to draw the body frame outline on a piece of 1/4" Baltic Birch plywood. This will become the Male Mold frame. I am not going to explain every step, but will include some pictures that I hope will fill in the gaps.
I cut the top and bottom rims outside edge at the same time so they will match. I use a spindle sander to true-up the edges. I mark what will remain and remove the rest with a saber saw. a little clean up and sanding and they are ready to be attached with end blocks and stanchions. TiteBond glue, toothpick pegs, and a few clamps are all that is needed.
I need to runs some errands, so will stop here and continue later.
Cheers,
Leroy
Bookmarks