Search:

Be careful though. I have a harbor freight drill press that I broke trying to use it as an arbor press while refretting my friends guitar.

You could try silver solder. It's actually structural unlike regular electrical solder. It takes some decent amount of heat to get it working though. You normally need a blow torch for it. That...

I'm using a cartridge heater in a steel pipe packed with aluminum foil. I think I got a heater element that is too powerful though because even with a router speed controller turned pretty low it...

Thanks for all the helpful responses. I've tried sanding the burn marks and gluing the split. I'll post a picture of it later once the glue dries. I'm still not sure if I will be using the piece but...

What is the best temperature to shoot for when bending so I don't scorch the wood again?

Thanks. I actually have one of those dimmers but it doesn't have a lot of fine control. I didn't have any way of measureing the temperature accurately. I think I should invest in one of those...

Is this side piece worth trying to save? sanding past the burns? or should I scrap it and try again?
This is my first ever side.
I'm having a bit of trouble managing the temperature of my homemade...

Yeah sorry that's our fault... Millennials :)

Looks like I'm taking a trip to olive garden? It sounds like that is something I don't want to leave out. I'd hate to have issues with the truss rod.

I tried to match the pattern from the book for the truss rod. I even scorched the paper a little bit trying to match the shape while it was still hot from bending. to my eye it looked like it lined...

I have been referencing the Siminoff ultimate bluegrass construction manual for my build and it says to use a soda straw on the truss rod. It kind of makes sense using something to isolate the truss...

I haven't been making much progress on this build lately. I've been pretty busy. I did recently finish cutting the truss rod slot and making the truss rod.

Made it out of a piece of 3/16 inch...

I made a set of finger planes not too long ago. I even made a toothed blade for one of them. You can check out my thread below.
so far I have really been liking the smallest double convex plane...

here's my takeaways so far.

Celluloid
pros:
easy to work with (when not on fire)
binds well
looks nice
polishes smoother than ABS
street cred

Would laminating pieces work with ABS too? I looked on Axiom quickly and it's looking like it would be about $50 with the shipping charges and hazmat fee. That's a bit of a hard pill to swallow for...

A lot of people seem to swear by celluloid. Even on lmii there doesn't seem to be as big of a selection of sizes as there is for ABS. I wouldn't be able to get all of the sizes recommended by...

I'm not ready to start doing binding on my build yet but I'm trying to start looking ahead. Maybe save some on shipping by making one big order. Anyway, I think I'm trying to do a top bound white -...

Thanks! I'll definitely check out those videos. I was being very cautious removing material on this one since it's my first. Despite the blisters this part has been tons of fun! I was very surprised...

A couple more pictures of the progress.

175838
175837

Made some progress today. Glued on the headstock extension wings and inlayed in the reinforcement circle. I also started carving the soundboard with my hand made gouge. (works like a charm)
175834...

Done!

175784

:P

I think it's time to start a build thread for my first mandolin. So far I've resawed, jointed, and glued up the blank for the soundboard and glued up and roughed out the neck blank. The neck blank...

Ha! Making one saw cut by hand won't exactly get you ripped unfortunately. I did end up with some blisters yesterday. I should have taken a picture but hey cleared up pretty quick. Hand planing and...

I managed to make the cut with a hand saw with no issues. It took longer than it should have. I need to sharpen my rip saw.

It turns out I didn't really have much of a choice of how to glue these...

would you do the glue up with the sawn face flat or the other face flat? (like picture 4 or 5? ) or doesn't it matter.