Mandocello build thread

[sunburst]

Why is it so hard to find a tool as useful as an incannel gouge?

A bevel edge chisel does the other side of the point just fine.

I've now scraped all the bindings level with the body and it's time to start sanding.

[tree]

That last shot looks like a calendar photo. You probably have enough high quality photos to make calendars galore . . .

All those curves and planes and constantly being aware of grain direction, wow.

[tree]

The shot with the scraper was the one I was looking at when I posted.

[sunburst]

...and sanding...

(80 grit, whole thing.)

[j. condino]

'Looks good John! 'Hope you are charging a good price for all of that hard work you are putting in.....

[fox]

It just looks so accurate, symmetrical, and sharp, outstanding work!

[sunburst]

...and sanding.
Sanded the whole thing with 120 grit, constantly side-lighting to observe the contours as well as look for scratches that still need attention...

...then raised the grain by wetting the surface...

... and letting it dry.

[sunburst]

With the grain raised, scratches that were hard to see become more evident because the wood fibers swell from their compressed state, so scratches that have been sanded level are now raised and more visible. Not sure how well these will show up at internet resolution, but I'll try a couple of pics.

Also, remaining areas of glue on the surface are easier to see after wetting and raising the grain. Here is a little bit of both; scratches and glue.

[sunburst]

These areas got some special attention by sanding them out before proceeding, then I turned my attention to such things as small chips and gaps at the edges of the bindings.
Here's my filler for those.

Durhams doesn't take dyes well once it is dry in a fill, so I added a little of the dark dye that I will be using for the sunburst coloring later. This will help the small fills "disappear" under the finish.

[sunburst]

The fills look pretty ugly when they are first applied...

...but after the filler is cured and sanded they are barely visible.


I also touched up a couple of places at the point protectors using some ivoroid mud.

[sunburst]

With all of the scratches and other problems that I can find touched up, I sanded the whole thing to 220 grit and once again wet the surface to raise the grain. That is the present condition of the project, and assuming I don't find many other things to correct (like this bit of stray glue), the next step is to lightly re-sand and begin the sunburst coloring.

[Pete Jenner]

I've found this 'warts and all' thread very enjoyable. Thanks John.

[sunburst]

Meanwhile, I'm about to finish sanding on my other current project so that I can retrieve my fresh air supply respirator to once again use in the finish room in the shop so that I can begin the finish process on the mandocelo.


(Anyone who has done drywall work will notice all of the corners and non-90degree angles in this room, and understand the drywall-hell this represents!)

[amowry]

Ugh. Drywalling is one of my least favorite activities.

[sunburst]

Yeah. We bought the house with two unfinished rooms (this being one of them). The other one, when the carpet guys were installing the carpet, one of them asked who finished the drywall and I admitted that it was me. He said "Good! now I know who to hire!". I promptly said "You can't afford me!".

Once a friend (music teacher) called when I was sanding drywall in my former Virginia shop. She asked "What are you doing?" and I told her. She said "yeah, whenever I have a student who doesn't want to learn and a half hour lesson seems like 2 hours I think; 'I could be sanding drywall... on a ceiling' ".
Ever since, whenever I'm doing something I hate, I think "I could be sanding drywall on a ceiling" and things seem much better. Unfortunately, that doesn't work when we actually are sanding drywall on a ceiling.

[amowry]

That's a good trick! I usually think to myself "I could be sitting in a cubicle", but I think I'll upgrade.

[j. condino]

"I could be sitting next to an out of tune banjo player..."

[Grommet]

What a beauty John! This thread has been an awesome read. Your photographs document it superbly. I can't wait to hear this thing come to life.

Scott

[jtv]

My one drywalling experience was the edges around a door of a bathroom. That was awful to do.

Also that mandocello is looking gorgeous. I'm jealous of the future owner.

[Timbofood]

Two drywall projects...
I would rather have a root canal than do another one! That said, I am going to be doing some "surface work" in my bathroom soon anyway.

[sunburst]

I raised the grain again after sanding with 220, found a few more places to touch up, re-sanded, re-wet, called it good enough and lightly sanded to smooth it up for staining.
The first step in a sunburst using hand rubbed dyes (at least, the way I do it) is to dye the whole thing with amber dye. I got this far and started looking it over for problems again.

I found a few more light scratches in the top...

...so I sanded them out.

I've done this before, and for some reason, it doesn't cause problems with grain raising again as I continue with the staining process, so I just continue to stain over the sanded areas with no problems.

A note:
I'm using dyes, not stains, but the process here is normally called staining, so I'll sort of be using the words "stain" and "dye" interchangeably, but technically that is not correct because stains and dyes are different.

[sunburst]

Here's the whole thing stained amber and ready for the sunburst process.

[sunburst]

I didn't take the time to take a series of pictures of the sunburst process, but here are a couple of shots during staining.

[sunburst]

Here's the 'cello fully stained and sealed with a couple of light coats of sprayed blonde shellac.

[sunburst]

I am now in the process of scraping the bindings, starting with the more difficult parts. I like for jobs to get easier as they go, so I usually start with the hardest part. (I started sanding my drywall in the peak of the ceiling, standing on a ladder.)

You'll see a couple of exacto blades, one in a homemade handle, and an assortment of dental tools. Scraping the binding in the inside of the scrolls is sort of like cleaning curled up teeth, in a way.

What was I thinking when I extended the fingerboard this far over the oval hole binding?!