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Thursday, July 24, 2008 |  |
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COYDOG: Projects | Links | Home | ||
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Mandolin Building: Tips |
 Resources Tools Tips |
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 Getting Started Preparing the Rim Carving Tone Bars/f-Holes Assembly Body Binding Headstock Neck In the White Staining Finishing Final Product |
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The following are some tips I adopted out either through learning from other people or from carefully executed failures and subsequent recoveries. |
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Making Templates It's probably best if I don't reveal exactly how long I sat there with my black ABS plastic and the blueprint trying to figure out how to get the patterns from the latter to the former. C'mon, this is third grade stuff here. We're just tracing right? Yeah, but... I could trace the designs from the blueprint onto tracing paper, but then what? Cut 'em out and draw around it onto the plastic? Well, I tried that and the only thing harder than not ripping the edges of the tracing paper to shreds while trying to follow it was finding a pen or pencil that would create a fine, visible line on the black plastic. Anyway, I'm sure you've all figured this out by now, but the secret is clear plastic. Get the thickest piece you can cut with scissors. Then, a fine tip felt pen and your tracing from the blueprint with ease. And you end up with templates you can use again and again for the scroll, the f-holes, inlays, etc.
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Sanding Another use for my clear (though doesn't have to be in this case) plastic is as backing for adhesive sandpaper. I found that a thin strip (3/8" x 4" or so) worked great to sand the inside of the scroll and f-holes. A few of these strips bent into various concave and convex shapes come in very handy for hard to reach places. Also, a 2" x 2" square bent into a tube worked to smooth out the transitions in the recurve and the scroll carving. Dowels or various sizes wrapped in adhesive sand paper are also very nice for sanding the f-holes. A long flat strip of wood (12" x 3" x 1/2") with sandpaper is great for leveling the lining to the rim, the top and back to the sides, and the binding to the sides. |
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- COYDOG is created and maintained by - David Zimmerman z@coydog.com
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