Busy wee day today......

a LOT of sanding, then the heel plate cut & stuck.

MORE sanding then the first "show the glue splodge" coat of lacquer.

As well as showing up any places that need more sanding to lift out any glue squeeze out that I've missed (and this time there isn't much :o)) it also lets the wood show itself off a bit too. The bear claw on the top is YELLING out!!!

Tuner holes drilled & checked for alignment....... frets fitted and fretboard cut to match curve of soundhole.... though not necessarily in that order!!

some tidying of the neck joint to do and then a LOAD of sanding before finish coats.

mandola progress.

Both necks are rough carved but still have a load of sanding to do.

the fretboards are curved to a radius of 12" using a handy curved sanding block from Stewmac (note the 12!!). there was still a fair bit to do on this one when I took the pic.......

I've cut the mortice in the neckblock to accept the tenon on the neck and drilled the holes for the bolt which will pull everything tight,

BUT

because the fretboard is too long I cant reach past it to tighten the bolt.

So,

I need a decision from Kevin (the client) as to how he wants the neck to end at the soundhole.

left square, rounded or a swirl?

Binding on the second mandola body now done, so next wek there will (hopefully) be a load of sanding done on both bodies.

the necks were rough cur to get the vague head shape then I got the chance to part carve one of the necks.

note the radiused sanding block that the necks are resting on. I'll be using that to curve the fretboard before the frets go on.

Ah, at last, back after school half term......

I'd started a 12 string to tinker on while waiting for the glue on Kevin's mandola to dry....

Walnut Back & sides, Engleman spruce top, purpleheart rosette.

the back was about 3mm too narrow for my mini jumbo mould so I laminated in two strips of maple and one of rosewood binding
up the middle........ Yeah, I know it's cheating, but hey, warts and all right?


the mandola now has a siamese twin in parallel development.

so as a result I now have two necks rough cut, one body closed and bound waiting for a LOAD of sanding, and a top waiting for the bracing to be carved before it meets up with it's back & sides.

the plan (like there was ever a plan!!!) is for Kevin to be able to choose his fav, as this is a stab in the dark, seat of the pants, never played a mandola before let alone seen plans before type build...... the old paranoia of will the bracing be too tight and so deaden the vibrations, or too weak and let the top rip off raises it's ugly head again!!!. #2 will be less tightly braced, so we'll see how things pan out.......

note the heads aren't my usual shape as Kevin wants whichever one he takes to fit in with his other babies......... (BTW, that curl (or blob) on the headstock is gonna be a pain later on!!!!)