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Very very cool,

Ever have one of those weeks where everything seems to go wrong.. even the simplest of processes like sanding??

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Man, I feel for you with that one. Are you going to fix it, or start over? Yea, it stinks when stuff like this happens, done it plenty of times myself. But sometimes I get lucky and end up with a better looking instrument because of the "special feature" I created to cover the problem.

Have you thought about a custom inlayed pick guard, similar to what Gibson did on their very early instruments? (I have a 1905, and it is REALY cool.) This might let you cover the entire damaged area so no one would ever know.

Phil

_________________
Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

OUCHHHHHHHH What happened Chris ? Man I hate to see that . Whats the plan ?

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Zoinks!

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

The damage to the inlay and top was a real bummer.

It started with sandpaper that grabbed a piece of the inlay and tore it out. It evolved into re-cutting the channel for the inlay and the top blowing out where you see it. It is probably a good thing this happened in the shop instead of to the artist on stage or practicing. I had to cut new abalone but was able to put the spruce all back in place and it's now stronger than it ever was. If I hadn't shown the photo, no one would have been the wiser.

Although I didn't really want to post that photo, I thought it might beneficial to some starting luthiers who might give up or even smash an instrument to bits over something that can be repaired and made invisible with just a little patience. It happens to all of us at some point and is discouraging, but like Phil stated, you can find inspiration in setbacks and in the end get extra credit for some cool inlay or other "special feature".

I'll be posting more this week. The instrument is nearly complete but I have about 10 posts to catch up.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Thanks for sharing this, Chris. You are right, you may have just saved a few of us beginners from making rash decisions.

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Grooving and Tapering the Fretboard

These mandolins get custom fretboards. This means each gets a fretboard tapered to fit the individual mandolin (i.e. what will fit best).

I'm not going to go into actual numbers of the width and nut width here but show the mechanics of how to get there.

First I note the nut width that I desire. I also put a ruler on the mandolin body and determine approximately how wide the fretboard will be at that end. I lay out a ruler along the neck and onto the body (using those measurements) and verify that the fretboard will not overlap my maximum width where the neck meets the body. If this works, great. If not, I have to decrease the width of the fretboard until it works.

With this information I cut two fretboard blanks using African blackwood and thickness them to just over 3/16" on the drum sander. The blanks are now ready.

Here I marking my fret positions on the back side of a fretboard. I had determined the scale length (14 3/8") before carving the top and have used Stewart McDonald's fret position calculator to determine my spacing. I measure every fret position from the nut position. If I had measured from fret to fret I would have compounded any errors I made in marking and/or reading the measurements.


Here I have used my fretboard grooving sled to cut my slots. Here is a tutorial on my fret sled.


Notice the slot at the nut side of the board. I can fret this to make a 'zero fret' or, what I do, cut the excess off and the nut fits flush up to that side.


Here I set the fence to the width of the fretboard and make sure it is trimmed to the total width first.


Next I use a little block on the nut side to create my first taper cut. The block size is determined by your (total width - nut width) / 2).


Now I flip the fretboard over and use the thick side of the the block. The thickness of this is (total width - nut width). You can see that the first (smaller) block should be 1/2 the size of this block.


When you get done with this cut, your done.


A tip you should actually consider a rule is....

Use tape on the slotted side of the fretboard when cutting it. Run this along the edge of the fretboard and wrap it over onto the slotted face.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Now to post this in DOOFUS move of the month

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Fretboard Side Dots

Here I am adding side dots to the fretboard. This is a pretty easy task but seems to be poorly executed by a lot of luthiers.

I use a marking scribe to make my line.

I use a scribe made by Lee Valley but would use a simple razor attached to a block of wood if I didn't already have one.


Look closely and you can see my scribed line linking the holes.



I am using 1/16" side dot material from StewMac here so a 1/16" bit is in order. Of coarse you know that brad point bits are lacking the 'point' in that size... right? Well, make your own brad point bit for this operation. I chucked mine up in the drill press and stuck my diamond sharpening stick on it.


Here is a StewMac (all the way back from 2006) freebie on making the brad point bit using your dremel tool.
StewMac Trade Secrets #8

All done with the holes. I made them just deep enough to hold the dot material.


I use thin CA glue.


Stick in the material.


Clip off the excess and move on to the next.




Once dry, I use an exacto to trim close. Then use a file or sanding stick to level.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Drilling the Tuner Holes

I use a StewMac drilling guide and reamer for my tuner machine holes.

First I draw the lines on the peg head showing where I want my holes. Next, I drill my first hole.
Here you can see that I have drilled the first hole and put a pin in to hold the drilling block. Also, I have a punch that I will use to locate my next hole.


You can see where the punch scraped the location. I use an awl to mark the exact spot on my line I drew previously.


Here I have drilled the next hole.


Now I have two pins in and can drill the next two holes. Notice I am using a backer strip to keep the backside from blowing out when the drill bit comes through.


Nice, perfectly placed and angled holes.


I repeat this for the other side and slip in the tuners. They fit perfect.


Here is my reamer. I have added tape to let me know when to stop.


All done.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Routing For Bindings / Purfling

Routing channels for bindings and purfling is a pretty simple concept. There are jigs and tools to make the job faster and more precise (overall), but I think it is just as important to complete the little details of the job that increase your chances of a great fit.

Before any cutting, you may want to add a coat of shellac around the top. The shellac will help keep the wood fibers from separating as easily. It will also aid in keeping those fibers together when removing tape after gluing on the bindings. The shellac will sand off nicely when you are ready to finish the top.

Here is the Ribekke style jig I use for mandolin and guitar bindings and purfling.


Notice the router bit. I use different sizes of bearings to get the width of cut I desire... a smaller bearing for the purfling cut and a larger for the binding cut. If you are going to use this style of system, be sure to test your cuts on a piece of scrap wood before you begin.

For the guitar bindings, the guitar is held in a jig and the router floats up and down as needed as it cuts. For the mandolins, I prop the router up with a block. I manually feed the mandolin through the router bit. Knowing a bit about wood grain and how it interacts with rapidly spinning blades is imperative here. Here is a graphic of the way you should approach cutting your channels.


Following the directions will give you an increased chance at a clean channel with out tear out. Of course, nothing is fool proof...

I route the purfling channel first, then the binding channel. Ok... now the channels are cut but we have more work to do. The top plate edge was thinned to about 3/16" (which is what I want my binding height to be) so I use a small chisel to romove any spruce all the way down to the walnut rim. You can see here after I cleared down to the walnut.


One problem area on this mandolin is at the fretboard ramp. Since the spruce ramps here, the cutter went up as well.


It would be much easier to keep that binding flush against the walnut so I will use a knife and chisel to remove the spruce all the way down to the walnut rim. In the end, our binding will be slightly taller here, which is fine, but you need to have this in your mind before you cut and install your bindings.


Once you have gotten the grooves all good go back and make sure that the inside corner of the binding channel is no humped out. I use a little v chisel to make that area acute angle. This means that the binding will have a better chance of getting into place, especially if your bindings have to be spot on without much room for sanding, etc. later.

So... now we're ready for adding the binding and purfling. Here I've got a black/white strip, a piece of teflon (to substitute for some inlay), my curly maple binding and glue.


Well, before I get ahead of myself, I need to bend that maple and my black/white strip. I use this iron I built several years back.


Here I mark the binding so I know where to start.


Here is the binding and black/white strip all bent and ready for gluing.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Gluing on the Binding / Purfling

I use titebond regular glue and start here at the tail of the mandolin.


I'm using strong tape from StewMac to keep the binding/purfling sandwich in place.


Now the other side.


Here is my binding jig. I use big rubber bands to help keep the bindings where they're supposed to be while the glue dries.




A few hours down later I remove the rubber bands and tape. Here it is ready to be trimmed and and the purfling inlay to be inserted.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Adding Some Purfling

Here is an operation that is pretty simple but starts with a bit of planning.

First I trim down the binding.


Here it is completely trimmed. I have trimmed it close to the final height but not completely. This will give a bit of sanding room once the purfling is installed.


When gluing on the binding I included a strip of teflon. Here I'm pulling out the teflon strip.


Once the teflon strip is removed you will have an open channel. Be careful! You can now crack your binding pretty easily.


I'm using some sapodilla strips with abalone shell. I make the sapodilla strips by resawing close to the thickness needed to fill the channel. Next I use my drum sander to get it down to the exact thickness needed. I take the thin sheet and crosscut it in the bandsaw. Be sure to use a backerboard to provide zero clearance for the blade.

Here I have started placing all of the sapodilla and shell. You can see that the sapodilla stands proud of the surface.


I got all the sapodilla and shell in place and wicked in thin CA glue. The CA glue will hold the purfling in tight and fill the microscopic gaps. Use the CA liberally. A note with that CA usage: you may want to coat the mandolin top around the edge to help stop the flow of CA into your spruce/cedar/whatever top.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Gluing on the Back

Not much here. I have the rim prepped and the back plate is ready.


I heat the rim and back plate with the heat gun, add hot hide glue, put back in place and clamp down with a bunch of these spring clamps.


All done. When dry I trim the overhang on the bandsaw and sand flush on the OSS.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Carving the Neck

The carving is as usual but for one difference. The back plate extends over the heel of the neck.

Here you can see the neck in place. I used a spice bottle with an agreeable diameter and traced out the half circle on the back.


I removed the neck and cut out the half circle (on the back) and filed it close. Final shaping will be done after the neck is carved and glued in place. I re-installed the neck and traced the outline onto the neck heel. I also made a couple cuts in the neck heel.




I have removed the neck. Here you can see the tracing and the cuts to help me get started carving.


I use a flexcut palm gouge to get started. I work away at the perimeter of my marked semicircle.


Now I get the big file out and remove a lot of wood down the sides.


I do a lot of shaping with this large file. It removes the wood quickly.


When everything gets to feeling good, I re-install the neck for one last check before gluing.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Gluing the Neck and Cutting the Back Binding Channel

First I cut the binding channel on the back except for the neck heel area. This is easier now than when the neck is installed.


Heat up the dovetail mortise and tenon and apply hot hide glue.


Now add clamping pressure.


All done gluing.


I'll be binding around the neck heel on this mandolin. I use a marking tool to cut the wood around the heel.




Here I have marked the thickness of the binding and will chisel and file the channel.


Ready for bindings.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Back Bindings part 1

The back bindings on this mandolin are a bit more difficult than most. The main reason is the use of the curly maple. It doesn't bend tight in a tight radius very well without breaking.

Here I am trying to coax some binding around the neck heel. Stefan Sobell makes his neck heel square... which would be easier to bind, but we are up for the challenge and appreciate the fluidity that will be created.

I heated up the binding on my hot pipe bender. I did spritz a little water on the maple, but not much. Too much and the fibers come apart with the heat. It took 6 attempts to get a piece to bend properly.


Even though, you can see one area where the fibers have begun to break.


In this photo I am not gluing on the maple binding. I am gluing on a black/white strip. I have added this first as the bindings will be done in steps as well and will not have the opportunity to glue the binding sandwich all at once.


I have the B/W strip glued on here. You can see in the tail that the strip was not long enough... doh! It's ok, I'll add a piece later to fill that gap.


Now I am gluing on the maple binding at the neck heel.


I use tape and the large rubber bands to get it nice and tight. The long clamp is used where the binding broke. This 'should' keep it in place until dry.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Back Binding part 2

Both sides are looking good.




Now I have added the rest of the maple binding to finish it out. I use tape first...


... then the rubber bands.


And, here it is. The bindings came together just right. Here I have scraped them down and cleaned up the glue.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Butt Wedge

I just realized that I forgot to add the tail wedge! Not really... I did forget to add a post showing it.

So here you go, just some photos of the operation.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

I was lucky enough to hear the very first sounds this mando made. I bet it has all 8 strings on it now though. . .

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Lovely mandos Chris, nicely documented.

_________________
Regards from RangeView, Bill

Fretboard Inlay

I added a small vine inlay to the fretboard. It goes along with the theme around the rosette.

I used the same methods as the headplate inlay, only on a larger scale. I start small and work in sections.









Keep working down the fretboard.



Once all the inlay is in place I sand it down using my radius block with sandpaper. Then I get out a razor saw and recut the fret grooves. The razor saw gives me a good guide to follow up with the actual fret groove saw. Using the fret saw assures that my grooves will be wide enough to allow easy fret installation.



Now I go back and refill any voids, sand and polish it up.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Fretting and Gluing the Fretboard

Here I have the fretboard on a nice dense surface... the cast iron top of my table saw. Make sure to do the fretting on a super dense surface. I also like to clamp down my fretboard so it doesn't bounce while hammering the frets into place.



I hammer the fret in and clip of the excess and continue.



Once complete, I file the fret ends flush then pack some sawdust any of the gaps made by the fretsaw. Here I am placing a small drop of CA glue on the sawdust.



After the CA glue dries, I sand down the sides of the fretboard and polish them up to a high grit.

Here I am ready to glue it onto the mandolin. I heat up both surfaces with a heat gun.



Now I've put hot hide glue everywhere it needs to be.



Clamp it down good.



Here you can see the hot hide glue that has wicked its way through the walnut neck in a few places. This is good... the less pore filling the better!



Wow... finally we have a mandolin-like object. Can't wait to get a bridge built and string 'er up.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Finished

TIME WARP!!! I had some finish issues. One of my ingredients was bad and made it not stick to the instrument. This took a few months to diagnose and even more to repair. Also..... bought some property and still remodeling the old house and started a farm and, and, and, life.

_________________
Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...