John Page Posted January 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2016 Alright here we go! The first one shows the angle the two pieces are coming together at. I have no idea how to lay out dovetails for something at angles other than 90 degrees, so I sort of arbitrarily marked the length to be the thickness of the board as you normally would. The tricky thing is, only about an inch and a half of the width will remain after it is shaped, so the joint area is extremely small for the load. There is a stripe of rosewood I scavenged when trimming the sides, and there rest is sapele. Hopefully it will not be a mistake having ripped it! In the next picture is what would seem to be normal layout for tails, except on the reverse side it is offset down to compensate for the 14 degree cut. Will that be a problem later on? Not sure how to make the pins in a way that will accuraely preserve the joint angle, which is the current concern. Is there another joint altogether that I should use instead? Box or finger joints come to mind, but cutting that accurately by hand doesn't seem to be a great alternative. Any suggestions welcome! John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephThomas Posted January 2, 2016 Report Share Posted January 2, 2016 Most guitar necks use scarf joints and those have held up fine for multiple decades... Is the tension on a mandola significantly greater? Otherwise I'd say you're fine using the tried and true method... Unless you're avoiding it for another reason? Obviously a scarf joint certainly isn't the strongest joint, but it is used frequently because it's cost effective (thinner stock can be used instead of milling a single piece neck, and it is less labor intensive than many other methods). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted January 2, 2016 Report Share Posted January 2, 2016 Your scarf joint is not right. The joint needs to be at 20 to 40 ish degrees relative to the main face to maximize the amount of surface area for glueing. This will also give you a back angle on the headstock. Forget about any fancy dovetails or box joints as you will end up cutting them away when you shape the headstock. I'm nowhere near my shop at the moment to photograph a joint but here is an arbitrary image I found to illustrate this. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Page Posted January 3, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2016 Perfect, thanks gents! That angle makes way more sense now that I see it there. I'll definitely be going with #1 in that picture. Back to the shops with me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post John Page Posted January 16, 2016 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted January 16, 2016 Thanks to the advice above, I finally managed to finish assembling the neck (minus the fretboard). There were a handful of stressful cuts to get everything aligned properly, but in the end it came out better than I expected. I had a bit of a delay waiting for the truss rod to come in, but now that that's ready to go, it should be (key word 'should') quicker to finish it. Despite being fairly straight forward, this one turned out to be one of the longest posts yet even though I cut it short. All in all, the neck was a good experience for me, and I finally got to use the new router plane! What a pleasure that was, I wish I had had one sooner!http://shardsofthedarkage.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-luthier-part-viii-neck-construction.html Next up is figuring out how to deal with the fretboard and the joinery with the body. If anyone has any advice on that, I'd love to hear! John 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post John Page Posted January 25, 2016 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted January 25, 2016 Success!!! I was really scared of cutting this joint, as the slightest miscalculation and misalignment would mean the catastrophic end to the project. While not perfect, it is square, tight, and in line with the body. More to come later, but I was just too excited not to share 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted January 25, 2016 Report Share Posted January 25, 2016 Great work on the dovetail John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted January 26, 2016 Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 John, after cutting all those delicate "backbone" braces, a little thing like a dovetail should have been a piece of cake! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Page Posted January 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Thanks gents! I was surprised by how it came out. There's a little gap I need to shim, but overall not bad at all. I've been notoriously bad at cutting matching joints in the past, and the slot on the body to receive the neck sounded like it would be an inherent disaster, but it's all looking forward from here! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Page Posted February 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 Wanted to check in here, haven't posted in a while but the progress is coming along. I had to move 2600 miles across the country on two weeks notice and haven't had the chance to process a lot of the recent pictures. I have enough done for two or three more posts, and there were some serious complications that I had to work through. In any event, it's nearly ready for finishing, so with a bit of luck it should be done in the next month or so. Until then, here's a phone picture I grabbed when doing the fretboard. Cheers! John 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janello Posted February 24, 2016 Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 Looks awesome. Is that Gaboon Ebony? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Page Posted February 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 Sure is! It was my only other ebony experience other than some of that weird American Ebony (?) that's mostly a yellow white with the occasional hard, black spots in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janello Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 Nice! Yeah...that other stuff be, Mad at the gas card Ebony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Page Posted February 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 Ha! Ain't that the truth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Page Posted March 10, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2016 Finally got through some of the pile of photos from before I had to move. Going back in time a little to look at the neck joinery, an unfortunate accident that crushed part of the sides, and the subsequent repair. If nothing else, this project is teaching me how to creatively fix the problems made from my own stupidity! Part IX link Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted March 11, 2016 Report Share Posted March 11, 2016 Learning to creatively fix the problems has to be THE core skill for any woodworker. Wood is just so imperfect.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janello Posted March 11, 2016 Report Share Posted March 11, 2016 Nice rebound, John. It's looking great ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Page Posted March 31, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 I'll be getting part 10 up in the next few days, but until then here's proof that I'm still making progress! It's actually about 95% finished now and I finally figured out the tailpiece. The perfling was a bugger to attach and there are a few places I'm not entirely satisfied, but overall it came out better than expected considering I once again have zero shop space to work in. With that, it's a final sanding and buffing on the finish and stringing it. So close after working so long! John 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anodyne Posted March 31, 2016 Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 Looking great John. Can't wait to see it finished. Are you going to post a video so we can hear how it sounds when you are done? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted March 31, 2016 Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 +1 on the video request! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Page Posted April 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2016 Thanks folks! I'll definitely be putting together a recording, either of me playing it badly or of someone else I can find who is a bit more proficient than me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janello Posted April 2, 2016 Report Share Posted April 2, 2016 You did an amazing Job with this. Looking forward to more pics and video! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Page Posted April 3, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2016 Thanks! It was an productive day to an unprecedented degree. I won't spoil where the project is at the moment, but let's say it's getting really close to being done. Until then, I managed to get the next round of pictures up and ready. This time, it's mostly about the neck and sound hole. What I wouldn't give for a giant forstner bit! Part X- Headboard, Fretboard, and Rosette John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted April 3, 2016 Report Share Posted April 3, 2016 John, no matter how the mandola actually turns, you got some really awesome photos out of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Page Posted April 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2016 You've got that right! The more I play around with the final bits, the more I think that might be the case... I've found a few critical things I should have done differently that knowing even a little bit about guitars would have prevented Aah well, live and learn as they say. Until then, next part is up. Laying the frets and joining the neck and closing the body. Part XI John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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