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Hi folks, i've been a slacker lately, especially regarding progress pics so here they are, i've been making some jigs and templates for the mandolins that i'll be building, i thought i'd share at least what i did so far on this, i'm new to mando building as well.

I bought Siminoff's book and also the Macrostie's plan from LMI for Loar's F5, it's such a different game somehow, everything is so small but i feel i can do it!

Making a plastic template for the body mold, cutting it on the bandsaw





Making of the body mold







Preparing for the spreaders





This jig is for when you glue the neck to the body, the holes in the board are there to allow the clamps to reach from under the board



My neck template, geez it's small!



This one is a piece of recycled furniture turned into a neck support for carving the neck, it will be held in a vise and the neck will be clamped to it.



This will be a multiple -neck contours template, i put them sisde by side on plastic and will cut the contours with the bandsaw, i like the idea of having them all on the same piece, easier for storage or to avoid the loss of such small pieces.



Sorry if it's too much pics for those with dial up, i tried to show just the best pics

Thanks for looking!

Serge

Serge
Glad to see you are on your way with your F5.
You are sure to learn a lot with this build.
I am here rooting for you, can you here me?
Go Serge,Go Serge,Go Serge, Yea Serge

Tom

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http://www.moriciguitar.com

Looking good my friend!

As we have communicated about earlier, I would ditch the Siminoff template and use your McRostie plan as a reference instead, meaning you will have to shim / sand your your current mold here and there.

One more thing I notice: Your template is missing the "button", the part where the back extends over the neck heel. Make sure you remember to leave enough wood for that part as it is an important structural detail. Some of us have forgotten to do so because our templates at the time were missing this detail .

Keep us posted on your progress!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Thanks Tom and Arnt!

I hear ya Tom! Yeah, i'm gonna learn some more with this and i appreciate your full support my friend!

Thanks Arnt! Will check out for the missing button, where do i find that drawing? Yeah, i should have ditched the Siminoff's template but i find there are so much to learn that's it's hard not to go with the book's drawings at all, if i follow Macrostie's plan, can i still use Siminoff's templates?

Thanks

Serge

Hi Serge,
(Serge and I have had a few PM going back and forth about this already, I'm going to paste some of that into this post in case someone else is interested too)

I have the older version of Siminoff's book, I understand there is a newer version now with upgraded plans so I'm not sure of the quality of those. I did make my first mandolin with templates based on the Siminoff book. These are NOT consistent with vintage Loar specs, not in body outline, not the arching profiles (I have since learned that these vary quite a bit among the Gibsons and this might not matter to you at all). I consider the plans pretty sketchy and I don't recommend working with those unless they are considerably upgraded, even if they will make an OK sounding mandolin.

The McRostie plan is very good IMO, they are taken from an actual Loar and will make a better sounding mandolin. My current templates are made from that plan, the F5 I posted here a while back were from those plans (with my personal touches...). I suggest you use the Siminoff book as a guide in the construction, stay away from the plans. Make all your body, headstock, arching templates from the McRostie plan. The only exception is the neck profiles, I personally prefer a bit "meatier" neck than the McRostie (Loar) one. Use your best judgment as a player here, don't rely only on the templates. I also don't care for the flat fretboard, the "Florida" (the fretboard end), the pickguard and some other vintage details, but that is just me. I'm sorry if all this means extra work, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

Here's an easy way to make some pretty tough and long lasting templates quickly (I have not seen the method mentioned anywhere else, but it works so I'm sure others are doing it too!). Make several copies of the part of your plan you want to make a template from. If you don't have access to a very good copy machine that can make copies WITHOUT DISTORTION have a copy made at a place that makes copies for architects, they will usually have pretty good machines. Check for accuracy by holding the original and the copy over each other against a window or light table. When satisfied, cut out the part to be made into a template, glue it to some 1 mm, stiff cardboard (we call it "book cardboard" over here, don't know the English term, much less the French! but it is grey and dense). Very carefully cut the template with a sharp utility knife (and a straightedge where possible), this should not be hard as the cardboard is quite thin, but make several light passes just the same. Once the template is cut out, spread some thin CA glue along the edges. This will make the edges much tougher, and you can sand or file them until they are just right without the cardboard getting fuzzy or disintegrating. This will also make the edges smooth and give you more accurate pencil lines when you trace from them, and they will wear pretty well.

I do use Siminoff's pinned, straight mortise neck joint, I believe it can be equally good as, if not better than the dovetail joint that McRostie shows, if executed well. Of course, I've never made a dovetail joint on a F5 so what do I know, but there is certainly more wood contact with the straight, pinned joint, and it is pretty easy and fool proof to do. Oh, and remember to cut the truss rod slot BEFORE you taper the neck, NOT as Siminoff shows it! I also recommend using a router table to cut the binding channel (we can get into all of that later).

Oh, and the "button" is not a separate piece, it is the equivalent of the heel cap on a guitar, only on the F5 (like the violins) it is just an extension of the back plate. As I said, it is an important structural detail, and easy to miss when cutting out the back plate unless you include it on your body template...

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Some sacrifices must be made for the luthier. I guess Serge doesn't mind having his mattresses sitting on the floor....so much for that bed frame!

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Thank you very much again Arnt, just what i needed, i went back to the shop for a quick glance at Macrostie's plan and now know what you were talking about for the "button", ok, no more excuses on my part then, i'll scrap that body mold and make another one that will be sturdier with Macrostie's plan. I just saved your post, i will rebuild the body mold during the coming week end and thanks for the templates and copy tips!

I'll be also doing the straight mortise joint, i'm more comfortable with them than the dovetails.

As said above, will redo the back template including the button as an important structural detail that i sure had missed, i'm sure glad i PMed you for advice brother! Will keep you posted on all the changes to come.

Thanks again Arnt!

Serge

Serge,
I appreciate the comments from you and Arnt. I too am currently building a mando from the Siminoff book and look forward to seeing and hearing about your progress as well. Good luck! Robbie O'Brien38960.4338657407

Looking good Serge! As soon as I finish #3 & #4 (#2 is done - pics soon), I'll start carving the plates for my first F5. Looks like you'll beat me to the finish line on this one though!

-Mark

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Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

trippguitars.com
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Thanks Robbie, Hesh and Mark!

Robbie, will this be your first F5 also? If so, it will be interesting for me to hear how you go about it too! Thanks!

Thanks Hesh, it felt really good to make some sawdust last night, my only big problem or concern right now is the lack of space for the new jigs, me needs a bigga shoppa soon!

Thanks Mark, i sure am copying on you as for making more than one instrument at once, you might still beat me to the finish line though, i know you're pretty quick at building!

Serge

Finally! Some more mando content on this site.    We also have some really good, experienced mando builders here, Mario for one should be able to offer some valuable advice, I thnk also Mike Mahar builds them.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Arnt, you're right, the more the better, it'd be nice to see progress pics from everyone who build them great mandolins, it would help the newb that i am put a lot of things in perspective, all of us would benefit from it!

I played one of Mario's last year and it was an awesome one, both on looks and sound, come on guys, show us your piccys!

Gotta love that neck carving jig! Very creative. Good luck on your mandos, Serge!

Looks like you have been busy! Keep us all posted on the progress. Hey, I'm not on dial-up so I love all the pics!

Donovan

I'm also in the class with Robbie on building a Mando. This will be my first one. It is a modified F5, which basically gets rid of the scroll, and fancy peghead. It will still have 3 points. So far all we have done is to join the top and back, and squared up our neck blanks, cut the truss rod slot while it is in block form, and cut the 6 degree angle on one end, and then cut the neck shape. Oh yea, we also thicknessed our sides, and cut the point blocks, and head and tail blocks. That is 2 classes worth of work. We had already made our forms back in July. I haven't taken any pics yet, but I guess I better start. Thanks for reminding me Serge. Arnt, I'm sure we will be asking lots of questions.
Tracy

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Thanks for the encouragement folks!

Thanks Carlton, a Bear's gotta do what a...... you should see what my new body mold will look like, recycled laminated table top!

Thanks Donovan, sure will keep the piccys comin'!

Thanks Tracy, i'm glad to hear you are pursuing this endeavour along with me and others, it will be fun to see everyone's progress pics this fall and winter! That is really

Serge

Nice looking work Serge! I like all the pictures.

My brother is a mando collector and player. He checked out the OLF today and this is what he wrote in an email about the site and mandos. This is from a consumers perspective....

I thought you might enjoy the reading with your CCF.

"...Neat site..Seems like they spend most of their time building and playing on the forum.
I spend most of my spare time on the strings and the study of playing styles.
Oh! And I forgot mowing the 3 acres at home.......

Currently I'm working on the Electric sound and I'm most certain the next "Amigo Chico" will be a solid body mandolin primarily to achieve the sustain the acoustics lack. I was dumbfounded to see the exact Mandolin I had dreamed of on Terry Bales website and this will probably invoke my next road trip to
Missouri..

So far I've played on one mandolin made from guitar specs.These dimensions change the feel of the action a considerable amount but doesn't change the in notation at all.I would possibly consider those larger dimensions on an Octave Mandolin (22") but not on the 13-7/8" scale length.Most mandolins use a narrower fret wire than guitars and the necks are much narrower and not as deep at the nut and use a 12" radius fret board. I've seen some advertised with even a 8" radius fret board but are very rare and hard to find..Some day I'll experience one. Once I got used to the tight feel of a 1.06" width neck and it seemed like a lot of unneeded space playing on the wider neck dimensions..It would be a matter of preference as to which neck size would be the most comfortable to play and would depend on the size of the players hand. The first and third playing positions work well with larger hands especially when playing bar cords but up the neck is somewhat of a constraint with the larger hands.

So you see there is a lot to consider when selecting an instrument as such.The MK's I have are the closest I could come to the F 5L Gibson I wanted without breaking the bank......." Steve

Serge, When I spoke with him this afternoon Steve said he would check back to the forum to see your progress - so keep posting those pics!

Looking great my friend! I too am jumping in the mando camp very soon... Ahh... could I like... borrow those jigs.... (I hate making jigs!!!)...

Keep it up my good man...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Hi Serge, I'm glad to see you working on your mandolin bud.Keep all the great pics a coming.Someday I want to build one myself but that won't be for a while Cant wait to see your finished mando !Good Luck with it.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Don, sorry i have missed your post buddy! Yep, sacrifice is the right word my friend, i still have temptations regarding our kitchen table that was made in the 70's from some sort of European maple i was told but i know it would hurt my parents feelings since they passed it on to us, besides, my wife still has a close eye on it and warns me about the consequences that would ensue if i ever made any attemps to drag it out of the dining room!

Thanks Jeanne, Alain and Dave!

Thanks Jeanne, this read was really interesting indeed, i'll make sure not to disapoint Steve and will keep 'em pics comin'! I have a great interest in building mandolins, me, my Dad and my brother Martin and 2 of my uncles all play this wonderful instrument and the F5 shape is so beautiful! Thanks!

Hey Alain, my dear friend, you can borrow any jig or tool i have at any time, you are always welcome, but i'm guessing you already knew it eh?!!!

Thanks Dave, i'll be too late to finish my first mando before my Dad heads off to Florida this fall but it will be fun to work on it through the next season and during the winter, they are small instruments but i know that it will be well worth the wait! I'll still follow up on my promise if you're still interested

Serge

Serge Poirier38961.0056134259

Serge, I am planning on a trip down to Boynton Beach sometime this winter to visit some family so we'll work it out. I think it will be right on the way !I'll PM you with details .

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Cool Dave, we'll be in touch bro!

Well, i listened to Arnt's great advice and redone the body template and added the button that was missing, i made it wit some plexiglass i scrounged from an old aquarium lid Thanks Arnt

here we go again on the bandsaw!



A bit of sanding around the edges







I must be getting old, i used these for the first time, it was really helpful when working around the scroll area



using the drill press to pierce the f-hole to be able to locate them properly on a future top



Tried to make my way inside the F hole with the scrollsaw but it heated the plexiglass to much making it melt and close back,



Had to use the jigsaw to finish it!



AAH, the learning curve!

Thanks

Serge