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Here it goes, started by preparing the neck, glued the peghead ears and resawn(sp?) a plank of spruce i bought locally for practice before i work with Shane's Lutz



I was surprised to see tight grain in a plank from the local home store







Glue up of the spruce plates



I also been busy on guitar no 3 so i'll start another thread!

Thanks for watching

Serge

Nice bit o' spruce there..you were very lucky to get such a nice peice of wood from a local DIY store...

I had a hunt yesterday at my local store and it's horrifying to see what quality of wood is for sale...

Thanks Sam, yes i was and it taps nicely too!

Yes, seems like the quality isn't always there nowadays

[quote]plank of spruce i bought locally for practice before i work with Shane's Lutz [/quote]

Good thinking Bud! I like it!

   Your building an F5 right?

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Right on Serge! That's a great idea trying some practice spruce before you commit the good stuff.

If I recall you've made up plexi profile templates? What tools do you plan on using to carve your plates?

Sounds like a good plan, Serge. Such an ambitious project requires practice...and above all, patience!

I've got my Pom-Poms out and I'm cheering for you, Bro!!! Such a great mandolin player deserves a great instrument.

Have I mentioned patience, BTW?    

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

All right, no turning back now!! This is going to be fun following a mandolin build. Good luck, Serge, really take your time, and pass along your pointers for those of us with a mando in our future.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Awl-Rite Serge, You can do it.Good Luck on this
project. I'll echo JJ's comments...Patience is a key .There are a lot of great mandolin builders out there and some right here in the OLF that I'm sure you all ready know. I'll be watching your progress bud,and have Fun with it. DaveAndy38998.4862847222

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Muchos gracias los amigos!

ThanksBilly, yes, F5 it is!

Thanks Anthony, i plan on using the drill press and router to remove as much meat as possible and then final carve with my little ibex plane from Lee Valley unless My coaches here teach me otherwise!

Thanks for the words of encouragement JJ! I do appreciate that and the wisdom attached to it!

Thanks Ron, long time no see my great friend, been missing ya! Sure will share what i learn with ya!

Thanks Dave, i appreciate your positive thoughts for me as well buddy!

[QUOTE=Serge Poirier]

Thanks Ron, long time no see my great friend, been missing ya! Sure will share what i learn with ya!
[/QUOTE]


Yeah, my computer caught a virus and after three days of trying to eradicate it, I had to format the hard drive and start completely from scratch. Got most of everything going now, no damage done, but a real pain.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

This is going to be fun to watch. And I know that you will keep us up to date and supply lots of photos. I am so looking forward to this build. I have never watched a mandolin come together.

Thanks for letting me watch over your shoulder Serge.

Hope you have lots of fun with it.

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Aoibeann

[QUOTE=old man] [QUOTE=Serge Poirier]

Thanks Ron, long time no see my great friend, been missing ya! Sure will share what i learn with ya!
[/QUOTE]


Yeah, my computer caught a virus and after three days of trying to eradicate it, I had to format the hard drive and start completely from scratch. Got most of everything going now, no damage done, but a real pain.

Ron[/QUOTE]

I hope you did not lose any lutherie files bud, it would be really sad although i'm sure the subjects that were covered will come back, glad you got it fixed, i want my Old Man close to me!

[QUOTE=Aoibeann] This is going to be fun to watch. And I know that you will keep us up to date and supply lots of photos. I am so looking forward to this build. I have never watched a mandolin come together.

Thanks for letting me watch over your shoulder Serge.

Hope you have lots of fun with it.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Lillian, you sure are welcome to watch and learn along with me, this is fun so far, i love figuring stuff out to build something new and this little puppy offers plenty of new challenges!

What kind of router set-up do you plan on using?

May I suggest an angle grinder and either the:
1) Lancelot
2) Arbortech; or
3) Kutzall

that Lee Valley sells.

You can pick up a cheap angle grinder at Canadian Tire often for about $25. If you have a router set-up that'll work I would be keen to see it.

Hey Serge, I am like Lillian and many others. I really look forward to watching this come together. I hope to build one some day, but I have never played one, so I would not know if it were to sound good or bad.

Really smart to practice one the cheap wood. Problem may be that if you do a really good job on the cheap stuff, you may just have to build with it, too!

Donovan

All right Serge. I love mandos. Cool. Whoo-Hoo.

Keep them pictures coming buddy!

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

Serge

Do you ever sleep?

Right on! Looking very good my friend.

Rich, I think Serge has got that "Einstein who slept 20 minute power naps every two hours" thing going! How else can we explain it!

I did however take this pic in his shop the other day... An 'evil' clone, maybe?

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

ROTFLMAO! That's the look i had on my face when my RIDGID bandsaw broke! Yeah, i sleep, when nobody watches!

Anthony, for the router, i was planning on using a plexiglass plate with the router attached to it as per Siminoff's book, he rides the plexi-router jig over the plate and adjusts the depth of cut as need be, i think that Mario and Arnt would probably use other means of taking the meat out, Mario must be using the Lancelot blade i would suspect? Mario?

Thanks John, sure will! Oh and i'm not forgetting you on our deal bro! Early next week!

Thanks Donovan, as a matter of fact, if this practice piece turns out well and sounds good, i'm keepin' it!

Serge

Hi Serge, looking good!

To rough out the outside profile of the plates, I do the "Safe-T planer thing". I use a set of contour maps that Andrew Mowry made, and draw the contours directly on the plate. They are essentially stepped topographical maps of the plate. His contours do not exactly match the McRostie plan, but it works well for this purpose.

You can use them it two ways: Method 1 is to draw all the contours on the wood, and start planing the the outside (lowest) profile first, then the second lowest in form that and so on. Method 2 is to plane the whole blank to the highest thickness, then draw the first contour on to the blank, plane from the outside in to that contour, draw the next and do the same thing and so on.

Remember to make it oversize, this is just for roughing out! After that it is on to finger planes, scrapers and sand paper.

After the outside is done, I use the drill press and a forstner bit set at a certain depth over a pin to get a series of holes as guides for the inside curves. Then on to the carving tools, finger planes and scrapers again.

Andrew's contour maps can be found here.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Way to Go SERGE that is one tough instrument to build.

Serge
nice looking spruce you found there, glad to see you working on this project. I hope that when you say practice, you meant you will use that wood for a complete build. It should work fine for that.
Good luck and enjoy the process.

Tom

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http://www.moriciguitar.com

Thanks Fellas!

Thanks for the great input Arnt, yes i have those contour maps as well, i will have to buy me some forstner bits though. Not sure which of the 2 methods i'll use yet but i'll probably know soon enough still have more reading to do! Thanks again!

Thanks Russ!

Thanks Tom, yes, if it turns out that i can keep this one, i will and will try my best right on it!