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Firstly a rough shape of the neck is marked out on a plank
of Queensland Maple. The plank selected is flat sawn
so that the growth lines will be vertical or close to
vertical in the finished neck. I use Queensland Maple
because it is a local species and readily available and is
moderately light and very stable. Other timbers of
course can be used and I have also used Tasmanian Blackwood,
Queensland Walnut, Tasmanian Myrtle, Jarrah and Ash.
The neck is rough sawn in the bandsaw. A 1/4 groove is
then routed for the carbon fibre rod on my router table.
The sides of the rough sawn neck are planed flat, as are the
wings which are fitted to the sides of the headstock. |
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Here the wings are clamped and glued to the rough sawn neck. |
Once the glue is dry the upper side of the headstock is
planed flat
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and sanded completely flat on the linisher.
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I get Ebony headstock veneers from Luthiers Mercantile, but
you can cut your own if you have big enough pieces of Ebony.
They come just a bit thick for mandolins so I thin them down
a bit on the drum sander.
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The headstock veneers are a bit too long so need to be cut
to size. Here I am marking to size.
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Cutting to size on the bandsaw.
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One end of the Ebony headstock veneer is sanded to an angle
so it will be parallel with the end of the fingerboard when
installed. The nut will fit in between the end of the
fingerboard and this end.
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This end must be square.
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Here I am rough sanding the bottom surface of the headstock.
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Now the headstock veneer is glued on. Once again I
have forgotten to take pictures, sorry. For this
mandolin I am using a sandwich of veneers -
black/white/Ebony. |
