Bent top mando question for Graham

[sebastiaan56]

Please anyone feel free to chip in,

Im making a Mando from Graham's excellent book and am attempting the bent top. Im up to cutting the top and bending. Bracing to follow.

Graham what kind of tap tone should I be listening for? Im using WRC for the top and bracing. Is 4.5mm too thick?

Thx

Sebastiaan

[Allen]

I got nothin...

But I'll be watching, hoping to get some tips. Be sure to post some progress pictures.

[Bob Connor]

Graham's in the States at the GAL convention at present so he may take a while to get back to you Sebastiaan

[graham mcdonald]

'morning all

Friday morning here in cold, overcast Tacoma. Made the mistake last night of drinking Guinness with two Irish blokes from Athlone who are starting an instrument building course at the tech college there. Probably a pint too many..... Ran into Alan Warburton from Albany last night, who was part of that radio program that RN ran a couple of weeks ago about the instrument makers down there. Lovely bloke (unlike that disreputable Tim Spittle )

Anyway, bent-top mandolins. I wouldn't worry about a tap-tone too much, but 4.5mm might be a little too thick, but you could well lose .5mm in the sanding. Just be careful not to cut the bending slot too deep, as you don't want to sand through to that. I don't know how well WRC will bend. I tried molding cedar for a bouzouki top years ago and I found that it was prone to fracture across the grain, so be careful when bending it.

The spruce ones I have made are around 3mm thick when finished, though the come off the thickness sander at around 3.5, and then I put the rosette in and run it through the sander again to a bit over, before bending

Good luck with it

cheers

graham

[sebastiaan56]

Thanks Graham,

I was wondering how tap tone would go with a big cut in the board. WRC, well its what I can afford, I'll bend a bit of scrap to test it first.

Remember, Guiness is good for you! and thats what conferences are for...

Sebastiaan