more archtops

[P Bill]

Hi all, it's been awhile for me here. Two bluegrass mandolins, carved tops and backs. This won't be a build thread just a series of progress shots.

The mando with strings is about 2 weeks old. It has a top made from old Oregon fascia, very tough and brittle, it gave me a bit of trouble doing the purfling. I was too close to the edge and it crumbled on the end grain and chipped in other places. I repaired what I could and made it into an "artifacto" and learned my lesson. The back and sides are PNG rosewood, the neck and bridge are maple, f.b. is rosewood with ebony/ walnut veneers.

The unfinished one is w. r. cedar top, blackwood b/s, Qld.walnut neck, solomon blackwood f.b., bridge and veneers. I'm planning an oval sound hole one as well but will first complete an archtop guitar that has been gathering dust.

These instruments are based on the drawings for the Gibson F5 and A models. I've added an upper bout not standard to Gibsons but used before by others. The upper bout gives some of the visuals of an F5 without all the work. The only bling on these will be the purfling and a violin overhang top and bottom.

[woodrat]

Very nice Bill. I love the "artifacto" look.

John aka WoodRat

[P Bill]

Thanks John I plan to revisit it and do a bit more once the other one is going.


My opening sentence should have read "....A long time since I've posted here."

[ozziebluesman]

G'day Bill,

Love the mando's mate! Especially the cedar blackwood.

Just beautiful work!

I will be watching the progress here.

Cheers

Alan

[rocket]

That purfling is magnifico Bill, very nice work indeed.
Cheers,,,

Rod.

[P Bill]

Cheers fellas , it's back to the workshop today.

[Kim]

Very nice work Bill, like what you've done with the finish it has much time about it in a very convincing way. Just a thought on the doug fir endgrain chip out. I wonder how it would look if you were to roll the edge? Just a small radius may fit the aged look and perhaps remove most of the issues in the process..Regardless its still a great looking mando.

Cheers

Kim

[P Bill]

Thanks Kim I plan on a revisit and more of a violin edge. Unfortunately both edges of the purf channel are dodgy in places. If I tried harder with the colour I might have missed it. It was fast and dirty, I was in full on "save" mode! It's Feast Watson washy walnut with a small brush load of F. W. black on the top only . I added the mix to a small amount of F.P. to make" dirty shellac" and applied it till it looked reasonable.

[charangohabsburg]

I added the mix to a small amount of F.P. to make" dirty shellac" and applied it till it looked reasonable.

It looks reasonably "vintage"!
Time you write a book about it (or at least post a tutorial on the ANZLF about vintage shellacing)!

In any case, these are some beautiful mandos!

[P Bill]

Cheers Marcus, You're too kind. I'm not that good a polisher, but I've had many opportunities to watch good polishers.

[P Bill]

The brown mando has a truss rod, these necks will have cf extending into the head stock. The fb has some relief ( minimal), but next time I'll relieve the neck then fit the fb. Not sure if dressing the frets will be a worry. As you could imagine I've done a bit of mando research in the last couple months. Graham McDonald and Peter Coombe are the only ones I've found (there may be others) using only cf and no truss rod. I'm following their lead on this and it's partially an educated guess. Ten years ago I built an A style mandolin ( my first go at luthiery, I don't really count it ) with a Canadian Maple neck, no truss rod or cf. It's had a very low action from day one and is still fine today. The neck is slightly thicker, enough so that people comment on it when they play it. I also like the idea of reducing the weight and also strengthening the weakest part of the neck, instead of further weakening it.

I cut the button off the back, it now has a new one. The inside is ready for graduation. This is the hardest blackwood I've been up against. It works well enough, it's
just very hard ! I was just as surprised when I came upon a very soft piece of blackwood.

[P Bill]

The box has been closed and the neck is well advanced. I've used tightbond everywhere except hhg on the back and fb. The top was regraduated before the back went on. I made a th. allowance for the wrc but it seemed too th. after I cut the ff.

[auscab]

Nice pictures of your great work there Bill, thanks.
I notice your bench top has a dog holes and a tail vice,
Do you get to use it a bit and how do you like it ?

[P Bill]

Cheers Rob ,I couldn't get by without the bench , it's part the way I work. That bench was made 30 yrs. ago as a temp until I got the chance to build a "proper" euro joiners bench. The dog vice has been simplifed to make it easyier to build. It's been copied by others a few times, so now I guess it's a Qld bench. An antique dealer I used to do a lot of work for says he can place it in a lawyers' office if I ever build another. It looks rough but the top is kept bogged, scraped and oiled.

[P Bill]

Almost ready now. This mando (wrc) has been fitted up once, and I was surprised how much it sounds like the oregon one. It's getting an oil finish and with this weather I'm waiting 48hrs instead of 24.

The new bench is a bonus. It's Euro Beech that I've had for about 5 yrs. The old bench was made 30 yrs ago as a temp. solution. I only thought Australia was going to be a working holiday. We didn't get back to the states for 10 yrs. It looks like we're going to stay, so the time must be right.

I'm three days into this and should have the top working smoothly by the end of today.

Rob since my last post I've been thinking about replacing my ratty old bench. Must be something in the air. I was 3 days in to the bench, when I saw your bench on the OLF. Really magnificent. Reminds me of a Shaker bench, but fancier.

[auscab]

Hi Bill ,

Nice instrument pictures and bench pictures.Your three days in to a new bench build ? Cool there is nothing like working with a tail vice,a huge time saver ,specially if a person earns a living at a bench and uses hand tools for custom work.

I was meaning to respond up on OLF, I am just waiting for some info on drying Red Gum.

Thanks, my bench has a strong Shaker influence, I built it using the Scott Landis Book, The workbench Book.
Back when I did it about 1993 /4 ? I walked in to another cabinet makers workshop in Melbourne, He had made a copy of the Shaker one on the cover, I was very impressed with his bench and he pointed out the book.
I decided to make one in Aussie timbers, a face vice , a well at the back, drawers out to both ends with a bit of decoration as seen in Aussie furniture from 1845 to 60. French polished.
Its usually a mess, but comes up nice for a picture ,like the ones I showed, the early pictures are scanned from the old fashioned prints. back in the days where I didn't take so many
After that we made another two less fancy ones for the work shop, so we have four with tail vices in total,

[P Bill]

6 days and it's completed. I haven't worked this well in a while, hijacked my own thread. It couldn't be helped. I was possessed, and with all the wet weather the polishing was going very slowly.

This bench is carving height for me, 925mm, now I can just bend at the waist. It will hold my top and back carving trays. The old bench is 885mm and I'll keep it for hand planeing because I can get my upper body weight over the work.













Rails will be a dry fit with a coach screw.




The tail vise has been perfected by generations of cabinet-makers and joiners.
It's supported five ways; it tracks three ways and has three clamping possibilities.

[auscab]

A good solid looking bench there Bill, you got it made fast!

I like your work space too , all that glass looks cool, is it all frosted/ painted?

And I see you have a set of spanish style table irons hanging up, another project in the waiting? I have a similar size set hanging somewhere.

[P Bill]

Thanks, the windows are obscured glass from an old sawtooth factory roof. Glass on all sides, really nice place to work.

Those aren't table irons, theyr'e portable ff's.

[auscab]

Whats a ff ?

[Kim]

Whats a ff ?

'F' holes x 2, I would say Rob.

Great images Bill, I really enjoy seeing your work space and work...all as it should be in a fine woodworkers haven and one can 'feel' the air of the place just from the photos...your too Rob, great workshops guys.

Thanks for sharing.

Kim

[P Bill]

Thanks Kim, I've become a bit of a photo bug. I'm still trying to understand the way a digital camera will have warm, rich colour in one shot, then move 300mm either way, shoot and the colour is cold.

[charangohabsburg]

I'm impressed. What a beautiful bench, and you made it in just a few days. Wow!

I'm still trying to understand the way a digital camera will have warm, rich colour in one shot, then move 300mm either way, shoot and the colour is cold.

I guess your camera is set to automatic white balance. Set WB to anything, but not to automatic (unless you have mixed lighting and don't like the result of any of the available manual WB settings).

[P Bill]

Cheers Marcus , the setting is mostly on auto. I tried other settings when I first got the camera and got underexposed or blurred pics. I'll persist with manual.

[charangohabsburg]

the setting is mostly on auto. I tried other settings when I first got the camera and got underexposed or blurred pics.

Hi Bill,
The "white balance" settings are independet from the exposure (time, aperture) settings which provide another kind of "auto". With white balance settings you typically have to deal with a light bulb icon, a cloud icon, a sun icon, etc. andt the letter "A" may stand for automatic white balance. Automatic exposure settings can be on and WB at the same time be set manually to one of the "lightsource icons". I hope this gets you a step further.

Cheers,