Mandolin spruce top shelf, and a stash of Brazilian RW below. Jet 16-32 sander is just right for dimensioning tops, backs and sides.
6” X 89” belt sander and 12” disc are invaluable for shaping and straightening. Notice the ducting and air filtration upper right.
Oneida cyclone, downdraft sanding table and vent to outside are important for dust collection and fumes. Stickered Adirondack red spruce on shelving.
Workhorse Powermatic 14” bandsaw, radial drill press.
Clamps, binding, chisels, and lots of Dremel routers.
Workbench doubles as an outfeed table for the table saw.
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Much of the rest of this page is devoted to building techniques, jigs and construction photos, and will be updated periodically, so enjoy the photos.
Thank you for visiting my shop!
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Here are the construction steps I took to make vintage ‘20’s purfling:
This is the purling on an old Stahl mandolin. I decided I liked it so much I wanted to copy it as close as possible.
After some experimentation with sizing, I cut, dimensioned, and glued up a block of holly, ebony and red heart.
After squaring up the block, a .080” slice was cut off.
Herringbone is split, and crossgrain slices are cut from the .080” slice and sandwiched between the split pieces of herringbone.
A couple of early attempts.
Binding and purfling the instrument.
Since this is a very wide purfling, I am starting out with this tool I use for oval hole mandolins. I’m cutting the innermost ledge.
Next I rout the binding ledge. That leaves material to be removed with a chisel.
I finish off with a small file and carefully even everything out.
Here are several variations of the pattern.
My version of a Spanish neck joint
After buying a load of 16/4 Honduras mahogany and just looking at the beauty of it, I didn’t have the heart to make one piece necks, so I devised a way of making a Spanish joint at the neck/peghead. It is done using a bandsaw and disc sander.
Here are the jigs I built. The two angle jigs in the center must be exactly the same but opposite angle.
This is an extremely strong joint if everything is done accurately. I use it on my 12 string guitars with very heavy guage strings.
The neck parts are roughed out.
First, the shoulder is cut on the neck.
Then using the two angle jigs, the V is cut into the neck.
Using the angle jig, the peghead is sanded at an angle.