If you got here looking for the Siminoff Lutherie Camp photo essay just click on the 2009 entries link on the left side of this page and you will be jumped to that part of the web log ... or just scroll down and you'll see them ...
As I hoped, my wonderful wife of 36+ years gifted me with a Stewart McDonald "TrueChannel" binding jig for Christmas ... it pays to hint and email with links!!
I got the #5651 setup since I can build my own carriage and already have the appropriate cutter bits. So my task was to assemble the jig and get a feel for how it may or may not work on an F style mandolin ... the following pictures show the setup I made. A later post after I have had a chance to experiment on some "dummy" blanks will detail any success or failure I have with this jig on the F4.
This is the carriage I made from MDF
The pieces parts after I assembled them ...
Normally I would not have the neck attached before I cut the binding ledge BUT since we attached the necks at the camp with Roger ... I'll deal with it as best I can ...
Kinda shows the 'gist' of why this works ...
I set the carriage up so that the top edge of the rim is at 4" all the way around the mandolin ... since the router "floats" and thus keeps the cutter perpendicular to the edge/cut I'm not absolutely sure that is mandatory but it satisfied my ascetic preference if nothing else ...
My initial thoughts (having made ZERO CUTS at this point) are that the jig is well engineered and made of quality materials ... tolerances SEEM to be adequate although I personally would like to have seen a slightly closer tolerance on the rollers in the shaft but "movement" is probably only .002" or so.
Once I have done some testing on scrap blanks I'll post more detail.
Hello Bade, thanks for spending so much time sharing this great info. Happy New Year and good luck with the rest of the build.
ReplyDeleteGerry Grennan Sligo , Ireland
Hi Gerry and thanks for the comment!
ReplyDeleteHello again Bade
ReplyDeleteGerry Grennan here , still don't know how to post a comment with my name on it, tough place this internut thing.
I've been working on my first mando, A5 Stewmac kit, on and off since last June.it's in the white now and strung up.Had lots of fun and scary moments ...routing with a hand held Dremmel ....scaaaaaary.New pants please.
Started an F5 so I'll be checking in with you for info and mostly support , if you don't mind.
Love to hear your mando when it's ready , looks the business,well done
Thanks again for sharing the work with everyone.
G
Hi Gerry ... so you have 2 mando's underway! A real glutton for punishment! I did a StewMac A5 a while back and am pleased with the result MOSTLY ... I screwed up the neck angle with a little too aggressive sanding and that caused the action to be a bit high (and made the same mistake more or less on the F5 StewMac kit) but modifying the bridges made them playable.
ReplyDeleteI'm wrestling with the rosette on the F4 at the moment ... it seems a simple thing to do but cutting a "clean" oval is harder than I imagined ... oh well live and learn I suppose! I tried the dremmel with a version of the Siminoff attachment for binding on guitars a long while ago and never really adapted to it. Hope the TrueChannel will be more my cup of tea.
I THINK all you have to do to comment with "name" is select the NAME/URL option on the "Comment as:" pull down below your comment text ... we'll see if it works for me ... Cheers!!
Hello Bade
ReplyDeletehere's a link to some pics of my mando and an mp3
http://gerryguitar.wordpress.com/
Thanks for the kind words Bade
ReplyDeleteThank you Blade. A newbie to archtop f midels
ReplyDeleteRegards Danny