Mowry Stringed Instruments

Workshop Page 3

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Please click for larger images.

	Precise jigs are used to drill the holes for the tuner bushings. Here I'm test-fitting a nice set of Waverlys.
	I use a tiny blade in a jeweler's saw to cut out mother-of-pearl and abalone inlays. Then I use a small file to clean them up.
	A Dremel tool with a dentist's burr routs the cavity for the inlay. Then, the shell is fixed in place in the cavity with black epoxy.
	Some finished pegheads.
	A vine inlay up close.
	The dovetail joint on an F5 mandolin is often said to be the most difficult joint in luthiery. It is a compound tapered dovetail, and it is complicated by the fact that the mating surface on the body is curved. Here I am cutting the dovetail on the bandsaw in a jig designed to hold the neck at the right forward pitch.
	Hours of cleanup with chisels and gouges, accompanied by lots of  test-fitting, yield a joint that fits tightly (especially at the heel where there is the most stress exerted by the strings).
	The assembled joint, being test-fitted before shaping the neck.
	I use a variety of rasps, chisels, files, and scrapers to shape the neck to the customer's preference.
	The completed neck is glued in place with hot hide glue and clamped until it is dry.
	Next, the fretboard extender is carved and glued in place. The hole in the photo is for a temporary screw that is used to hold it in place until the glue dries. I then level the extender so that it forms a continuous plane with the neck surface. You also get a good view of the completed dovetail joint in this photo. The gap behind allows a steam needle to be inserted into the joint in case it ever needs to be disassembled for repair.
	On to the fretboard...This jig mounts on my little belt/disc sander for machining a radius into the surface of the fretboard, if the customer so desires. The fretboard is mounted on the bottom of the large block, which rides on interchangeable inserts that produce the desired radius. This jig allows me to produce either cylindrical or conical fretboard radii.
	A radiused fretboard, and another view of the jig.
	I cut the fret slots by hand with a small adjustable miter box. A template underneath the fretboard has holes that engage an indexing pin, assuring that each slot is in precisely the right location.
	I attach the fretboard to a router template for cutting the correct width and taper. The template also has index holes for drilling the cavities for the pearl position markers. The holes in the template engage a small pin located directly beneath the drill bit.
	The fretboard is first bound with celluloid binding, and then a channel is cut in the lower edge for the black and white purfling strips.
	This tool bends fretwire to the correct radius to match the fretboard (actually it works best if the wire is overbent slightly). A crank in the back draws the wire through.
	I cut the frets to length and undercut the ends so they overlap the binding.

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