Finished Project ( minor stuff still needed )

The Finished Mandolin looks much better and has a decent sound . There is a Buzzing in one area that I believe is due to a high Fret in the area that came apart and required re gluing. When time is available I will address that problem.

Cleaned and Strung:

The Jigsaw Fret Board Looks Good Considering it was in 8 Pieces :

The Neck glued back to the bowl and reinforced with a Hard Maple Dowel :

Tuners cleaned and headstock as well . I did find some carving in the headstock at the top when It was cleaned . I will need a Magnifying Glass to see if its legible. It is extremely faint but is somewhat visable , after cleaning.

In this pic you can see the corner of the fret board that i made reference to that will need a little attention. When I have a little more time it will get fixed .

I hope you have enjoyed my little project. Since it was my 1st I am sure there are Many mistakes . Hopefully it will get better with time .

I do WELCOME ANY suggestions from Restorers that will help me be better at this . Please Leave A Comment.

Luthier Restoration My 1st Attempt

The Following are a set of Pics recently taken of a project I just finished . I found a Bowl Back Mandolin on Ebay for $ 16.00 and decided what the heck . Never Having tried Luthier Work this is my first attempt. I tried very hard to keep it Original.

What I found was as follows :

You can see its Quite Filthy And Old , Figure as best as I can Tell its 1920's -30's era .

If you look close you can see the Neck Is Broke off the bowl at the heel of the neck . Looks like a small crack and around the sound hole by the finger board its caved in almost 1/2" look closely and you can see the strings are quite high over the Fingerboard / Frets.



This Pic Shows the break in the neck better , The crack is Quite visable in this one.

I had to remove the neck from the unit and do so without breaking the Fingerboard , sadly wasn't so successful . The Board Broke into about 8 pieces so I had to re glue it together like a jigsaw puzzle and was successful at that.

The neck was attached to the body with a dowel originally, and it had bent and broke . I set up my lathe and made a new Hard Maple Dowel and re glued it in the neck and cleaned out the area in the bowl area to receive the dowel as well.


As you can see I have clamped a block of Hard Maple into the face side of the bowl as a cleat to flatten it out and bring that 1/2" of " Caved in " Area Back out so the strings will be at right height for playing.



After everything was finished gluing I still had approx 1/6" inch of drop in the body at the sound hole. So to solve the problem I cut a small spacer and glued it to the body and sanded it to the proper height and that allowed me to glue the neck and finger board back in place and get it at the correct height . I KNOW A PROFFESSIONAL RESTORER is gonna read that a freak , but as I said I'm new at this and did best I could.

I purchased a Product that's called restorers polish that has no silicone in it and used that along with a couple hours elbow grease and rags to get it cleaned up and still retain the "old" look as it should have. As you will see its quite good at what its designed for.

So You Have Seen My Project From The Start , My Next Post will be the Finished Pics of The project . Thanks For stopping By.

Darts Anyone

At One Time Back In My Sordid Past I Had Time To Play In The Chicago Dart Leagues . While I Never Got Extremely Proficient , I Did Win A Couple Trophies . However This Post Is About What I Enjoy , WudWerks . I Decided My Daughter Needed To Learn A Little About The Games , 301 , 501 , and Cricket . So With That In Mind I Built The Following Dart Board For Our Basement .

The Doors Are Made From Walnut 2" Wide Strips with a 1/2" Mortise to allow the Oak Panels room to Inlay . The Panels are Solid Oak Flooring . yes Like You Would Find On Your Floor !
And I Used Brass Hinges And A Brass Lock . The Unit Is Lacquered and Sealed.

Opening The Doors You See The Dart Board Mounted To Cork That Has Been Glued To The Plywood Backing . The Sides Of The Cabinet Are Oak And It Is Approx 3" Deep . Because Of The Ceiling Height In The Basement I Was Forced To Mount The Dartboard Higher In The Cabinet To Make The regulation Height And Still Get It Wall Mounted.


As You Can See The Unit Is Lagged Into The Basement Wall With Large Bolts Since We Have Concrete Walls That Was Necessary . The Top Of The Cabinet Is 1-1/2" Below Ceiling Level , Which I Was Afraid Would Cause Problems in Shooting . However It Seems To Be Fine.




I Used Walnut Blocks And Dry Erase Boards To Make Points Scoring Boards . And If You Look At The Darts That Is A Walnut Block With 6 Holes Drilled For The Darts To Stand In. Looking Back Up A Couple Pics You can See I've Mounted 2 Score Boards .

All In All The Cost Of The Project Was Around $100.00 . You Can Purchase Pre-Built Units for More , However where Is The Fun In That ? LOL !!

For Those Who Are Not Familiar With The Games 301 And Cricket I Will Give A Quick Run Down

*********In 301 or 501 The Outer Ring is a Double Score , A person Is Required To Double In And Double Out . The Deduct Your Score From 301 Till U Hit Zero Exactly With A Double Out.

Example , You Have 31 Points Left that means you have to hit a 1 then a double 15 or some combination to make 31 points.




********Cricket Is Simpler , You Have To Hit 3 , 15 through 20 's and 3 bulls eyes. If I have hit all my 15's and you haven't , every time I get another 15 , i get 15 points against you, until You Hit Them All. The Only Thing You cannot Do Is Count A Bulls eye untill ALL Your Numbers Are Closed First !


I Hope My Little Project Is Enjoyable to You , It Certainly was For Me !