I'm just curious if it'd be possible to modify something like a dovetail plane to cut the dovetail in the neck and neck block on a mandolin.
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I'm just curious if it'd be possible to modify something like a dovetail plane to cut the dovetail in the neck and neck block on a mandolin.
Simply put this won't work as the "mortise" is a stopped cut. A chisel and a guided fixture or great hand skills would be better.Quote:
Originally Posted by Justin Edmonds
I don't think I follow on the stopped cut. I'm not familiar with that.
I believe that he is referring to the femail part in the neck block.
You want the think of this joint as a small tapered, stopped slinding dovetail. The male portion you might be able to fabricate using a dovetail plane. But the female portion doesn't go through the block making the female cutting plane ineffective here. You also have such a small surface to register against, my thinking is that the plane would be more difficult to use.
All the female portions I've seen went all the way through the neck block, so the neck could be more easily fit before the back is put on. I currently have a router set up for it but didn't like how it did.
I just cut mine all the way through. The mandolin is too shallow to not take as much advantage as possible of dovetail length.
I'll bow to your expertise. Never built a mandolin and all the guitar dovetails I have made or seen have been stopped.Quote:
Originally Posted by george wilson
There are two different style dovetail that are commonly used. There probably are several more that would work.
Blessings,
Kevin
I'm thinking of a hybrid from the traditional and the Siminoff. I like the idea of the extra wood the Siminoff straight joint but has a devil of a time getting the neck to stay in place. I'm thinking a slight angle of maybe less than 5 degrees would do the trick of being up the neck joint while holding the neck in place so I can measure and glue it more easily.
If you don't like the dowels for the Siminoff style joint you could conceivably add a dovetail key in the bottom of the neck and the bottom of the body dovetail joint. By this I mean... add a small sliding block that has a dovetail on both sides and slides into place and is left in place.... that is say 1/2" to 1"' long. The bottom cap and body could hide all of this as the joint is all glued anyway. The key would serve as lock rather than the dowels and this should eliminate most of the movement that dowels may allow. Proper jigs are important for either of these joints to work right. A sliding key dovetail would be a rather easy solution with proper jigs and bit. As for glue surface the traditional Loar dovetail may actually have more surface area than the Siminoff style...... didn't ask the computer for the area but it appears it may actually be more.
Blessings,
Kevin