Current Status - 2/08/10: Rim & blocks glued.  Kerfing for top glued in.  Tone bars glued to inside of top.  Top glued on.  Fretboard binding on.  Neck glued to body.  Back kerfing in.  Fretboard frets and dots in. Back glued on.  Scroll opening sanded even.  Body routing done where Dremel tool could be used.  Hand routing done.  Bone corner points put on (but not fully shaped yet).

Here are the curved rims and blocks that need to be glued together.  The rims haven't been cut to the proper length yet.  The large block is for the neck joint.  I had Roger cut the V-joint for the neck.  Joint is on far side of block.

This is the fixture I bought along with my kit to hold the rims/blocks together for gluing.  Would have had to build something myself if I didn't buy this.  Figured I had enough else to do.  Also, should be able to sell it after I've used it.

"Clamp City".  The wedges in the scroll area are to keep it from cracking.  The yellow paper on the fixture was to check the alignment of the neck joint.

Without the clamps.  Ready for attaching the kerfing.  When I turned the fixture over I found a place I needed to glue again.  The long rim piece at the lower point wasn't touching the shorter piece between the points.

I glued half of the kerfing at a time.  Most of the clamps are fancy clothespins I got from Luthier's Merchantile.  They are designed for this job and seem to "grab" the kerfing better than clothespins.  Didn't quite have enough to go half way around, so I used regular old clothes pins in a few places.  The brown clamps use a rubber band for "clamping power".  With only one there wasn't enough "pull" to bring the kerfing against the rim at the scroll curves.  I took rubber bands off some clamps (that's why I didn't have enough) and added a 2nd one to those clamps in the scroll area.  Worked great!

Here's how things look with the kerfing all the way around.  Roger's book said it should be slightly above the top of the rim, then sanded down.  This way it should contact the bottom surface of the soundboard for sure.  I didn't always accomplish this, but I was at least flush if I wasn't slightly above.  Everything is going to get sanded down level before gluing on the soundboard, anyway.  A bit of a "boo boo" just before the scroll.  A tad of kerfing not against the rim.  With the clamps on I didn't see it until too late.  No biggie.

Here's one tone bar clamped for gluing.  I put a piece of wood between the top of the tone bar and the clamps to help distribute the clamp pressure across the tone bar.  Seems like it would do that, but I'm no mechanical engineer.  The piece of wood by the other f-hole is the raw stock supplied with the kit that has to be shaped to an initial size before gluing to the soundboard.

Here are both tone bars to their initial shapes and glued in.  These bars get shaped later when "tap tuning" the soundboard for a specific note when struck with a small hammer.  Or, if this is not done, they get shaped to a "secret, known only to the pro luthiers, if I told you I'd have to kill you" shape.  The gauze around the f-holes is to protect the edges from chipping.  Came already installed with the kit.

Here's the top clamped while the glue dries.  A lot of builders use "go-bars" (flexible sticks) that press against a top deck to clamp the top.  I modified my fixture for bolts.  I'll reuse this hardware when clamping the bottom.  I made the large sanding bar at the top of the picture to sand the top of the rim, kerfing and blocks flush.  Worked great.  I did find a high spot in the head block and sanded it separately with my orbital sander.

Everything looks pretty good inside.  A small section of the kerfing is not right against the rim side (can't see it here), but doesn't move any.  The top has a couple of spots where the edge is right at 1/16" inside the outer edge of the rim.  Since the binding is 1/16" thick, I think I'm OK.

Photo below shows one of the clamping sessions for a long section.  The front clamp is actually the bending fixture I made (per Roger's book) for bending the binding after heating it.  The binding is bent around the dowel and into the "dip" in the adjacent wood.  The left dowel is for the curve at the base of the large "thumb" of the fretboard.  It's hard to see the thumb section of the fixture due to the photo lighting.

Here's a view of the finished product.  The miter where the two pieces meet turned out better than I expected, but not perfect.  Hope the binding doesn't pop off later when I'm in a hot jam.  That would be embarassing!

Here's the neck/body gluing fixture.  Based on Roger's book, with a few changes, however.  Had too much trouble shaping the center support cross piece the full width of the body.  So I just have the critical pieces; center and two sides.  I added the tall wood piece at left end (with a groove in it) to hold the "point" of the peghead exactly on the centerline.  Also added the two vertical "stops" for the body to hold it in the right place.  I used a laser level light beam to make sure everything was in line.

Here's the neck and body clamped down, letting the glue dry.  There is waxed paper under the neck joint.  That's so my mando doesn't end up glued to the board.  Hey, I'm no dummy (well, usually anyway).

Look Mom, it's a mandolin!   

Here's the completed fretboard and the tools used to install frets.  I used Simonoff's fret setting tool (the aluminum bar in the middle) with a hammer and it worked well.  The masking tape is to keep from scratching the frets (that on the hammer is leftover from something else).  It's a real pain to get the frets into the slot for banging on, though.  They kept coming out of place when I moved my fingers.  The piece to the left of the setting tool is Stewart McDonald's "fret rocker" (no, it doesn't play R&R) to check for high frets.  Yep, got some.  Taking care of that comes later.

Here you can see the side dots.  Not real apparent, but I didn't do a great job of centering them vertically in the binding.  I was almost ready to put on new binding and try it again.  However, I noticed with the fretboard on the neck it wasn't as apparent.  Still need to grind down the ends of the frets and level and crown them.  Didn't put frets in the narrower extension, as I'm going to "scoop" that area.  Don't have teeny enough fingers to play way up there, anyway. :)

Here's the kerfing in and sanded down.  Ready to glue the back on.  Note the 2 dowels in the neck joint to provide additional strength.

Back clamped down and letting the glue dry.  Got the nifty vise from Grizzly Industrial.  My workbench outside is working out great!  Wouldn't be so great in Minnesota this time of year, though. :)

Nice curly maple in this back!  So hope I get a decent stain and finish on it at the final step of building.

I clamped the neck into my vise for routing the body with the Dremel tool.  The metal gizmo on the end of the Dremel is a special fixture from Siminoff that gives the slot the right dimensions.  The slot is not perfect, but pretty good.  I must have "wobbled" some.  Did make some nicks in the sides, too.

Here you can see the routing done by the Dremel tool.  Note how it couldn't be used all the way around the scroll.  Hand work needed here (ugh).

For measuring the depth of the binding slot, while hand routing, I came up with this.  Made with brass bar and rod stock.  Used super glue to glue the parts together.  Since rod is 1/16" (same as binding width) I can also use it to gauge the width of the slot.

Major boo boo when I started on the hand routing around the scroll.  I was using too big of a chisel and part of the scroll "button" came off (see it to right of scroll). #$%*!!  I continued to work on the slot (as shown here).  Shouldn't have, as now the broken off piece doesn't fit back as perfectly.  Should have glued it right back on.

After getting tips from the ever useful builder's section of MandolinCafe.com, I got some better tools for hand routing;  dogleg micro-chisels and a riffler (aka small rasp).  These made hand routing go much better (but not perfect).

Sawed off the broken section with a narrow saw.

Cut a replacement piece out of some scrap spruce and glued it on

After cutting the binding slot it looks pretty good!

The bone points came roughly cut to size.  To start, I just cut them to approximate length and glued them on.

Here they are without any trimming or shaping.

After I get them shaped, I'll put a picture here.

Next step:   Finish cleaning up the binding slot all around, shape the bone corner points then (finally) glue on the binding.