Finishing the Rosette and Jointing the Back

The rosette is now finished and the top is planed and sanded to thickness, in this case looks like 2.6mm is it.. or at least as far as I have the guts to go..

Rosette installed in the guitar top

The inner & outer purfling lines added.

I've also got the back jointed tonight, and maybe I can get it down to thickness tomorrow..

Using a shooting board to get the joint smooth

I can never quite get it as smooth as I want with the hand plane
but a couple of passes with some 220 grit paper
on a framing square does the trick.

All clamped up the simple old fashioned way

So once the back is to thickness things can start coming together to look like a guitar....

Top and Final Work on the Soundhole

Next step is to thickness the top and then cut out the soundhole, the soundhole is also bound in BW Purfling.. Turned out pretty good..

The aftermath of planing the top to thickness

Soundhole cut and bound

Completed

Closeup

After that the top gets cut to rough size..

Mandocello Build Started

So Summer jobs are done and it is time to get started on building this Mandocello.. My order of building is sort of whatever I feel like doing that day..

So I've got a bunch of wood lets see what we can make out of it...

We have Espave for the neck, a first for me, Sitka Spruce for the top, Oregon Myrtle for the back and sides and  Rose wood for the fingerboard and Bridge, trim is also going to be Rosewood

So lets start with the top..

Jointed and glued up

And a top needs a rosette, this one is made out of scarps, Rosewood,  Koa, Ebony and some Maple I think...

So all glued up and then cut to shape using a Dremel tool in a Bishop Cochran base, which works very well for this..

The green tape is just extra it is actually held down with double sided tape

All done

Now to route the matching pocket in the soundboard..

And glue in...