Making of - Upcycled Oilcan Mandola

Making instruments is crazy addictive! Since I started around 7 years ago, I've always had some project on the workbench. Sometimes it takes me a while to finish because of a lack of time to do it, sometimes it goes very fast!
Since moving to Berlin, I'm working out of a shared workshop / makerspace and have access to a CNC, laser cutter and many other awesome & professional tools and in general I can work much faster now. :) (I'd really recommend anyone based in Berlin to check out "happylab", it's a great place with many interesting people and projects going on in there!)

Anyways, for one of the latest instruments I've made there, I used the CNC not only to cut frets, but also to make a beautiful wood inlay for the head!
I hope you'll enjoy the build thread, I'll also upload a video soon :)

IMG_1772.JPG

At first I roughly cut the neck with a jigsaw:
2018-03-05 11_19_37-Windows Media Player.png

And the f-holes with a Dremel:
2018-03-05 11_22_21-Windows Media Player.png

Attaching the neck to the oilcan:
2018-03-05 11_45_15-Windows Media Player.png

Glueing on the fretboard and shaping & sanding the neck:
2018-03-05 11_24_32-Windows Media Player.png
2018-03-05 11_25_48-Windows Media Player.png

Now I made my first wood inlay (mahogany on wenge), it is matching the flame on the body with my Do.Se logo on top.
It is made on the CNC with the different parts mirrored and fitting toegther kinda like a 3D jigsaw puzzle, then glued together and sanded smooth. Except for one part of the O in Do.Se it worked great and I already have a lot of plans to do inlays on fretboards now! :) :)
IMG_1710.JPG
IMG_1712.JPG
IMG_1711.JPG

I made the bridge from mahogany and topped it it wenge so that it would fit the neck and used forks again for the tailpiece
IMG_1722.JPG

Stringing it up (the tuning is Gdae', one octave lower than a Mandolin) and there you go, my first ever Mandola finished! It's got a really nice, folky sound and I love playing it! I'll upload a full making of video and soundtest in a few days :)
Thanks for reading this long post, I hope you liked it :)

IMG_1773.JPG

Sort:  

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted by SteemMakers. We are a community based project that aims to support makers and DIYers on the blockchain in every way possible. Find out more about us on our website: www.steemmakers.com.

If you like our work, please consider upvoting this comment to support the growth of our community. Thank you.

Looks really great. I love the warning sign flame motive.

thanks, I love it as well. it was already on the oilcan and I had been dying to use this one, it had been lying around for a while because I had to decide what instrument to make with it! Basically the main reason I made a Mandola out of it is because I wanted to use this oilcan and it's too big for Mandolin,Ukulele and the like and too small for a guitar :D

Great DIY project! Nice upcycling! I also nominated you for @steemmakers.

thanks a lot! I appreciate it :)

That fork tailpiece is tight! Great idea and great looking build. Thanks for sharing!

This post has been resteemed by @woodworkcurators
woodlogo2.png

Daily promotion and curation for the Woodworking community.
You can read about us here

Win SBD in our Weekly Woodworking Competition

Your article got selected by the IINC team and is featured in the “Curator’s Choice” series. Congrats!

that is great, thank you!