MIMF

Looks great!

That photo certainly looks better. You may be able to do a spot repair with the right materials and skills. I would assume that the original finish is nitro lacquer but you should confirm that. If so, then use some black lacquer and feather it in.

That is a mess. There is no way I would try a patch job. I would take the entire back down to bare wood and refinish it.

I think it is a good idea and have done the same. The only real complicating factor is handling different scale length. Also, the placement and angle of the saddle on the bridge will have to be standardized which might not be ideal. But I think these issues can be easily addressed.

You can use a photo processing app to reduce the size of your photos to a maximum of 150 KB.

I suggest you apply coats until you are happy with the results. If you want a full build that can be polished to a high gloss with no low spots, you may need to do a couple of dozen coats.

You should let it dry for a few days before you start handling it.

The cedar is very adsorptive at first and soaks up the finish from the rag quickly. It will even out and get better as you apply more coats. Don't over sand it, just apply more thin coats. The top will be sealed by the 2nd or 3rd coat then things will go more smoothly.

Glad it worked for you.

Not that long.

I used it one time to glue the fretboard of my first guitar. The next day I took off the clamps and the fretboard fell off the neck. Threw the glue in the trash and haven't used it since. That was 46 years ago.

A caul that places pressure along the outside edges of the fretboard is a necessity. A board with a couple of 1/4" square strips glued along the edges to follow the outline of the fretboard will work. Or a radius sanding block that is as long as the fretboard will work great. A short radius block is...

Different species of wood can glue together fine. One thing to be aware of is that when you put a water-based glue like Titebond on the fingerboard, the moisture will quickly soak into the thin piece of wood and cause it to curl up along the edges. This can cause a gap along each edge which seriousl...

Your neck looks REALLY rough. Gouges, nicks, and low spots do not glue properly. Need to work on your woodworking skills. Also, I see areas of heavy build up of glue. A tight joint will almost have no visible glue if the wood surfaces are smooth and flat. Solution is again woodworking skills as well...

How much above 55? The best joint are machined within minutes of getting glued. Glue that has been frozen will have a stringy texture and may separate into a watery layer.

Another question is how old is the glue?

How cold is your basement? How do you prepare your joints before glue up? Any chance that your glue got frozen in the past?

You need to compress your photos below 150 KB to post them. I use an app on my Mac called "Multiple Image Resizer" to compress photos.

Alan, your post was totally off topic and appears to be an effort to draw traffic to a website not related to musical instruments. Please don't do this again.

Building a flattop/flatback instrument first might give you a better understanding of how this size of a mandolin works before you commit to the fully carved one. A flat one is so much quicker to build.

I think each of the 4 bridges needs to be grounded but I can only think of two ways. 1) Somehow run a wire to a mounting screw/bolt on each of the 4 units. 2) Make a base plate out of a conductive metal to go under the bridges. I thought of one more but it may be a bit hair-brained. Drill a small ho...

Hey Bob, what do you use as a grain filler under Tru Oil?

I have not done this but read a description as follows: Apply the first few coats with a piece of sandpaper. As you move the sandpaper around a sawdust slurry is created which gets forced into the pores. After the pores are filled, start applying coats of Tru-Oil normally to build up a clear finish....