So now I have two half-mandolins. The end joints didn’t glue as cleanly as I would have liked. I may have to think about a stripe or wedge on the end. We’ll see if I have time.
Gordon, this is another mistake you don’t have to make for yourself...
Speaking of time, I had to go out last night, and in my rush to get the second body glued up after I got home so it could dry overnight, I quickly trimmed the top to match the rim out of the form, which was being used to glue the other body. Just to make life interesting, the body had elongated slightly out of the form, and when I went to glue it, the top wasn’t wide enough to get to the edges. I had to fudge the placement of the top a little to minimize the gap. I would have eventually routed a gap there anyway for binding, but this gap is almost twice as thick as the binding I had intended to use. I could use a thicker binding all the way around, or stick with the current binding and try to add a sliver of top material just at the widest parts. I’m not sure which way I will go yet, but the key to being a good luthier is learning to hide your mistakes.

Besides this screwup, I found that somehow the bottom of one of the F-holes got shifted a little to the side from where it should be. Oh well. Too late for that one. At least it doesn’t look too bad.
In any case, I was so rattled by such a major screwup that I took today off and took care of other stuff, despite being on a very tight schedule to finish by next week. The next step is to fit the neck, probably the most exacting part of the whole build. Just to make it more interesting, I have no experience at all cutting neck joints. I need a clear head before starting that, so I have been reviewing the process and the procedure, and triple checking my drawings and getting even more confused. My own full-scale drawing says I should be aiming for a neck angle about 4 degrees, but most other sources say 6 degrees. I have to think about that some more.