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Musicmakers Dakota Mandola KIT Manual
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Musicmakers Dakota Mandola KIT Manual

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DAKOTA MANDOLA KIT
651-439-9120
harpkit.com

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Summary of Contents for Musicmakers Dakota Mandola KIT

  • Page 1 DAKOTA MANDOLA KIT 651-439-9120 harpkit.com...

  • Page 2: Assembly Instructions

    DAKOTA MANDOLA KIT WOOD PARTS: A - Neck B - Fingerboard C - Heel Block D - Tail Block E - Clamping Block F - 2 Short Ribs G - 4 Corner Blocks H - 2 Mid-Ribs I - Long Tail Rib J - 2 Dowels, 1/4”...
  • Page 3 GLUING THE BODY FRAME _____2. Begin at the heel where the Tools Required for This Stage body will join the neck. Place the heel block and the clamping block together Masking Tape Small C -clamps Cordless Hand Drill and drill two pilot holes into the clamp- Plastic Grocery Bag Spring Clamps Phillips Driver Bit...
  • Page 4 _____5. Find the 4 corner blocks. These are all the same, so they are interchangeable. Test-fit a corner to one of the short ribs without glue to make sure your clamp will hold it firmly in place (fig 5a). We have included a couple clamping wedges made of scrap wood in case you need them.
  • Page 5 _____8. Glue just one end of the long tail rib to one corner block, as shown (fig 8). Let the entire assembly dry overnight (or 8 hours) before proceeding to close the frame. If you proceed too quickly, the glue is likely to break at one or more of the corners.
  • Page 6 _____11. Now you need to stretch the frame a little to fit the spacer block between the heel and tail, as shown in fig 11. DO NOT GLUE THE SPACER! This is just a temporary piece to hold the instrument in the proper shape until you glue the soundboard in place.
  • Page 7 PREPARING THE BACK PANEL NO GLUE Tools Required for This Stage Pencil Spring Clamps SPACER Wood Glue Chisel or Razor Knife Damp Rag MaskingTape _____14. NOW YOU CAN OPEN THE SEALED BAG AND REMOVE THE BACK PANEL (DARKER MAHOGANY PIECE). IF YOU ARE WORKING IN A HUMID ENVIRONMENT, PLEASE STORE THE FRONT PIECE (SOUNDBOARD) IN AN AIR-CONDITIONED (DE- HUMIDIFIED) PLACE UNTIL YOU GET TO STEP #16.
  • Page 8 PREPARING THE FRONT (SOUNDBOARD) _____15. We highly recommend making Tools Required for This Stage Clamping Pad yourself a clamping pad for the body of the 3/4” thick Pencil Spring Clamps instrument out of 3/4 plywood or particle Wood Glue Chisel or Razor Knife board (fig 15).
  • Page 9 _____20. Now you can taper the edges of the X-braces if you like, using a chisel, coarse sandpaper or a sharp knife (fig 20a). We recom- mend leaving the braces full height for stability, but you can bevel the cham fered blocks “shoulders”...
  • Page 10 _____24. When you are ready to proceed, squirt a good bead of glue all the way around the frame, including the corner blocks, heel block and tail block, as shown in figure 24a. You want enough glue so that a little excess will squeeze out when the parts are clamped.
  • Page 11 Router Flush-trim bit fig 26b fig 26a Move router clockwise around instrument, as shown. Roller bearing follows ribs SANDING BLOCKS Please note that however you trim the soundboard, you will still need to do some careful hand sanding to finish the job. Thank- fully, spruce is soft, so it sands quickly with a sanding block.
  • Page 12 _____ 27. Use a flat file or razor knife to finish cleaning out the notch in the heel block, as shown in figures 27a and 27b. Note how we beveled the edges of the spruce top (fig 27b). This will help make sure the neck seats fully into the mortise slot.
  • Page 13 _____29. When satisfied with the depth of your cut, you can rout a ledge around the circumference of instrument. Make sure to move the router in a CLOCKWISE direction, just as you did when flush trimming the spruce soundboard (fig 29). If your inlay banding is more than 1/8”...
  • Page 14 _____32. When you have the first strip ready to install, squirt a thin bead of woodworker’s glue into just that short section of the ledge where the strip will fit (fig 32a). Use masking tape to hold the strip tightly in place, as shown in fig 32b.
  • Page 15 PREPARING THE FINGERBOARD A NOTE ABOUT FRET MARKING DOTS This kit comes with side markers that you will install along one edge of the fingerboard later (step 58), but we also offer mother-of-pearl dots in our catalog (the 5 mm size is best for a mandolin). If you want to inlay fret-marking dots on the front of the fingerboard, you should do that now, before installing the frets.
  • Page 16 _____36. Clip the frets as close to the wood as you can (fig 36a), and then sand the sharp metal ends down flush with the wood. Fretwire is quite soft metal, so you can sand it or file it quite easily. We hold the fingerboard up against a belt sander for this operation, but you can do the job by hand with a flat file (fig 36b) or coarse sanding block (80 - 100 grit).
  • Page 17 _____40. Carefully align the fingerboard on the neck, checking that the narrow end matches the pencil line by the peghead, and the sides are aligned with the neck as closely and evenly as possible. Yes, the fingerboard is standing on those two tiny nails! Now press (or tap) the fingerboard over those two nails so the tiny nails punch a depression in the underside of the fingerboard (fig 40a).
  • Page 18 SHAPING THE ASSEMBLED NECK _____43. We have done basic shaping on the neck for you, but there is some hand- Tools Required for work to be done to create the profile you like and for smoothing everything out nicely. This Stage We recommend taking your time with this step, checking how the neck feels in your hand for playing.

  • Page 19: Fitting The Neck To The Body

    FITTING THE NECK TO THE BODY Tools Required for This Stage Electric Drill 7/64” Drill Bit Masking Tape Screw Driver Sanding Block (150 grit) Ruler Pencil Chisel or Razor Knife Square Wood Glue 2 Clamps Clamping Pad _____45. Test-fit the neck to the body (fig 45). The goal is to have no visible gaps where the neck meets the ribs, and the fingerboard should lay flat on top fig 45 of the soundboard without bending.
  • Page 20 Notice that the neck contacts the body more firmly on the outer edges of the Gaps joint than in the center (fig 48c). We design the joint this way on purpose, so it will be easier for you to achieve a nice fit on the outside. Check carefully along the heel joint to see if there are any gaps showing on the outside (fig 48d), and make pencil marks where you want to remove a Tight...
  • Page 21 REINFORCING THE HEEL JOINT Tools Required for This Stage Electric Drill 1/4” Drill Bit Masking Tape Pencil Wood Glue Chisel or Razor Knife Long Sanding Block _____51. Once the glue is dry, remove the screw. It is no longer needed in the joint. We’ll show you how to reinforce the joint more permanently here.

  • Page 22: Installing The Back

    fig 51g fig 51f If there is a little bit of the dowel sticking up above the Push a dowel fully into each hole until it is flush with surrounding wood, use a sharp chisel or razor knife to the surface of the heel (fig 51f). Use a damp rag to carve it down flush (fig 51g).
  • Page 23 _____54. Be sure to test-fit the back without glue first, just to make sure you can pull the panel down tightly to the ribs all the way around. Check your centerlines on these parts too! You may need to trim the ends of a brace or something in order to align the back perfectly.
  • Page 24 OPTIONAL DECORATIONS _____56. (OPTIONAL) If you wish to add inlay banding around Stop inlay the back, now is the time to do it. Inlay banding not only decorates at heel the instrument, but it also covers up gaps you might have over- looked when clamping the back to the frame.

  • Page 25: Final Sanding

    FINAL SANDING _____59. There may be some large areas of the instrument, such as the soundboard and back, that need a quick sanding with a power tool. We use an orbital hand sander with 220-grit sandpaper for a once-over lightly to take care of major scratch- es and bumps (fig 59a).
  • Page 26 Use a clean cloth to wipe off any sanding dust from the wood (fig 60b). Some people buy tack cloth for this purpose, but we just use a clean rag. Another option is to wet the rag with denatured alcohol (from the hard- ware store) for cleaning the wood more fully.
  • Page 27 As soon as you have coated the instrument, use paper towels or cloth rags to wipe off all excess finish, right down to the wood (fig 61b). Make sure to wipe the corners too. Wipe off excess gel from your hands too. Then it won’t hurt anything to handle the freshly fin- ished instrument.

  • Page 28: Installing The Hardware

    INSTALLING THE HARDW ARE Tools Required for This Stage _____64. You are finally ready for the final phase! We’ll begin by shaping and Masking Tape Pencil installing the nut at the end of the fin- Electric Drill 1/16” drill bit gerboard.
  • Page 29 Push the bushings into the holes around the posts on the front side (fig 65b). These fit rather tightly, so you may need to use a small tool to push them in fully. Use the 1/16” drill bit to make pilot holes for the tiny screws that hold the gear plate firmly to the back side of the peghead.
  • Page 30 _____67. The Nut and Bridge need to be notched to hold the strings in the proper positions (fig 67a). It is best to use a metric ruler for marking these small measurements, as shown in fig 67b. fig 67a Use a small triangle file for this notching (unless you have nut files to match the string gauges).
  • Page 31 fig 68c The strings are longer than they need to be, so you can pull most of the slack through the hole in the tuning post before starting to turn the tuning button. Leave enough slack string across the instrument so that there will be 3-4 wraps of string around the post before the string becomes taut (fig 68)c.
  • Page 32 MUSICMAKERS PO BOX 2117 FINE ADJUSTMENTS Stillwater, MN 55082 You may find the 17-1/4” bridge location to be slightly off for 651-439-9120 good intonation in the high- www.harpkit.com est frets. This is caused by the amount of stretching required of the strings when they are pushed down against the frets.