I usually start building a mandolin by carving the plates. Carving is a traditional word. I don't think I come close to carving. Here is a photo of how I do my plates. I print out Mowry's graduation map (Thank you Mr. Mowry!) and glue them directly to the wood. Then I use my drill press to establish my depth of removal. Then I usually use the bowl (spoon) plane that Artdeco mentioned in another thread to remove unwanted material, both on the inside and the outside. Then it's onto using the sanding disc on my drill press to roughly get down to the bottom of the holes I drilled to determine my thickness. A little bit of hand sanding and this is what I end up with. There will be more sanding and scraping before they are ready for assembly
I use the Mowry contours too. I want one of those spoon carvers. Getting a safe-T planer soon too.
For the lack of a good gouge I carved my top almost entirely using a finger plane. It went surprisingly quickly. I used a Safe-T planer for flat area as well as the finger board ramp.
Just looking at that picture makes my hand cramp-up. Such a small tool. I must get me one of those safe-t planners. I've thought about it but just never did.
Me too.
