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Ok, engineers and bystanders, this is the assignment. It’s a calculus problem. Assume the coefficient of friction is constant: maybe 0.2 for steel on steel. The initial tension is about 20 lbs. ...

Yes, you can easily break buttons and more. If you think of the post as a lever, with a gear on one end and a string pulling with about 20 lbs on the other, and the fulcrum being either or both the...

Sue, I’ve sometimes used repair kits for vinyl upholstery especially automotive. The kits contain little tubs of compound in colors and ‘graining papers’ which are fabrics imprinted with common...

The mirror and strong light are needed in any event to check for loose braces before you tune the thing up. If you see the same grain pattern inside and out, especially contrasty areas, it isn’t...

Bolt it down!
With a close-fitting table, useful for all sorts of things you didn’t think you needed to do.

The French wrote the book on some aspects of modernism and Deco pretty early. The seminal Paris 1925 expo put things front and center. Even the stogy British, the same year, were aware of sea...

Agree entirely with RayT. The neck may even be a recent graft from a mandolin. If it is just screwed into the rim (screw heads inside, or maybe bolts) the skew may be adjusted without even using...

How similar? Photos of your friend's actual model would be helpful..
Prices in the US depend on manufacturer to a large extent, but generally are, as said, much lower than $500. The name, if any,...

@ Mr. Bear et al: No, I think the OP could easily feel he’s been mocked. One can only take witty chances with those we know well. To the second point: I imagine he wasn’t keen to go back and check...

The OP is, perhaps, overthinking things. Much more likely in wooden instrument aging are more macroscopic effects like fracturing in glue joints and more mechanical damage to the wood itself. ...

Learn to live with the buzz. Recent Rhode Island luthier creation.
202464

An A on the E string also resonates the open A which can continue to sound its harmonic, so I hope you have a better example, or indicate that when you mute the E, you also mute all the strings.
A...

Why hasn’t anyone mentioned excess friction at the nut? The tension is always larger above the nut, and friction can be quite large. The shape, depth, and friction is not easy to measure,...

Anyone want to either define, or start a very long thread about what warming up a mandolin means? I have the (moderately educated) feeling that, like many things in the present thread, that we could...

I think the excess string has to exit the head to the sides for the kitten vibe; maybe about 4” each side.
The tailpiece is nice, and novel. Are there grooves in the brass to keep the strings...

SGW’s flair for description continues with a SOL on the block now described as an A-Frame mandolin. Before you SOL fanciers get too excited, it’s pretty beat, with a pulled/broken neck joint and...

This is a simulation, because it’s soft copper, but the same thing can be done with some of the harder materials. My turning rolls at home aren’t as clean or robust as the ones some jewelers have. ...

Certainly don’t know, but when I put Mr. Spruce in the oven, I’m pretty sure he was torrified.

As a bonafide science person, I try to not get into this type of exposition, because it does no good, but I do have to mention that the video describes a very much under-designed experiment that...

Here’s an (unknown) one with an extra hook below. Intended as a strap anchor or what?

202347

Good going. Much nicer than my slapdash method. I’m wondering if the ancients didn’t make curved cuts in the process to make fitting easier. That, and how leveling with the side and top was done on...

I may have the wrong concept, but I think you could widen the string spacing without grooving the bridge, if you just put spacers behind the top, that is, between the strings in a pair. As long as...

The focus on strict originality turns up in other collector activities, and serves a couple of purposes, one of which is market value, but, as in other areas, in order to generate concours material,...

202253
This rosewood and boxwood plane was built in Auburn NY, by prison labor. The Auburn Tool Company, and it’s successor, Ohio Tool, exploited prisoners, male and female for a good part of the...

Wait, we’ll see Gibson lawyers
claim design ownership on that bird’s head….