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Description
This was a project for a physics class in college to design our own musical instruments. It has the same fret placement as a normal mandolin, but only has 4 strings. Being adventurous at the time (and dumpster diving at construction sites) it was made of 5 woods: oak, poplar, red cherry, bass, and um, birch? I cannibalized a very-broken banjo for the metal tuning parts.

My dad helped and it is still amazing we didn't kill ourselves with powertools as we were using cardboard boxes for benches and had little-no knowhow. This project made me a fan of palm sanders though...you have to make a considerable effort to hurt yourself with one of those. I also almost drove my roommate insane from the fumes when I was applying the tung oil finish in our dorm room. Mmm...toluene.

Description
This was a project for a physics class in college to design our own musical instruments. It has the same fret placement as a normal mandolin, but only has 4 strings. Being adventurous at the time (and dumpster diving at construction sites) it was made of 5 woods: oak, poplar, red cherry, bass, and um, birch? I cannibalized a very-broken banjo for the metal tuning parts.

My dad helped and it is still amazing we didn't kill ourselves with powertools as we were using cardboard boxes for benches and had little-no knowhow. This project made me a fan of palm sanders though...you have to make a considerable effort to hurt yourself with one of those. I also almost drove my roommate insane from the fumes when I was applying the tung oil finish in our dorm room. Mmm...toluene.