Cutting the hole

I finally did it. After much debate, I decided to place the oval hole in the higher position (see an earlier posting) and cut the hole today. I spent a good hour sanding the top up to a 150 grit level, to minimize the heavy sanding after the hole would be cut. I then printed out the oval shape and transferred it onto the mandolin. Ideally the hole would be cut on a scrawl saw but I don't have one. Actually, with this kit, a scrawl saw would not help either because the sides come attached to the top - a source of various frustrations. A deep throat fret saw would be very good too, but I don't have one...yet...;) Therefore I had to use my coping saw and cut it freehand. I had bought some new blades a few weeks ago at Lowes. There were not many options - just one pack. The blades are about 1/8" wide and this turned out to be less than ideal. As narrow as 1/8" seems (when I was at the shop), cutting a tight corner is not easy. I really needed a fine fret saw blade.
Still, I drilled a hole in the oval pattern, and threaded the saw blade through it. The cutting was hard not only because of the blade width but also because I had to keep on twisting the blade in the coping saw frame. The saw "throat" was not large to go all around the instrument so instead I had to keep rotating the blade in the frame. At least the frame allowed for this. I worked slowly, trying to stay away from the line and leave room to clean up.


The hole was cut and left a jagged edge all around.

Cleaning up the hole turned out to be more fun and rewarding than I had imagined. I used the Dremel tool with the sanding drum, working very carefully and "caressing" the edge of the hole until I reached the line, leaving behind a smooth trace. The top of the mandolin has a definite thickness where the hole is cut and therefore, the hole needs to be cut and finished in 90 degrees to the top. I don't have a clear method to achieve that yet.

My plan is to bind the hole using the same binding that I would use for the rest of the instrument.