Someone showed their laser setup on, I believe, the Mandolin Cafe again, and I loved the idea! Here's my laser, magnetically attached to a dead-level square steel tube that's permanently mounted above.

The laser shoots a perfect line from end to end of the mandolin, and the best part is that it ignores the curves and contours, and always gives the straight line.

Also, notice the neck joint? Forgot to mention this trick! I added 3/16" thick blocks of the same mahogany as the bindings, and this will give us a neat appearance when done. Stay tuned...!

The J-5 under the laser

Here's that neck joint, now pinned solid. I left a little space at the rear to help guide steam if ever the neck needs to come out; the pins have very little glue( they don't need any, really) and the whole will release like any dovetail if need be.

Since we carved the back a few pages ago, let's just trim and glue it in place <bg>. While I use the go bar deck to clamp the top, I like regular clamps here.

Using the same setup that was used to rout the top's binding channels, I'll rout the back. I can get almost all of it, but for the heel area.

A sharp chisel finishes off this area.

Two brothers...

Smothered in tape, she's now completely bound.

..

I'll make the fretboard support piece of mahogany for the A-5. It surprised me to note that it took a full hour to make this piece and get it to fit perfectly. Oy!

Glued in place, I'll mark the entire fretboard to neck surface, and level the whole of it.

I grew tired of the mess, so I'll take a bit of time now and clean up the bindings, using scrapers and some sandpaper. Mostly scrapers, though...

See how the neck joint inserts work with the bindings to frame the whole area? Neat, no?

Beginning to look like something now!