Neopolitan Mandolin

thingiverse

Human: Full-scale mandolin design based on dimensions of a wooden instrument. Before you spend 40 hours printing this, please note: 1. Mandolin strings exert tension over 5kg each. With 8 strings, that means over 40kg (88 pounds) of constant stress trying to cause the device to collapse in your hands, potentially causing severe harm. You assume this risk if you choose to proceed. The quality of printing will significantly affect the strength of the device. 2. This is not a beginner project. You must have a good command of your printer and be able to produce high-quality results even with significant overhangs. 3. The joints are intentionally tight, requiring smoothing with a rasp and sandpaper to assemble. 4. I have no idea how well it plays. I'm not a mandolinist. As above, I can't guarantee that it won't collapse under the string tension. I'll try to post a video with sound as soon as I get it strung, if I survive the stringing process. 5. Neopolitan mandolins typically have a single hole instead of two F holes. I prefer this look. 6. Final verdict (8/18 update): PLA is not the ideal plastic for this project. Tuning the strings causes the neck to bend towards the soundboard, resulting in a significant gap between the strings and the frets. This might not be an issue with a more rigid plastic. You will need: - A large-volume printer, 300mm X 300mm or larger (CR-10, Tevo Tornado). Any attempt to slice this up for smaller printers would require splitting the bowl, which is unpleasant. - About 750gm of plastic - Tuning machines: http://a.co/2qpEzXG - Mandolin strings, loop-end type - Glue, E6000 or cyanoacrylate - Approximately 30 hours of printing time for just the bowl Tips: - Print in the current orientation. - Use supports only where they touch the baseplate. - Print the bowl with 0.2mm layers to enable cutting out the F holes and fretboard peg hole in the bowl. - Print it strong; I used four walls.