The jig on the right is a devise used to route the neck cavity on the mandolin [left].
A HAND HELD router is used to perform this critical cut.
Many, probably most all, mandolins use a different kind of joint to attach the neck to the body. The old joint is traditional and works well. It was designed long before the advent of the great glues and wonderful hardware that we have today.
Most all of the mandolins built [copied] today also reflect the traditional design which has been in use for decades. While I suppose most people prefer, for whatever reason, the traditional looking instruments, I prefer to incorporate design and materials of the modern age which we live in now.
Does this produce a better instrument? Does this approach produce a better sounding instrument? Maybe, maybe not, but it at least will be something a little different than all those thousands, perhaps millions, of clones.
I MUST keep excited and MUST keep my passion for building instruments alive and well, and I simply can't by building clones, no matter how perfectly built they may be.