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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Stockpiling neck blanks

I have loads of wood to resaw. But I'm hesitant to start because last time I did it I wasted some good cherry because the bandsaw wasn't set up perfectly. So I took a piece of alder that wasn't big enough for tops or backs and made a few necks. I'll plane the top side and the headstocks with a hand plane, and then lay out the contours in relation to those surfaces.

The larger chunk behind them is for another neck but I need to check the dimensions when I get back to the main workshop.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Peghed retrofit

I got to see Argapa #18 again, my first pineapple. The tuners were cranky (I blame the walnut headstock) so I put those nifty secretly geared Peghed tuners on it. I also set the nut up better, so now it damn near plays itself!

I still like the headstock design a lot. The straight Argapa take on traditional pineapple follies.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Ukulelepandemonium

Last sunday, a bunch of friends came by to play some music and eat cheese. In the vid, I think there's only one Argapa and that's the first one that Robin plays. Nearly all the other guests have at least one Argapa each though.


Monday, March 18, 2013

Neck finally there

It's really fiddly to build these! Took forever to get the neck in place, sort of aligned with some imaginary lines. Because of some earlier rather hastily made decisions, I'll put the soundboard on last... Well, don't ask.

A couple of hundred coats of finish might save me.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Progress on miniatures

The sides got a heel block, and then the backs were glued, one at each edge. Now I cut the assembly in half to make it into two bodies. Maybe I'll put spruce soundboards on these, just for fun.

If you look at the necks carefully, you'll see that they're not exactly alike. I got a very wide neck blank out of that waste chunk in a previous post, so I sliced off two outer sections and glued them together with a single pinstripe. That means I could get four mini necks out of the waste chunk... But two's enough for now.

I'll mention once more that at least one of these will go to the raffle at Hollesley. If enough people know about this plan I can't chicken out and keep them both!

I think they will be playable. And exquisite.