Learning Ukulele 50 Sites Top 50 Ukulele Sites Argapa Ukuleles - one size louder: Sawing neck blanks

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Sawing neck blanks

I have had a large piece of alder lying around for a while, and since my stock of neck blanks is depleted I decided to turn it into usable chunks. 

First I sliced off a couple of thick strips on the table saw. The blade wasn't high enough so I finished the cuts with my Pax rip saw. 

The first couple of pics show the layout of neck profiles. 


The two pieces I cut off will be used differently from each other. I want the grain orientation close to vertical in each neck, so on the first piece I drew the profiles on the newly sawn face and on the other one I drew them on the mill sawn face. 


Here are the blocks. Eleven soprano necks and and a few piccolo necks. The blocks weren't square so I jointed two faces on the power jointer. Now my problem was the band saw - it being up shit creek since a long time. The drive belt snapped a year ago and I can't find a new one of the correct length. So I made one of thread and gaffer tape which worked for some time but it has stretched too much now and just slips. 


But what now? I made a new shorter belt, of only gaffer tape this time. And it worked beautifully, took me half an hour to get through most of the pile. I will make the rest of them tomorrow before the saw starts acting up again. I am so happy, and now I can build whatever I want (in the scale of gentlemen, natch) during the fall. 

Stay tüned!


Edited to add a couple of more pics. The first is an attempt to show the gaffer tape drive belt. It is behind the wheel. 


And the last shows you all the necks; 15 one piece soprano necks (of which three are Spanish cedar), 3 to be laminated of two halves and a pin stripe, and 3 piccolo necks. 




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