Argapa 100 under the knife

I’m a bit behind in posting, but will catch up. These pics are from last week. 

My eight string soprano was made from mahogany, all of it. A great wood for most parts, but the bridge was a wee bit too soft for the string pull. They ate their way into the wood and it was time to deal with it. 

I rigged a cardboard protective layer. I was still at the cottage, hiding from the scorching sun. 



With my Japanese model making saw I carefully cut two slots just beside the holes. 



With a thin chisel of the mortise chisel kind I cleared the wood out between the saw slots. My plan was to laminate a few black maple purfling strips together with ca glue and fit that into the slot. 



And here it is in place. I planed it down together with the surfaces of the bridge. It was a bit high and will be better now. 



Cool innit. Looks like it was meant to be this way. 



I strung it up with a set of Aquilas and a set of Worth browns, so the strings wouldn’t sound the same. A bonus was the ebony/ivory thing going on at the bridge was carried over to the rest of the uke. 

Piccolo progress

When the frets are in place and the nut ledge cut I turn my attention to the bridge. This setup in the first pic gives me the height, this time it was around 8 mm. 

I mark on a piece of tape the extended lines of the edge of the fretboard. This helps me place the bridge where it needs to be. 



Here’s the bridge with tape all around it. Before glueing, I drill the holes for the A and G strings. With brads through the holes the bridge won’t slip. 



The brads were replaced with sewing needles, remember this tiny house lacks most tools but is packed with sewing supplies. 



Then I use the divider to mark the location for the E and C strings. The divider is of course a Ken Timms tool. 



I drill the holes at an angle so it’s easier to feed the strings through to the soundhole. 



Ever wondered why Argapa headstocks have parallel sides? Then take one look at this pic and realize it’s the sensible choice. I need the tuner holes so I can hang the uke up during finishing, but I’ll ream them later. 



And here we are this morning. About halfway through the French polishing process. 

On the road again

Vacation continues, and so does the hard work. I’ve gone south to the next cottage and I brought a field kit of tools and a half finished piccolo. 

But there’s always something I forget to bring. Remember the button fret markers last summer? Well this year I forgot the 1.6 mm styrene rod I use to make fret marker dots on the piccolos. I searched around and found this plastic paper clip which will have to do. 



With the sourdough festering in the background I drilled and filled the holes. 



Then I used my fret slot cutting jig to make the slots. I need to make a new one soon, this one has been around for a fair bit of time now. 



The nut location is determined by the first slot. I use a sharp chisel to create a ledge for the nut. 

There has been more progress but I’ll put that in the next post.