A pressing matter

I'm at the cottage, where the unfinished reso skeletons are. And this time I brought dowels, and they're sharpened at the ends to facilitate insertion. 

First I tap them into the top half. 

Then I place the bottom half on the dowels and it doesn't snap in place. 

Some persuasion with a child's hammer gets it there. 

The neck block is placed and the whole assembly is shoved into the book press...

... which is superior to any other conceivable clamping method. The dowels are exactly 50 mm, the neck block 26 mm and a spacer of 18 mm is placed under the soundwell, and all things put together gives a finished skeleton of 50 mm. 

So today gave me two skeletons (I have a set of cone and coverplate at home I think, but it's time to buy more).

I also glued on the back on Simon's uke. I brought it just to use the press and it was worth carrying it on the bus since the clamping is so easy this way. 

Making solid linings

Of course I could have made kerfed lining strips from the board I'm using, but solid linings are pretty cool and I have them on my number one which serves as the blueprint for this build. 

And the sides I bent were pretty wide so the material was at hand. I didn't post bending pics but I can tell you the wood bent like butter. 

I sliced the lining strips off on the mini table saw. 

The waist was fun. 

And here are the lining strips resting in the sides. Looks a mess doesn't it. 

Single plank ukuleles

Ye olde mahogany that I resawed a couple of weeks ago will make a couple of sopranos first. In the spirit of old number one they will be made entirely from the same board, and on at least one of them everything will be mahogany. Maybe the other one will get a rosewood fretboard, I haven't decided yet. 

So the first pic is of me planing braces. I made them triangular on the bandsaw but they need some cleaning up. 

The planing board is clad with rubber to increase the friction, and the stop pieces are easily replaced if they get too knocked. 

And the second pic shows just how good it looks with a bridge patch and braces clamped down onto the one piece top.