Heaps of progress

I found some time between the larger projects, couldn’t decide if I should concentrate on the acoustic or the reso so I did both. Below there are pics of different stuff that got done, no clear narrative in this post but I will describe what’s in each pic. 

That can also be necessary as there is clutter on the bench in the background. 

When last we met the sides were glued to the top, like so. 

So I started on the necks, marking out the taper and ripping them down with my Pax ripsaw. 

A mock-up with the neck, just pinching it together. 

Then it was more or less time to prepare the top for the resonator. I have small acrylic templates that fall into the cutouts in the reso skeleton to mark out the exact positions of the center holes for the three different larger holes in the top. 

And that only works if the top is locked into position, I fix that with bits of kerfing superglued around the body. 

Without taking pics, I cut the holes and glued in the mesh for the soundports. 

The top was a wee bit narrow so I had already decided to bind it. That in turn made me finally rig the routing jig up. It’s a piece of kit from Stewmac that I bought second hand. First time and it went very well!

I’ll use tortoloid binding so a lighter strip inside will help with the transparent bits, I glued in a thin maple veneer strip with wood glue. The tortoloid webt in using acetone. 

And between other jobs I started carving the mahogany neck for the acoustic. This is still my favourite part of building. 

The reso gets a cedar neck, and I managed to get that in place today before I needed to dash out for a couple of errands. 

Kerfed linings, sides glued to top

The acoustic soprano took a wee stumble forward recently. I dug out the lining strips bought from Stewmac and fitted the sides with them. 

Then I levelled it all on my thick alumINium plate. The sandpaper must’ve been stuck to it for 10 or 12 years but still works fine. 

And then, on the multi-solera, the sides were glued to the top. No fuss, no drama. Just a wee stumble forward. 

Resawing loads of maple

I really really sincerely hope you all are just pining for some (a lot of) all maple ukuleles. Because I got a couple of stumps of maple from my aunt’s garden. I was about to quarter them with the help of my brother and his nifty sawmill, but then I thought, how thin slices can we make on this beast?

And the answer is pretty thin! I set the thickness to around a quarter of an inch, didn’t want to risk going to an eighth. The saw has a setting which divides in 1/8” and I want some extra meat before drying the slices. I know it’s more common to let wood dry in larger sizes and then resaw, but my table bandsaws are all less capable than this one when it comes to power and the ability to saw straight. 

First quarter yielded these. Try to imagine the number of tops, backs and sides are in this set. 

After slicing quartersawn slices off the quarters, a large wedge with the bark still on remains. Some careful sawing gave me two by fours with the grain parallel to the long faces, you get it - neck blanks! 

And would you look at this. (And would you not look at the two round logs at the bottom, those are for a giant marimba for my wife’s workplace.) Anyway, some 30 slices over one meter long and around 13 - 15 centimeters wide, and the neck blank blanks for I don’t know how many necks. 

All stickered and stacked, in the shade for drying. It will of course take some time but when it’s ready I could start a wee industry. 

Hoping you and everyone you know really really want some maple ukes. And hoping they sound good, who knows, eh?