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?

 

Rosette efforts

I decided to make a rosette on the soprano. I plan to add black binding, but couldn’t get the black veneer strip to work so the rosette will be of untainted maple. 

First action is routing the channel with the massive rosette cutter from Micheal Connor in Australia. Pricey but an absolute joy to use. 

Then I prepared the maple strip by winding it around the bending iron. 

I was very lucky, or automagically skilled, the width of the channel was exactly the width of four turns of the veneer strip. I thinned out the ends and jammed it in. 

Then I added CA glue. A trick I find helpful is using the thin viscosity variety first, then switching to medium thickness glue. The thin glue will help drawing the thicker in, that’s beneficial because I wouldn’t trust only the thin stuff. 

I let it dry for an hour or so then planed it down with my Little Victor plane, known from this blog in 2009 or thereabouts. 

Aha, look here: https://argapa.blogspot.com/2008/10/very-nice-plane.html?m=0

And it is done, at least as far as it needs to be right now. Next up is cutting the soundhole and then we’re off to the braces!

New ukes started

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more. 

Or as we say more often: hiya. The itch is coming back and it can’t all be ticks can it now. I delved into the stash and emerged with mahogany and parts for a reso skeleton. 

Starting out by glueing up the skeleton and sawing out plates for the acoustic soprano. 

Bending did not go smoothly. This is ancient wood and it is brittle, I actually had to bend the soprano rim back to straight again and shave a bit more off with the drum sander. Now it’s a bit thin, maybe I’ll secure it with transverse cleats. I’ll give it a think. 

Last pic is of the reso, I glued the rim onto the skeleton. It is a one piece rim, both because I like that better and because it is much easier to glue since I can tighten it around the round part as I clamp the waist with my waist clamping clamp. 

Cheers!