Fretting

After installing the bar frets I levelled them with a sharpening block
which isn't any good for sharpening tools. But it's alright for this.
Then I started crowning each fret with a small file with a 1 mm
concave radius. I aim for low, smooth frets, and I'm beginning to get
the hang of it.

Planing a fretboard - pure therapy

Today was a shit day. Yesterday was even shittier. In fact, the last
days have been the worst two of my professional carreer. With the
brilliant exception of today's lunch break with BaronK.

I was going to work late tonight to get some projects done but figured
it would kill me and then give me swine flu.

So I went home, had dinner with my family and then went down and
planed the rosewood fretboard that's going on Melker's tenor.

My mood got better as the board got thinner and smoother. When it was
time for the scraper I was really happy. And who wouldn't be - look at
the nice multicolored shavings!

Best 20 minutes in 60 hours.

Zyliss vise turned upside down, plane was the Little Victor that I
like so much, and my scraper has two of the corners rounded off for
working on larger surfaces like soundboards.

Piccolo necks

After shaping them on the bandsaw, a few cuts I make by hand. One of
these will have an island style neck like the prototype, the other
will get a fretboard.

Progress on many ukes

Leaning on the bending iron is Melker's tenor, in the vise soprano no.
7 is being fitted with nut and bridge, and on the table are two
piccolos in the early stages of construction. One has been fitted with
linings and has it's top glued. The other one I bent today and it has
just a neck block yet.

Bridge on soprano 7

Preparing to glue the bridge, with slip-stop brass wire.

Sides glued on wenge tenor

The wenge sides gave me a bit of a hard time, so I glued them before
making the end block. I'll put that in place before the linings.

I'm considering tentalones, separate small blocks instead of a kerfed
lining strip. Must do a bit of research.

Bracing, little by little

I sneak down between the rest of the duties to glue a brace or two. I
also did some work on the neck, made the recess where the soundboard
will fit.

It is great fun.

Tenor no. 4, bracing

Melker's tenor took a leap forward as I started bracing the
soundboard. Now I'll enjoy the feeling of assembly that I get when I
build my tenors. It's mostly because of the spanish heel, but now the
parts have been ready for a while and it will feel even more as if I
just glue a kit together.

Experience so far has made me try a slightly larger bridge plate on
this one, the soft cedar top is also very thin.

Sanding done, and some praise of dad

When you attempt to build in spite of the fact you live in an
appartment, it's a huge advantage to have a father that doesn't. These
hours of sanding produced a lot more noise and dust than the amount I
could cope with at home. Also my dad has kept an eye on the kids, and
he had sandpaper for me to nick.

Anyway, 18 of the 23 pieces are really good, a couple of the others
will do after a little extra sanding. Also six sides were done, in
addition to the ones I managed to thin at home.

I'm running out of excuses to postpone the building of the piccolos.
Just a soprano and a tenor first, then...