Bridge clamped

Andy's small, minimalistic and extremely stylish bridge is clamped
with my small, minimalistic and extremely stylish bridge clamps.
They're from New York, even.

The uke is a few intense hours (and a couple of days worth of drying
time) from being done!

Wood for a new tenor

Alli's tenor will be made from alder. The board I cut up this weekend
is planed, the halves for the back and the soundboard are joined and
then planed some more. They were slightly uneven from resawing, and I
don't want to push my thickness sander to far over the limit.

Tonight I also found some more cherry in the shop, some soundboard
halves I forgot about. At least one more piccolo of cherry to
accompany the ones I prepared alder for.

And to those of you who are waiting: patience my friends. Things
happen all the time even if everything doesn't make it to the blog.

Wood resawn, mould done

So out of a board of alder I got these sides, tops and backs. And a
few neck blanks for piccolos. Alli's tenor neck has been laminated and
roughly shaped. It still has the length to enable a spanish heel but I
might cut it and bolt it. My new mould for the piccolo bodies is
almost done, just need to sand the inside a bit with... you guessed it
- the MRSG.

I really should have gotten a new blade for the bandsaw though. The
blade I used now drifted and I wasted a lot of wood. And the pieces I
got need a whole lot of tough love in the thickness sander. I mean, a
lot.

Jig upgrades

I broke my piccolo mould since I got into a bad habit of using it
bending the sides. So I make a new sturdier one. Next to it is a new
template for tenor necks. It is made with a spanish heel in mind, but
since my bolt-ons have gotten so good I consider making the next tenor
that way.

After lunch I'll resaw wood for Alli's tenor. I'm leaning towards
alder, but there is some cherry between me and the saw...

The MRSG in use

And here's a very suave young fellow using the block. Li took the pic.

I feel that with this simple sanding block my troubles are, if not
entirely gone, at least greatly reduced. And customers will have the
added satisfaction of knowing every uke was between my legs for an
hour during making.

Multi-radii sanding gizmo

I threw it together after dinner today. It is for sanding those pesky
sides at the waist. Paper is clamped by a piece of scrap with a
slightly convex surface towards the block. This gives pressure in its'
entire length.