Tenor lined, Grant's uke sanded

Just a progress pic.

Fretboard and stuff

Good evening! I cut the slots and put the frets in tonight. In the pic the pao ferro fretboard just rests on the neck, and a rosewood bridge blank plays the part of mock up bridge. The pao ferro bridge blank was still too big to resemble a bridge.

No markers on this one, except for side dots. They'll be my regular 1.6 mm white dots.

Ronald's tenor

Too late in the evening to drumsand Grant's fretboard, so I bent the sides for Ronald's eight string tenor. These are the first sides built to my new mold. I braced the top yesterday and today I remembered Chuck Moore's advice: make the sides before you make the top and back. And, they didn't crack. Bending iron was a lot hotter than usual today (I'm so impatient I always rush things otherwise), and the bending process was fast, smooth and turned out perfect.

Grant's fretboard will be sanded to thickness during the week, I might plane it down a bit first.

Stack of skeletons

It came to me that I could sell these as innards for uvver peeps' reso projects. But can I be arsed? Can I hell.

All six turned out perfect. I was aiming at five good'uns so I'm well chuffed. But I'm leaving them at the cottage so I can get Grant's soprano and Ronald's tenor ready.

But I could order the hardware. Hm. Must check my Paypal account.

Grant, are you still there..?

Grant, I thought, now there's a bloke in need of some good news. So here you are sir, maple binding is on and needs only some touch-ups.

And maybe a juniper fretboard? Hmm?

First skeleton assembled

I love it when things work out (even if some brute force was involved along with a hammer). I drilled for dowels around the edge, and managed to get the two halves at the right distance.

Next time I'll use a pencil sharpener on the ends, it'll make it easier to press down the second half. And some distance blocks cut to exact height will also be good.

The one standing up is seen from its back, and the well for the cone needs a big cut-out from its bottom. But I have a bus to catch. And at home there are two acoustics waiting for some attention. So I'll leave this pile here at the cottage, hopefully I'll get here next weekend.

A luthier's lunch

Pete Howlett phrased it nicely, about our task being to "combine 22 pieces of wood and make them sing".

But let me tell you, making a sandwich this good is quite a feat as well!

Reso parts routed

With the templates I prepared, cutting these parts was easy. All are now shaped to their outer contour, and these two are the first ones with the inner hole pattern done.

I check the top one against the cone from my prototype, but it is a 5 7/8 cone, and this batch will get the 6 inch size.

Progress. Gotta love it.

Resonator production 2.0

Here are the router templates I'm making for a quicker and more precise production of parts.

Hopefully I can get stuff done this weekend.