Vacation!

From left: numbers 51, 48, 50, 49 and 46. That means I have made 11 ukes so far this year, if you'd be willing to call the two toy thingies "ukes". But they do work! Scale length is 160 mm. Weight is 63 grams.

Now I'll take a break. I won't bring any project to the summer house, I've got enough to do there as it is. Of course, there's all that alder and cherry to resaw. And the reclaimed spruce log.

Weird pics or weird ukes

Gee, perspective can really play tricks. Those ukes in the back look really small compared to the piccolo in front!

And the other pics, look at the size of that watch. Hilarious. If they were as small as they seem, what good would they do? Well one might be on offer in Hollesley, I hear there are all sorts of gullible people attending this year.

Hollesley piccolos

Well I think it's safe now to say that two piccolos will come with us to Hollesley. Maybe I can make a third one if I can create some flow. But, at least the two in the pic.

New caul for glueing the back

Just a short post to show the thin mdf caul I made to distribute the pressure from the go-bars. It turned out a lot better than the other methods I've tried, with smaller patches under each bar.

Rush hour

With number 48 casually leaning next to it, number 49 gets its sides glued to the soundboard.

I am increasing the speed in the shop, but I've decided to build one at the time. Keeps my head clear.

The finishing bits may overlap, but the goal is to not start number 50 (or 52 really since the unofficial 50 and 51 are under way) until number 49 has a few coats of shellac on.

Moving forward with the next one

Can you imagine, numbers 46 and 47 are moving down the list of those who've emailed me... Ah well, they'll end up somewhere no doubt.

But this is number 48 after some rapid progress with the scraper. Fret slots are cut, and the wood where the nut goes is cut away with the Mother of all Chisels. Now I'm drilling the pilot holes because I need to hang it up. The neck'll get a couple of coats of shellac before the frets go in.

But this time I'm gonna glue the bridge before finishing the box. I'm not convinced of my ability to scrape off the shellac where the bridge goes. So I'll take my chances French polishing around the bridge instead. (All other finish options are on hold indefinitely.)

Trimming the overhang

I use my small contour plane from Lee Valley tools to remove the excess on the back and soundboard.

Strung up and ready to go

I'll be contacting the people who are on the order list, or the waiting list. (The list os a mess.) It's not uncommon that when someone finally gets the offer they decline. I think some actually have forgotten that random email they sent almost a year ago, to some hack builder at the end of nowhere.

And I'm glad I never ever ask for money prior to building.

Numbers 46 and 47

I've been getting terrific sounding advice about final polishing from Mark, and he's so willing to help me out he's sent me some rubbing compound from England.

Hopefully it'll arrive during the week, and then I'll try it on one or both of these. Otherwise they only need nut slots.

And I have absolutely no idea who'll get these. Maybe someone rich, as I'm skint.