The great side bending project, redux

It was just as well as it happened last week. It was a much better procedure to bend and then glue one at the time, and the only drawback I can think of is using a bit more electricity heating up the iron six times instead of one. 

First pic shows the gadget I made, saves the fingers and reduces the risk of splintering the wood on the outside of the bend. 

I put glue on the skeleton and start applying the wee clamps at the middle. Doing one at the time also saves me from owning a thousand of these, now I get by with what seems like several hundred. 

They exert little pressure each one of them, but combined it must amount to... a few kilos. 

This is where a one piece rim really shines, it's possible to tension it with the horizontal spool clamp at the waist. Then a few of my quick clamps finish the upper bout and the heel end. 

This is the stack of five, the sixth is the one with the clamps and not in the pic. 

And a pic where I try to capture my skillz. The joint is tight all the way around. With all this practice I've gotten fast, from start to finished clamping it takes around 25 minutes. Starting when the iron is hot of course. 

Next I'll reinforce six neck blanks and maybe carve them. I'm not sure I want to glue the tops since the humidity is up in the workshop. 

The great side bending project

So after installing a new shower and seeing to the laundry and making dinner it was time to fire up the bending iron. While it was getting warm I nailed a piece of sheet steel to an angle made from two bits of wood, to assist me in bending. I will show action pics next time. 

I picked up a rib of cherry. I planed the dowels on one of the skeletons so they were flush with the plywood. I made a plan for the evening, first cherry, then walnut, then cherry again before the first maple one. Then the other maple and the last walnut. It felt right. 

But then my boy came home so after the first rib we sat down to watch Alien 3. I did make a sideways spool clamp though, for the waist, and I'm very pleased with it. Makes tensioning the one piece rib easy.

I'll continue tomorrow. With a maple one, then a walnut...

My work cut out (and sanded)

Today I bit the bullet and sat down by the thickness sander a couple of hours. All the slices I have resawn recently, and a guitar set of maple for dreadnought back and sides. Luckily that'll give me enough for two resos. 

I can't say I enjoy thickness sanding, and I'm not very good at it. I might end up with material that's too thin but still with deep scratches from the 40 grit paper. Today I took my time and changed grits from 40 to 80 to 120, and I'm very pleased with the result. 

In the pic you can see six sets with skeletons and a neck each. For photo purposes three of the neck blanks are of Spanish cedar, but I might choose to use alder for the lot of them. I haven't decided. So it'll be two of maple (with some curl in the figure), two of walnut, and two of cherry. I don't think I'll make all six in one go, that would probably break me. But maybe I'll bend and glue all sides and take it from there, continuing with two at a time. We'll see. First I, then you. 

Proper resawing

After the disaster a couple of weeks ago I brought the framesaw to the humble abode of the Argapanator. And even though these pics are a few days old and I've been to Buenos Aires since, I wanted to show you the progress towards more resonator ukuleles. 

The chunks I kerfed should yield a few sets, but I think I need to sharpen the frame saw - can't remember it being this heavy to use.

I went for thicker slices to minimize the risk, and that gives me an opportunity to let loose the scrub plane later. Wouldn't want to do it all in the sander, much too messy. 

And the walnut. I have one more cherry slice to make, then I should have wood for quite a few skeletons. 

The strap clamp was essential by the way. If it's not rock solid it will drive you mad. 

The ordeals of shipping

This was yesterday when I shipped the newly finished resos. First pic is of the boxes, standing in the kitchen. They are wrapped together and labelled for safety against cock ups. 

Then I thought, they aren't that heavy. Maybe I can take them on the bike. 

With a couple of extra straps I could carry them on my back. Last pic is the best I could get, it's my reflection as I'm sitting on my bike. All went well and they're on their way to Andy and Bernard. 

Resawing walnut

I've had a huge walnut plank for many years and I haven't gotten around to using it. But since I wasted all that cherry last time I tried to resaw I thought why not make a couple of resos in walnut. 

First pic shows the plank after I cut it off with a lovely panel saw. 

Then I sliced off two 60 mm boards to be cut to one piece sides, and cut the remainder into three boards to become tops and backs. 

The pic shows the shorter boards and a left over block of cherry I had, might as well slice it up too. I ran everything through the planer so the kerfing plane has good faces and edges to register on. 

I counted the expected yield before I started cutting. In Sweden we say, don't sell the skin before you shoot the bear, but I came to the conclusion I'd get sides for loads of ukes and tops and backs for fewer. So I gave a damn about the waste of wood and sliced the sides on the table saw. 

Since the frame saw is at home I'll use the kerfing plane and bring all the kerfed boards home with me. As you can tell I'm at the cottage and the large workshop. 

And what else is by the cottage? Why, the pizza oven of course! First time this season so a moderate fire. Hot enough for a casserole and pot bread, look. 

Dough, stick and pot. 

Pot is pre-heated and oiled, then the dough is chucked in. 

Around 40 minutes. Very good, it was.