Frets and bridge

Yesterday morning I put shellac on the fretboard, but then we went to the cottage to do a bit of gardening. So I couldn’t crack on until tonight. I cut the frets to length and shape the ends before installing them, since I can’t really get to the when they’re in place. The drawback of an island style uke with no separate fretboard. 

The big challenge is to get the ends to line up. The treble side turned out fine this time. 



Then I measured for the bridge. Usually I have a length of roughly shaped bridge stock for these ukes but I couldn’t find it. So where could one find a suitable piece of cherry in this mess?



In the scrap bin of course. Remember these guys? The cut-offs from the neck blank, I get two of them every time. 



I planed the sides parallel then started on the cross section profile. 



Trying it out for length and position. 



And on it went. Three f-hole clamps an a piece of guitar string to stop it from sliding around. 



While it was drying I drilled the holes for the tuners. Tomorrow I’ll start applying the shellac, that means progress will slow down a bit. But fear not! I found that traveller on the bench, in fact it is visible in the background of several pics.