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. 

Brief report, big news

Well they're strung up and the cones are settling. It's important to start with a high action and then let it sink as the parts get used to each other. 

The pic shows one of them being darker but that is a trick of the light. I promised a friend he could have a go before I ship them, but after that I'll unleash them for what is to be the Wörld's Löudest uke group - one Argapa resonator is already there waiting for these two. 

And a pic of the stringholder you saw in the latest post. 

I hope I get the time to make a wee vid of them, but the week is insane with all end of term concerts, parents' meetings at school and loads of other stuff. 

Let's finish this..!

Tonight I haven't got the best of pics, or the complete story of a finished step. The shite pics are as they are because the phone was connected to the workbench-of-rock amp with a short cord, so I couldn't really wield it. And the step is unfinished because it took longer than I thought it would. But I have good news and that's why I blog anyway. 

I think I can finish the two resos this week. Hear that, Andy and Bernard? Maybe I should think of a price soon. 

I made the stepped holes for the tuners but put those on hold because I need to make stringholders first. It feels more right. So I dug out a bridge sized piece of ipe, a wood used for outdoor furniture and other stuff. I got it as a sample to the office. 

I marked a cut line at an angle since I need a certain width to cover the holes in the cover plate. After I ripped it on my table saw I used a no.1 plane and a milled tooth file to shape the upper sides. 

A small spokeshave with a rounded sole made the bottoms concave. Ipe is quite difficult to work but with sharp tools it's doable. 

Fine tuning the fit with sandpaper on the cover plate. 

And here's where we're at. As I told you they're not done, I must drill holes for the strings and secure the blocks with screws from the underside. And the more observant among you are right - it is a brand new shape. I could settle for one shape and stay with that but as long as the holes are at the correct distance and angles any shape works. 

Working with string holders also brings out the glue gun, a tool otherwise far away from all things related to lutherie. 

Finishing

I'm 600 kilometers north of Stockholm, to help my brother in law clear out a house. But I brought the mobile finishing workshop, an Argapa exclusive. 

Where it is? In the antique case of course. 

I bought the case to use it as a case for two ukes but haven't got around to furnishing the inside yet. For this however it was perfect. I brought scrapers, sanding pads, shellacing supplies and my brush. 

Then I coaxed a very handsome young man into applying the first coats of shellac. 

Over the course of yesterday I (he) applied several coats, levelling them between with scrapers and steel wool. And then they hung to dry. Maybe even to catch some tan, cherry will do that. 

And today I switched to the muneca and padded on a couple of coats. No oil yet but I think I will have to use that soon. And now they hang inside the house. 

Backs and faceplates

Just a quickie to tell Andy and Bernard about tonight's progress. 

Building two at the same time is a good thing when it comes to resos, each one is the perfect glueing caul for the other. 

And what of that thin strip of maple I bent in the kitchen, with the beer opener? Well it was for Bernard's faceplate. Like so, a wee stylized uke innit. 

And for Andy I went with straight lines so no bending there. 

Fitting the necks

I have posted before about how I fit the bolt on necks on my ukes. But I haven't posted about fitting these necks to these ukes, so here goes. I will give away all my tricks and secrets, and in the process I'll probably show some terrible mistake I'm not even aware is inherent in my process. But hey, this isn't an instructable, it's my diary. 

First I hollow out the face of the heel a bit so it'll be possible to get it nice and tight against the body. The recess is about a mm but will be reduced during sanding. 

On all my models the bodies are quite flat at the neck joint. And on the resos I make sure it's flat and 90 degrees to the top since the neck angle is crucial because of the metal parts. I went at it with my Veritas apron plane, a very nice block plane for smaller tasks. 

The neck I drag on the sandpaper board of thick aluminium. I can't drag it back and forth, only forth. Going in two directions causes the neck to rock and that's not good.*

I check the angles with squares and what's it called, a protactor square. 

I shoot for an angle of 1.5 degrees, a number I have reached through trial and near-errors. 

I wrote before about how great it is to work with one piece tops, and even one piece rims. No pesky centre lines to worry about. But checking the alignment of the neck, well there's a step where a centre line does come in handy. So a temporary line is found and drawn with a centre finding rule, a favourite measuring tool. 

And now the scary part - drilling for the screw and the barrel nut. The jig should make it easy to succeed and nigh impossible to fail, but after carving the heel to a more delicate shape than usual I was afraid of simply bursting through the wood. 

The body gets a corresponding hole for the screw. (This is not scary.)

Dry fitting and final fitting turned out be the same process tonight, on both ukes even. I use that flexible wee shaft that's been kicking around since I was a kid, I've never had use for it before I started making resos. 

One thing I did before this final fitting was I gave the heel a quick rub with some sandpaper. These are not zero sanding ukes but this was the first sanding of the necks. And I regretted it at once - I hate the dust it makes. Flies around for ages and gets in my nose. 

And here they are, glued, screwed, scraped and laid to rest. I could accept someone doing that to me, bar the scraping. 

* Later, however, the neck should indeed rock like a severly rocking thing. Along with the rest of the uke and its owner. 

Necks and rock'n'roll

Well what of those necks? Andy and Bernard, your necks are carved. Sorry for not being quicker about it but further down you'll see one of the reasons. 

My workbench needed some love. The end vise has been through some cross cutting before I bought it and was a bit shot. So I chiseled out a recess and put a piece of maple in. Record breaking shavings.

And while I was at it I strengthened the legs and the undercarriage. I added a massive plywood board to the back to address some racking, but the board was also the perfect surface to mount a couple of speakers. Video below if all things work. 

Finish, necks and inlay

After a very quick excursion to Argentina I'm back, and yesterday I continued in the workshop. The walnut soprano and the cherry piccolo are almost done, the French polishing process is well under way. 

On to the resos. I'll get to carve the necks soon, the blanks are prepared and the cut lines are laid out for sawing. 

But what is this? It's the world's smallest bending iron. To bend a strip of maple roughly 1x3 mm I soaked it and used a bottle opener to get the radii small enough. 

I'll show you why I'm doing this in a bit, it's for Bernard's resonator. 

A great leap revealed!

I'm quite proud to announce that Argapa as a brand and phenomenon finally joined the last century. All of you who follow this blog know the stress and the perils I was subject to when I was making the plywood skeletons for my resonator ukes. (In case you've missed that just trawl through the posts labelled "resonator batch production", a label that will be retired soon.)

So I made a computer model of the skeletons in Rhinoceros and had a wonderful carpenter company, Lövsättra Snickerier, take a look at it. They managed to translate the file into the language their humungous cnc router speaks, so they can now make skeletons for me faster, safer and with a better and much more consistent result. Worth the money for sure. 

The top half is made from a single piece of thicker plywood. Remember, I had to route, laminate, route, laminate, route and cut the hole. In the pic above you see the dowels I need for assembly. 8 mm in diameter and exactly 50 mm long. Exactly 50 mm? How I did that? Funny you should ask, I did document the proceedings. 

A small cross cut sled for the miniature table saw where the dowel fit, and a small clamp as a length gauge. Then they needed a chamfer at each end and they won't fit an ordinary pencil sharpener...

Good thing I have a multi diameter sharpener that I bought in a gift shop at the museum. 

Now I'm at the cottage for easter, so in the big workshop I cut some plywood for neck blocks. 

And then it's time to assemble the first of the next generation Argapa reso skeletons! Let's whip out ye olde 20 kilo book press. In the background you can see the banjo uke I bought from Phil Doleman, a gentleman I'm proud to call my friend. Next to it is the cheap gas station set of tools I used to set it up. A labour of love, and violence. 

First I set all the dowels into the top half, making sure they were flush to the top. Then it's time to clamp!

And it's drying as I type this. First one of eight, that's as many as I have the metal parts for. All, or at least seven, are spoken for. 

Soprano fretboarded and resos topped

Well verbs schmerbs - what I mean is the fretboard is slotted, tapered, marked, fretted and glued to the neck. This will be a very clean and lovely sounding soprano. Not ding free, the cedar stopped me from going there, but symmetrical and well proportioned. 

Here it is, with my Slayer set list in the background. 

But what is this? CBU:s? No, it's the cherry resos!

I remembered all the steps, and the order in which to make them. Turns out it makes for quite a list. 

- cut the big hole

- align the skeleton with the hole

- draw a line around the skeleton, and in the openings for the soundholes

- measure and find the centre of the openings

- drill pilot hole at that centre and cut the soundholes

- sand the edges of the soundholes with the abrasive funnel (impossible to do after the mesh goes in)

- cut the mesh, place it with magnets and glue it with epoxy (leave to dry)

- align the skeleton in the pencil line and check that the edge of the big hole is correctly aligned

- glue small cleats on with super glue, making sure no glue touches the sides on the skeleton

- put titebond glue on the face of the skeleton

- place inside the cleats and clamp it. 

I clamped the two of them together with a mouse mat between them. Here's a shot of the underside. 

I'll attempt to fret the piccolo this weekend, I should finish the acoustics before making the necks for the resos. But neck carving is so much fun. 

Scattered mind, scattered progress

I'll come clean right away - I've been dabbling with electronics. I bought a kit for making a fuzz pedal but since I am such a foolish snob I bought a much smaller box than was recommended. The first one was way too small so a slightly larger is on the bench now. 

But sorry, you're here to see your ukes being built!

Using my trusty old perspex jig I made all the fret slots in the piccolo's neck. There's no separate fretboard and the jig is necessary for making the slots perpendicular to the centre line. 

The slot at the nut end makes the end of a shelf for the nut. Look at those measly shavings! I'm ashamed and vow that I will sharpen all my chisels before the next full moon. 

A few wash coats of shellac and the neck is ready for the frets. I won't do that tonight though, I need to be more alert and focused. 

But trimming off the excess material on the reso sides, anyone could do that anytime. Block plane and paring chisel and no dust at all. Sometimes I send the bodies through the thickness sander but that won't be necessary this time. Because unlike the chisel of shame above, the paring chisel is sharp. 

And tomorrow morning I'll slot a fretboard for the cedar / walnut soprano. I think I'll use this one if only I can remember what wood it is. This uke is going to the US so I should know and list all wood species to avoid any trouble at the border. Maybe I'll use a board of English laburnum, because I know where that's from. 

Back braces, backs and reso sides

After a certain amount of fiddling, the neck went onto the walnut / cedar soprano. This might be the last softwood top I make in a while, they're so darn sensitive. After scraping and sanding most blemishes out it now has a marvellous tap tone, so I'll go out in style. 

In the pic the back braces are set into the piccolo as well. 

And then the back on the piccolo is glued on, on the workboard. 

I put in two back braces on the soprano before setting the neck, then the third yesterday. So now, after a quick spin in the radius dish, the back gets prepped. I remove the reinforcing cross grain strip (it's an off-cut from the top) at the spots where the braces are. 

And now it's clamped down. While I did this the hot pipe was warming up...

... and I bent sides for two resonator sopranos. The wood is cherry which is quite easy to bend, but today it went so much better than usual. The very simple reason: the hot pipe (or bending iron) was hotter. Often I start too early because I'm an impatient jerk. Never again!