Fretboard report

A shorter than usual post, just a pic of the slotted and tapered fretboards for Simon's reso and the raffle soprano. 

Routing for inlay

Forgot to print at the office? Don't have a printer at home? Stop whining. Need a printer, be a printer! But don't post pics of it online, that would be stupid. 

I'm doing a fretboard inlay for Simon inna old skool stylee. I glued the drafting paper on and traced the contours with a scalpel. Then I drilled corners and ends. 

Hog out the bulk with a 3 mm router bit. I put my Proxxon drill in my home made base. 

Then finer details and closer to the scribed lines with a 2 mm bit...

... before final detailing with a 1 mm bit. It has less a will of its own, something to do with diameter dependent leverage I suspect, but it can go off at a tangent. I keep a firm grip on the base, even foresaking the need of holding the hose from the shopvac. 

And it's almost done. NOWIS. Looking good. Now is, indeed, the time for...

... refining the cavities with chisels and patience. 

A pressing matter

I'm at the cottage, where the unfinished reso skeletons are. And this time I brought dowels, and they're sharpened at the ends to facilitate insertion. 

First I tap them into the top half. 

Then I place the bottom half on the dowels and it doesn't snap in place. 

Some persuasion with a child's hammer gets it there. 

The neck block is placed and the whole assembly is shoved into the book press...

... which is superior to any other conceivable clamping method. The dowels are exactly 50 mm, the neck block 26 mm and a spacer of 18 mm is placed under the soundwell, and all things put together gives a finished skeleton of 50 mm. 

So today gave me two skeletons (I have a set of cone and coverplate at home I think, but it's time to buy more).

I also glued on the back on Simon's uke. I brought it just to use the press and it was worth carrying it on the bus since the clamping is so easy this way.