Woodcraft

tonyturley

Legend
Location
Scott Depot, WV, USA
Name
Tony
I thought I'd start a thread for those of us who enjoy woodworking and photography both, as I didn't see anything similar in the forums. Here we have more music in the making, a tenor ukulele and a baritone ukulele. Warm-up projects for my dream build, a replica of a 1940 Gibson L-00, which will have a soundboard made from old growth Red Spruce harvested right here in the mountains of my home state over 30 years ago.

Also, I'm told Brazilian coffee is quite good. I'm saddened to say the coffee cup did not contain Brazilian coffee.

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I've never been very adept at using hand planes, but I've been practicing. The hour I spent making paper thin shavings roll from this Maple/Walnut neck lamination was far more satisfying than the 5 minutes it would have taken me to true the lamination on my table saw - and I didn't need ear plugs. I still use power tools when it is more advantageous, but tonight I just wanted to hear the hiss of the #7 plane as it glided across the wood.

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I'm not the caliber of craftsman @tonyturley is, but I do enjoy woodworking. Last year I decided to remodel my apartment's bathroom. My career was in the interior design field, so I have experience in some of the construction and finishes trades, but never built a cabinet before. For my first, I think it turned out pretty good. I always liked vanities that looked like they were once a dresser. I thought about buying a dresser and converting it, but could never find one the right size. And ready-made dresser style vanities were WAY too expensive for me.

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Some more work on the baritone uke. I prefer side sound ports in my instruments, with some sort of wood trim, so I cut an oval from Black Walnut using my mini router and a set of templates. I had to lap the oval ring to the contour of the uke's upper bought, trace around it, then cut and sand a hole to get it to fit. Much easier to describe than to do. Lots of sanding, cutting, and more sanding over a two day period, but the results were worth it.

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More woodcraft fun. Some great progress lately on my tenor and baritone ukuleles. The tenor uke has the same side sound port with Black Walnut trim ring as in the post above. Just glued on the top and trimmed it flush this afternoon. Almost ready for the top bindings and neck attachment on the tenor.

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Some nice progress over the past few days. Installed the Rosewood bindings on the smaller tenor, fitted and trimmed most of the braces in the baritone soundboard, and installed the kerfed linings on the top side of the baritone body. Next is carving and fitting the tenor neck that is sitting next to the body. The tenor will likely be finished well before the baritone; it's much less complicated than the baritone.

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Finished installing and shaving the braces today, and glued the top to the body. "Closing the box", as it is called by many luthiers, is a satisfying step, as all those pieces of wood finally begin to look like a musical instrument.

Don't know why the abrupt color shift between exposures. I turned off AWB. <scratches head>

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I’ve made a lot of progress on my twin ukulele projects this week. Both necks are shaped and sanded, ready for the headstock plates and inlays. I still need to install the body bindings on the larger baritone, and the frets on the tenor. I hope to have both instruments assembled and ready to begin applying the finish by the first of the year.

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