Woodcraft

Start of a new ukulele project, even though my current project isn't quite finished. Too many ideas and too much wood to use to work on one at a time.

Sycamore sides.jpg
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baritone mold.jpg
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Back to the kiku project. A glamour pic while testing the neck fit. I still have a bit of flossing to do to get the neck alignment where I want. Not far now.

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Beautiful rose inlay on the neck, Tony.
As to strings: For the last two decades I've only been playing with coated strings. First you could only get them fro Elexier, now there are meny brands that offer them. Even after several months you still have a good overall sound. And the "feel" especially of Martin's coated strings is as natural as the uncoated ones.
 
Layout work on the baritone neck. This instrument, my 12th ukulele, is going to be my first Spanish Heel neck. I've avoided this method of construction due to its difficulty . . . or at least my perception of its difficulty. The wood is 100+ year old reclaimed American Chestnut from right here in my home state. Inspired by this project: The Wormy American Chestnut Ukulele | Christopher Trietsch | Guitar Maker

Kasha neck layout.jpg
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For my most current ukulele project I decided to make a "kit" to organize what I need to begin construction. All of these woods were harvested here in my home state except the salvaged old growth Redwood, which came from California. The Osage Orange fretboard and bridge will deepen to rich light brown with exposure to UV light.

Sycamore tenor kit.jpg
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Using a table saw requires a great deal of preparation and care, especially if cutting a piece of wood that requires the blade to be exposed several inches above the table. Every piece of gear shown protects my hands, eyes, ears, or breathing passages. This may be the most dangerous machine in any wood shop. If I'm sick or haven't slept well, this machine stays in storage.

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A trio of ukulele necks under construction, with heel slots and peghead angles cut. Waiting for arrival of a new, finer cut band saw blade before cutting the heel shape and neck taper. Front-back: 100+ year old wormy American Chestnut, Black Walnut with a Cherry core, and Cherry with a Black Walnut core.

uke necks.jpg
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Many years ago my wife and I undertook a major remodeling of our house, doing much of the work ourselves. I purchased a miter saw and a folding portable stand for the hardwood flooring I was installing all over the house. Since that project ended, neither the miter saw nor the stand has received much use. I figured it was time for the stand to earn its keep and stop taking up space and gathering dust in the garage.

new table.jpg
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Quite right Tony, I keep stuff wayyyyy longer than I should, just in case. I then end up giving it away or taking to the recycle tip. If I had a clear out of all the stuff I still have I could reclaim 50% of my cellar space. I should take my own advice sometimes.
 
Quite right Tony, I keep stuff wayyyyy longer than I should, just in case. I then end up giving it away or taking to the recycle tip. If I had a clear out of all the stuff I still have I could reclaim 50% of my cellar space. I should take my own advice sometimes.
Indeed Harry. I keep threatening that I'm going to get rid of a significant amount of stuff, and even spend a few hours here and there filling refuse bins, but then I start thinking too much about the scope of the task, and I guess I just get overwhelmed.

Here's the repurposed stand with a set of plywood blanks I cut yesterday afternoon for a new tenor ukulele mold. All of my previous tenor ukes have been built on an open form, which is a lot easier to make, but also more difficult to keep the instrument sides perfectly square.

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I spent today's shop time making a batch of reverse kerf ukulele size linings from a couple of Yellow Poplar planks. In the past I've used Mahogany or Spanish Cedar for this task, but I'm using 100% locally grown woods on one of my instruments, hence the Poplar. The larger lining piece in images 1 & 3 is guitar size, made from Basswood.

linings1.jpg
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linings2.jpg
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linings3.jpg
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The weather was so mild here today, I threw open the garage and spent the entire day working on ukulele projects (our garage is usually sweltering this time of the year). I used the dust collector as much as I could, but I've never found a good way to capture the output from the router table. First pic shows stack cutting the blanks for a tenor ukulele mold on my 66 year old Shopsmith. Last image shows the completed tenor uke mold and spreader bars, as well as a rough baritone ukulele neck cut from 100+ year old wormy American Chestnut. I plan to use the nail stains as a feature in the neck. The off-cut from the baritone neck is large enough to use for a future tenor ukulele neck.

Shopsmith uke.jpg
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uke mold pieces.jpg
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new uke mold.jpg
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Lots of cutting and sanding today. The baritone peghead overlay is from quartersawn Sycamore, and the logo that will be embedded is from a piece of Black Walnut scrap. The dark split saddle Ebony bridge is for the kiku project. The two bridges to the right are for a tenor ukulele and Kasha baritone ukulele, both from Osage Orange. The fretboard is also Osage Orange, but it’s had several months to oxidize and darken from UV exposure, and the bridges were freshly sanded today. Osage Orange eventually darkens to a rich golden brown. Starting today, all 3 O.O. pieces are under an indoor Full Spectrum Grow Bulb to help speed up their change. The bone saddles in the bridges still need to be cut down; this was just to see how well they fit the saddle slots.

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Back to the garage on a rainy day. I did manage to get in a bike ride and cut our grass before the rain began. It is quite nice working in the garage with the rain splatting on the pavement outside. Here are the results of jointing and thickness sanding a nice set of bees wing Black Cherry. This body will be the size of a baritone ukulele, with the same 17" scale as a tenor ukulele and neck join at the 12th fret. The neck is Black Walnut with a Cherry core. Fretboard will be a piece of Rosewood I've had bouncing around the shop. I also think this will be a 6-string, with a 48mm nut and tuned E2-E4.

rainy day woodworking.jpg
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