Let's have a look inside

The assistant's came back yesterday so I had some work for them to do today. last night I got the profile of the sides trimmed up to level so it was ready to get the kerfing. The kids had a great time with the binder clips.



A few hours later the glue was dry and I trimmed up and shaped the bracing on the back so it's ready to make a box.


Before closing it all up I had to put my name inside.


And into the go-bar-deck.


While that was drying I started up with some more work on the neck. First I tapered the fretboard.


When I got that done I realized I have some descisions to make like, do I want to bind the body, do I want to bind the fretboard? What about inlay? So I pulled out my box of miscellaneous scraps and guitar parts so now I'm pondering a few things.. maple binding or rosewood? Rosewood , maple or abalone inlay?

Getting in shape

The kids are gone so I had plenty of time to work this afternoon so today I got two sessions of work in on the uke.

First was to trim the neck and tail blocks to fit. The tail just needed to be cut to length and it's flat side fit perfectly agianst the tail end of the sides. The neck block needed a bit of work. First it only needed to be 60mm long (yes we're doing this all in metric whcih doesn't make sense to me 'cause the kit wasn't from Canada) and th surface of the sides it needs to glue to is somewhat curved. I was able to approximate the line with a pencil then used the belt sander to get the rough shape. Then a pice of sand paper was placed on the spot where the neck block needed to fit and the final shaping was done.... perfect fit. This whole process maybe should have been done before the kerfing was glued in.


Next I layed out where the rest of the braces would go. Trimmed them up to fit and glued them in place. The soundboard has a 25ft raidus curve to it, to achieve this first the braces are all shaped to this curve on one side. Then the soundboard is placed into a dish that has the 25ft radius to it. My brother built a go-bar-deck for just this purpose, with it he made the 25ft radius dish. The go-bar-deck is a clamping system that uses flexible bars to apply pressure to hold pieces in place. Below you can see how it was used to glue the braces.

I took a break or a few hours, came back and the glue was pretty well dry so I was able to shape the braces to their final form. The fans are tapered from 9mm high near the sound hole to 2mm high at the end. The cross braces remain 9mm high but get somewhat triangle shaped...well a rounded triangle.

Well, now that everything is trimmed up it's about time to glue the soundboard on. First I put a piece of sandpaper in the 25ft radius dish and placed the sides in the dish with the kerfing down to create that same radius to match what had been created on the soundboard, then tested everything for fit..... looks good.


So I glued it up.

In this picture you can see that the go-bar-deck as a top to it that the flexable rods press against to create the pressure against the object being glued. This is the first time I've used the go-bar.... and it's pretty sweet.

Office Supplies

Today the assistant helped me lay out the bracing for the front. Here you can see we got started with the sound hole braces.


Tonight I made a template of the profile for the sides, traced it onto the bent sides and cut them to profile. Next the sides were fit into the mold and held in place by the clamped in neck and tail blocks. I also added in a caul to hold the waist bends in place.

Tomorrow the neck and tail blocks will be fitted and glued in place.

I also glued in the top kerfing, which is a lining that will provide surface for attaching the front of the ukulele to the sides. I found some custom clamps for this purpose back when I started making guitars, they are found at Staples or Office Depot... they are binder clips which are just big enough and provide enough pressure to hold the kerfing in place.

I'll cut you pretty boy....

Tonight we started off getting both sides to fit into the mold. All it took was trimming the ends to match up. I started out being a little freakish about getting it perfect, then I remembered we have a strip to put in to make it all look pretty. I was able to then relax and it still came out pretty good. Here they are sitting loose in the mold.

Then I decided I haven't worked on the neck in a few days so we've gotta ind something to do with that so I glued on the headstock veneer. this is a piece of koa to match the body.

Next we cut the front and back to rough shape. A little overhang is left to be trimmed after it's attached to the sides. Also I cut the sound hole.

Finally, a little gluing. There's a plate of spruce that is on the inside behind where the bridge will be for added strength. Below I'm using a scrap of wood to make sure there's consistent pressure across the 2x120x30mm piece of spruce.

Zen

Side 2 was bent tonight. I was just warming up last night with the first side, I guess it's been a few years since I bent sides, but like riding a bike it all came together tonight. The stars lined up, the right music was on the radio and I was in the zone. This one bent just like it's supposed with no touch ups...wow!
Side 2 is clamped up in the mold. Side 1 set overnight and is perfect!

Part 2 of tonight was to glue the braces on the back. 2 braces of mahogany across the widest and the narrowest parts of the body.

Yoga... bending

I got the top and back plates and sides all thicknessed. In the old days this would be done with a hand plane, nowdays it could be done with a thickness sander which would be real cool. At this point I go with the safety planer which is an attachment for the drill press with cutters that spins around shaving the wood... that doesn't sound safe but it seems to be as safe as anything with power tools.

It leaves a bit of swirling that I then sand out by hand.

Tonight was meditation time. One of the reasons I really like building guitars is side bending. That's where you become one with the wood. It's an amazing feeling of pressing the wet wood against the hot bending pipe and feel it give as you listen to the steam hiss from it. Patience and feeling the wood it what it's all about. It's also the part that seems to impress people, because you're taking a straight piece of wood and turning it into a curley-q.

I finished the first side tonight. Here are some some shots:

Bending back at the waist.

Done and clamped in the mold.


I also got started on bracing up the back where it first gets a center strip of spruce down the inside. After getting the two sanded they really look great.
Front:


Back:


I chose that one for the front because, though both plates are amazing, it was the most flashy of the two. Pavi will want to show that off.

There's mold in the shop!

We got the mold finished up. Yesterday I used a pattern bit on the router table to make the layers of the mold all match up. Then the assistant went wild with the glue. I think as much got on the work bench as actually on the mold.

I think he needed the safety goggles to keep the glue out of his eyes.

Tonight I bored a hole througheach end of the glued up pieces and ran a 10" bolt through to hold them together.

After the assistant went to sleep I realized there was one more piece to glue up so I attached the heel block to the neck.

While we're on the topic of the neck, I need to start thinking of a shape for the headstock.

Neck and plates

So after the assistant went to bed last night I was able to get some work done.... actually the cutting and gluing of the scarf was done then too. I also got the front and back of the uke ready to be joined together so today things would be ready to glue up.

I got home from work today and asked Ethan to come out to the garage, he responded, "do we get to work on the banjo... I mean ukulele?" I said, "we have work to do."

The scarf joint was plenty dry so we were ready to add the wings to make the headstock a little wider.

Ethan operated the clamps.

Then we glued up the plates that I had joined the edges last night to mate up perfectly. Ethan held while I spread glue, then he tightened up the clamps.


Here's everything drying.

Getting Started

My assistant said "Safety first" and got his goggles on.

and we were ready.

Ethan opened the package and we were on our way to working on the neck.

The neck parts

The first step was to cut the scarf that will create the angled headstock and then glue it back together at a 14 degree angle.

We found the kit

We found ukuleleworld.com that sells a kit with plans... well a box of all of the wood needed and some plans. Stew looked through it for a while and knew a little less about ukulele's than I do which isn't much. Our combined knowledge consisted of: a small stringed instrument from Hawaii played by Don Ho.

A little research on my part revealed that there is a lot of similarity in construction to that of a guitar, so now I'm a step ahead. The kit from ukuleleworld looks good, it's complete and all of the pieces are labeled. Stew made the decision to upgrade to the curly koa which has some amazing figure to it. The kits are actually put together by Bob Gleason of Pegasus Guitars and Ukuleles in Hawaii who is a builder himself (http://www.pegasusguitars.com) and he provides some tips and information on building.

Here's the kit:

A Uke for Pavi

So there's a guy named Pawel Litwinski... we're gonna call him Pavi because it's a whole lot easier. Apparently he picked up a ukulele this summer and started to play, he tries to sing but it's not really something you'd want to listen to, but still he tries. Well, Pavi has some pretty cool friends that decided to get him his own ukulele for his birthday, maybe they figured it would keep him from singing.

That's where I joined the story. One of Pavi's friends is my friend Stew. Stew called me and said, "Are you still making guitars? Would you be interested in making a ukulele?" To that I responded, "I've never made one of those, but I'm willing to learn."

With that Stew and I set out to find some plans and a bunch of wood to make a uke. This will be the story of how it all comes together.