It's 95 degrees, do we need another coat?

So it was time for the assistants to come out and help. Both had not seen the uke in a while and were very excited to come out to the man cave and get to work.

Junia worked on the fretboard and front.


Ethan took care of the back.


After it dried for a couple of hours I gave it a rub down with steel wool then another coat.

Here's how it looked tonight before the next coat.


Nice and shiny.

That's not a violin in the case

Ok, it's October 28th and it was 95 degrees out today who needs a coat? I was able to stop at Big 5 today to pick up some Tru-Oil Gun Stock Finish. It's what I've used to finish guitars, there are a few things I like about it: it's easy to apply, just rub on a few coats with a soft cloth; it makes a good strong finish; and it can produce either a matte or glossy finish.... really the reason I like it is that it's easy.


Here's the front with the first coat.


Side and front.


The contrast of the koa and the ebony binding really comes out nice.

What's the deal?

Pav, you're probably wondering what the progress is..... I need to go to a gun shop...........

Don't fret

Now we clean up the frets.

first I used this file block to make the ends smooth with the side of the fretboard and put an angle on them to get rid of the sharp edges.


Now to make them all level. I used a blue marker to color the tops of the frets and put some self stick 320 sand paper on a level and sand lightly.


It leaves the blue at the low spots.


I sanded just till the blue disappeaed then tested it with a straight edge. Then small pieces of sandpaper with my fingers progressively from 220, 320 and up to 1000 to make them shiny and smooth. The tape is there to protect the wood.

Smack Down

Last night I finished sanding. I did the whole thing up to 1000 grit. Beyond 600 didn't seem to do much except make it shiny.

The next step is to either start the finish or put in the frets. Well, I don't have any of the finish so I started on the frets.

The first part is pretty simple, cut the fretwire to length then use a special took to cut off the tang so the wire can go right over the binding. Then carefully put it in place, tap in the ends then smack it down... ok, hammer it lightly into place.


Here they all are in place.


Here's the cool tang cutting tool and a sample of what it does. I didn't have this when I made the last guitar and went through the trouble of cutting the frets with side cutters then using a file to make it smooth. This is a whole lot easier.


I then used some flush cutters to trim the ends.

Make it smooth

So after making it nice and shiny with the superglue that gets sanded down. Not real interesting to look at so there's no pictures so far. So far I've started with 150 and sanded so the only superglue left is what filled in the pores then went over everything with 220. Now is when we go with making it glassy smooth. I've read some people say 320 is plenty fine but I'll likely go on up to 1000.

Sniffing glue

So the sanding looks pretty good, the bridge is in place, now it's time to finish.

I was talking to my brother who built a koa guitar a few years ago and he suggested using superglue as a pore filler. I though OK we'll give it a try.

The idea is to fill the tiny pores in the wood with superglue then sand the whole thing smooth again, this should eliminate any little holes from appearing in the final finish. Since I'm gonna go for a glossy look on this rather than matte I think this will be an important step.

Here's the back, along with my expired AAA card that I'll be using to spread the superglue around.


I went to the model train store and they had an assortment of superglue....from the real runny, dries in 3 seconds kind to "gap filling", dries in 5-15 seconds on to "extra thick" dries in 15-30 seconds. I used the gap filling variety.

Here's the back.


And the front after it's been applied.


I did find a few spots where there were some gaps in the binding. Since I had the superglue out I put a little ebony sanding dust in the gaps and glued it up.

Building Bridges

I sanded things up tonight working my way up from 220, 320, 600 and 1000. Basically the idea is to polish it up nice and glossy and smooth. Almost shiny.



Next lay out the placement of the bridge. 194mm from the 12th fret.


Then I put tape all around it to make sure to keep track of where all the edges go.


A little glue and clamp it down.

Back from the detour

So tonight I think I got us back to where we got detoured.

I bound the fretboard. This time I used superglue because it's a little easier to control where it's gonna go. I noticed on the last try when I glued the ebony binding on with Titebond there was some squeeze out that got into the fret slots, that was gonna be a pain to get cleaned out so the frets would fit in properly. We don't use as much superglue therefore it doesn't squeeze out and it does not take as long to cure.

I let the binding sit for about 10 minutes then got out the radius sanding block and sanded the binding down to match the rest of the board. Then cleaned it all up with 100 and 220 grit paper. A little clean up on the back of the neck and the sides and it looks like we're in business.

So, tomorrow night we pick things up and have a look at bridge placement and make sure it's shaped properly.

40 Things we share

"Fingers and toes, fingers and toes
40 things we share."

I sanded it off tonight and it cleaned up nicely. I like the way this second round turned out and I really like the dots running across the fretboard.


Here it is next to the first try.


Then I cleaned up the neck surface, made sure the center line was there. Measured 3 times, then glued fretboard 2 on.

More Toes

Now that everything is cut out it's time to make some holes for it.

Here's the router base attachment for the Dremel. It has fine adjustment to get just the right depth, as you can see the cutter bit is easily visible and it has a spot to attach an air hose that blows the dust out of the way.


Next I put all the pieces in... well I trial and error fit each foot and toe. In the process I lost a big toe and had to cut another one. Turned out the first try at it was too small for a big toe and fit one of the other spots better so I cut out another one. That makes a total of 13 toes I've cut out and only need 8.

After the pieces are in their holes I pack some ebony sanding dust around them and drip some super glue on. It makes kind of a goobered mess.


Tomorrow I'll sand it and see how it came out.