Omega

A final buffing with some 0000 steel wool and a final coat of Tru-oil. Then rub it out with a terry cloth.

I put in the label that lists all the wonderful folks that are a part of this gift to Pav then put the strings back on....

I guess I missed blogging about doing the setup. A few days ago I strung it up and fit the nut and saddle to get the action right.

So here's a bunch of pics of the finished uke. I'll be delivering it to Stew tomorrow.

Strung out

Over the past few days the uke got a couple more coats of finish and buffed out... now its got a nice shine.

So I put strings on the uke last night. Played a few chords, made some noise, realized I don't know how to play the ukulele. Different fingerings than guitar and bass but i figured a few things out. I have some adjustments to do but we're getting close.

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.

A second chance of gettin' n'laid

Tonight I started round 2 of working on the inlay. I liked the "Hang 8" feet from before so I'm having a go at it again. And after giving Stew and Dana a peek at options for the inlay they liked the gold pearl.... which I liked too and it's what I used before. I think it works best with the koa.

So here's what we're working with... superglue, gold pearl, ebony fretboard and a print out of the feet.


My brother is really the inlay guy so I borrowed the tools. Including the jewelers saw and this board with a small air pump to blow the dust out of the way.... seems like it just blows it in my face so I was wearing a mask while working on this part.

First I glued the print out to the gold pearl then cut out the feet and toes by hand. The toes are pretty small and I lost a few so I think I cut out 11 to get 8.


Here are the cut out pieces sitting in place and the first try on the right.


The next step will be to use the dremel to route out the place for the pearl on the fretboard. To mark where to route I put the pieces in place and grabbed a can of spray paint. Holding it a ways away so as not to lose more toes I sprayed and it left a nice outline of where to work.


Tomorrow more power tools.

Second Chances

Hi Pav- So these days I guess you might be checking in to see how things are coming along. Enjoy!

The night before last I started laying out the taper of the fretboard as well as the shape for the end. A lot of staring at it and thinking "how am I going to make it the exact same as the other one?" Finally I just decided "use the force" go with the measurements on the plans.......

So tonight I plugged in the bandsaw and cut it to taper. Did some sanding to clean it up and it's looking good. When I add the binding it should come out just right.


Next I got out the sanding block and gave it a coarse sanding to get the radius on it. Tomorrow night..... we get a second chance on the inlay.

On the road again

A package arrived from Hawaii today... a new slotted ebony fretboard and some mother of pearl fretmarker dots. So I headed to the shop.

On my way out I grabbed the iron from the laundry room, soaked an old t-shirt and was on my way.

First I let the iron sit for a while to heat things up.


Then used a putty knife to pry it off.


I went in sections heating it up and gently prying at it until it came off.


Here's the old and the new.


Now I get to do the inlay over again. I've got an assortment of material to choose from.

Happy Birthday Pavi!

Due to technical problems Pavi will not be opening up his new uke at his birthday party. See my post "Houston, we have a problem." Sorry man.

Pavi as some real cool friends that asked me to build the uke, we should all be that fortunate. They will all be paryting like rock stars.

Speak To Me - The Dark Side of the Ukulele

Houston, we have a problem

Well, I've been quiet for a few days. The last work on the uke I was shaping the neck and putting final shape on the fretboard and it came out very nice. Then I started measuring out placement of the bridge, that's when our uke world changed. The 12th fret should be in the middle of the 388mm scale length which would make it 194mm, then another 194mm to the bridge. Well, when I measured the fretboard I came up with 201mm to the 12th fret.... that throws everything out of wack.

So I started measuring around things and came up with this: The fretboard came preslotted and I assumed the end of the board was the nut end of the fretboard, well it turns out it wasn't. The space between the end and the first slot is for if the builder wants to have a zero fret, so the first slot is really the end of the fretboard. I started thinking of how I could work around this but everything I came up with put something else out of wack... like the placement of the inlay, the join to the body and ultimately the placement of the bridge on the body which would affect the sound.

I popped open a barley pop and stared at the thing for an hour.

An e-mail to Bob at Pegasus Guitars & Ukuleles confirmed this, he's the guy that put together the kit and a great guy. His suggestion is to remove the fretboard and replace it. He says it should be pretty easy to heat the fretboard with an iron and remove it. He seemed to understand exactly how I made the error, remember this kit is just the materials and a drawing, not step by step instructions. Given that, he's gonna send a new board and inlay dots... what a great guy!!!!

So I took the uke in to work and showed Stew, Amie and Dana before I start taking it apart. Dana's eyes got huge when Stew pulled it out of the case. I guess it's looking pretty good.

So right now, the new fretboard is on it's way from Hawaii and I've been drinking more barley pop.

Get out the drill

I actually had time to work on the uke today but.... the steps to be done were pretty short, then I had to wait for glue to dry before I could do the next... so just a couple of things done today.

Firrst I glued on the fretboard. I had already marked up where it would go, both the center line and the outside edges. No pictures.

Next, since I kinda like the look of a bound fretboard that's the way we're going, was to glue the ebony binding. Here it is with the normal binding clamp.... blue masking tape.

Then the only thing I could think of to come up with to do was drill the holes for the tuners. Here they are.

Nuts, bolts and glue

I spent some time last night finishing up the fit of the neck to the body and getting some rough shape on the neck. I also drilled the hole for the bolt on neck. I know it's not traditional but it's the way I've started doing guitars and I know I can make it fit and not mess up the angle.

Tonight I spent a fair bit of time staring at the thing trying to decide if I should glue on the fretboard and bind it or glue the neck to the body first. Finally I decided to go with gluing the neck on... now I'm not sure why but here we go.


Tomorow I'll see if we can glue on the fretboard.

It could be a Bird House

Junia was my helper today. First thing she set the uke body up on the workbench and said, "It's could be a birdhouse." Well, ok now we have an option if it doesn't sound good.


The first thing we worked on was getting the neck to fit the body. The end where it is to fit has a slight curve so I placed a piece of sandpaper on that point and sanded the appropriate curve into the heel of the neck. Next some fine adjustments of that to make sure it wasn't at an angle but rather a straight edge along the neck onto the body.


Junia decided she needed her goggles on, I'm not sure how safe they really were once they started to fog up.


We also began working on the bridge. first cutting the blank to the correct size then shaping the ends. I have a bit more reading up on bridges before this gets finished.


And finally tonight I began shaping the heel. I'll get it rough shaped before I glue on the fretboard and bind it.