Uke 1101 – Plane sides, bend, mold up!
April 16, 2011
I use a Wagner Safetee Planer to thickness sides.
It’s used with a drill press. First thing is to calibrate the table it’s parallel side to side and front to back.
The sides are run through and taken down to .070″.
I practiced on a scrap piece to ensure all adjustments to the table were correct, then test bent the scrap to confirm temperatures for the koa. After planing the real koa sides, I used the new bending mold.
After bending a side, it was clamped into the holding mold.
Next side bend, then inserting into mold (ends were trimmed to butt flush).
The bends were adequate if not tight enough. I have an electric bender which I can use to tighten up the bends on future ukes. It’s tricky to get both sides into the holding mold if the bends aren’t tight enough, and yes, I did crack both sides while inserting. The cracks were repaired with CA glue and won’t be visible once sanded and finished.