July 5, 2012
The top and back have been joined, and the rosette installed.
Sides have been bent (yes, koa burns easily), and installed into the holder.
Today, I expect to receive more graphite rods which will be inserted into the neck.
I also tackled routing out the channel for the shell for the headstock for Guitar 1202. The yellow tempera was painted on to show the scoring of the edge for an easy visual of how far to rout out.
July 3, 2012
Did a little neck work today on Uke 1201. I used the table saw to cut the spanish heel slots and to nibble away at the heel profile.
Also for both 1202 and 1203, I installed the rosettes. The OM has a teflon strip which is removed before pressing in the abalam. The parlor has a pre-manufactured herringbone.
The abalam is pressed into the gap left by the teflon then flooded with CA glue. The shell shown below will be added to the headstock to mirror what’s on the fretboard.
Before routing out the channels for the headstock shell, the plate has been glued to the headstock.
May 30, 2011
After installing the rosette and sanding it down flush, the soundhole has been opened.
May 29, 2011
Planed the top plates down to .115″, jointed, then joined. Routed for the rosette, then proceeded to glue it in upside down. Really? Pulled it out quickly, reversed it, and pushed it back in right side up. Everything looks a bit wonky from all the glue about, but experience shows that scraping and sanding cleans it all up beautifully.
April 17, 2011
I always wanted to celebrate Dorky Day. So today, I am. See The Fan Man for more background.
Anyway, aside from Dorky Day, today was work on the uke day. The mold for holding the sides is only that: a holder of the sides until ready to mount to the top and neck. I’m trying a little experiment, which may or may not prove worthwhile. Since I experienced a bit of cracking of the sides when I was inserting into the mold, I wanted to ensure that further cracking wouldn’t occur. I glued in the heel block and a “plug” on the neck end to hold the sides together as I pulled them from the mold to transfer to the workboard. The plug on the neck side is smaller than the width of stock I’ll need to remove to fit into the spanish heel slots.
You can see the top of the plug insert sticking up between the clamps. This is glued to the sides. When I am ready to install the sides to the neck and top, I can use this plug as the guide for how much stock to remove before inserting into the spanish heel slots. And, it will hold the sides in place as I remove them from the mold.
This holds true for the butt end as well. In addition to gluing in the heel block, I added a plug (or patch) to the sides not covered by the heel block.
To kill idle dry time, I installed the rosette for around the soundhole. This is an example of using teflon strips which are removed after the glued purfling dries, then inserting abalam and flooding with CA glue.
I further tapered and shaped the neck in preparation for installing to the top, and added ears to the headstock to accomodate whatever shape I decide to put it in.
