# Summer Uke Build



## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Getting Ready for Summer (Concert) Uke Build*

I have been playing guitar for nearly 30 years and have been woodworking for about 16 years. For a long time, I have wanted to combine these two hobbies by building a guitar or two. About 18 months ago, I decided to commit to the idea, but realized I was such a hack woodworker, that I really needed to better understand what I was doing before trying to do something that requires the kind of precision a guitar build demands.

To that end, I gave up power tools (except for a band saw and drill press) and have assembled and restored old hand tools since then and have been fine-tuning my skills using hand tools in preparation for building a guitar or two. This summer I have decided to build a Uke as a practice build to learn the general process of instrument building but on something with relatively inexpensive materials. Also I knew that I would always keep my first guitar, so I wanted it to be something I am proud of. I thought making my mistakes on a Uke would be a better way to go. Based on the wood I have and the availability of materials for a smallish uke, I decided to go with a Concert size which is the 2nd smallest size (smallest being Soprano).

I picked up a nice piece of 3/4 quarter sawn Padauk at Rockler several months ago and resawed it into 4 pieces. This was my first attempt at resawing, I have a Rikon 10-325 bandsaw with a 1/2" woodslicer on it. I practiced on a piece of cedar first, then tried my luck with the Padauk. I got 3 good pieces and one bad one (my last pass drifted off path and made a mess of the 4th board.



















I stickered these and have left them out in the garage for the last few months. I have spent a fair amount of time since then researching the build and picking up the bits and pieces that can't be found locally (like tuning pegs, fret wire, etc). I got plans, tuning pegs, fret wire, saddle and nut blanks and a few other odds and ends from Hana lima 'la. They were terrific to deal with. I called them before trying to purchase on line and asked some questions. They were very patient and answered all my questions. They even included an extra set of uke plans at no charge as one of my questions had to do with the sides being too shallow for the uke I wanted to build, so they sent me plans for the Soprano uke as well as the Concert.

I hadn't planned to work on this further this summer, as it is way too hot to be out in the shop here in Phoenix in the summer. But a few weeks ago I kind of accidentally bid too much on a Side Bending Iron on eBay and wound up winning the auction for better or worse. So with that, I decided to forge ahead with the uke build this summer and be ready to start on a guitar when the weather gets better this fall.

Since I messed up my 4th board on the resaw, I had planned to have a book-matched back, then one board for each side. With the messed up 4th board, it wasn't salvagable for anything for the uke. So I'm keeping the bookmatched back using 2 pieces and the third useable piece is being split length-wise to use as the sides.

The sides of the uke should be about 2 5/8" deep, but the board is just shy of 5" wide. So by splitting in half, I'm left with just under 2 1/2" of depth. I decided to go with a tapered body depth of 2 3/4" at the heel and 2 1/4 at the neck block. I split the board accordingly so I have a bit of depth where it needs to be but the upper bout will be a little shallower than I'd probably like. The plans I have from Hana Lima 'La show an arched profile side where it is tallest at the waist and is shallower at the heel and neck. This really wasn't an option for the wood I have on-hand, and I'm kind of being stubborn about it, so this is the plan I'm sticking with.

I've also been busy making a template and a form for the Concert Uke. I made the template out of some clear plastic I picked up at a yard sale a year or so ago. The form was made from some baltic birch I had laying around. It is 2 sheets of 3/4" baltic birch plywood, glued together. I used a 1/4" blade on the band saw to rough out the form, then used a spindle sander attachment to the drill press to fine tune the edges to the correct profile.

I am making the top of the uke out of some cedar fencing. I picked some nice straight-grained, relatively quartered planks from the big box store and found a few nice, clean areas with no knots, etc. Cut out a nice piece of that and resawed it for the top.

I had another piece of cedar (the practice resaw board mentioned before) that I planed (by hand) to about 0.10" and took a stab at bending my first uke side. It turned out fairly well.



















I wasn't terribly focused on doing it right, more just getting the feel for what it was like to bend wood. I soaked it in water for about 15 minutes while the iron heated up. I found the last (3rd) bend was the easiest. In part due to it being the most water saturated area of the board and also the fact that I'd bent two other bends prior.

Today I made the cut to the side board (to create the two sides out of the single board). I lined them up side-by-side and planed the edges flush with each other so they are identical in their dimensions front to back, etc. I planed them down to about 0.08" and plan to bend them today or tomorrow and hope I don't break them.

I haven't figured out what I'm doing for neck wood, bridge or fingerboard yet.


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## summerfi (Oct 12, 2013)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Getting Ready for Summer (Concert) Uke Build*
> 
> I have been playing guitar for nearly 30 years and have been woodworking for about 16 years. For a long time, I have wanted to combine these two hobbies by building a guitar or two. About 18 months ago, I decided to commit to the idea, but realized I was such a hack woodworker, that I really needed to better understand what I was doing before trying to do something that requires the kind of precision a guitar build demands.
> 
> ...


Matt, it looks like you're off to a great start! I can't wait to see the finished instrument. I would suggest soaking the padouk sides a good long while (maybe overnight) since they are likely harder and more brittle than the cedar. Keep up the good work!


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Getting Ready for Summer (Concert) Uke Build*
> 
> I have been playing guitar for nearly 30 years and have been woodworking for about 16 years. For a long time, I have wanted to combine these two hobbies by building a guitar or two. About 18 months ago, I decided to commit to the idea, but realized I was such a hack woodworker, that I really needed to better understand what I was doing before trying to do something that requires the kind of precision a guitar build demands.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the input, Bob! I learned that the hard way earlier today. I soaked them for about 30 minutes and they barely budged (one started to tear out a little, fortunately on the waist where the stress is on the inside and will be out of sight). I was going to let them dry overnight and try to sand them thinner, but they're already partially shaped, so will take your advice and throw them back in the water. It's a billion degrees in the garage right now, so I'm hoping the heat will nudge it along a little bit too.


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## scatruler (Nov 25, 2016)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Getting Ready for Summer (Concert) Uke Build*
> 
> I have been playing guitar for nearly 30 years and have been woodworking for about 16 years. For a long time, I have wanted to combine these two hobbies by building a guitar or two. About 18 months ago, I decided to commit to the idea, but realized I was such a hack woodworker, that I really needed to better understand what I was doing before trying to do something that requires the kind of precision a guitar build demands.
> 
> ...


hey Matt!

We have similar backgrounds - long time musician and woodworker and set out on a mission to merge the two. I also thought about starting with a uke. I ended up getting plans and a template off Stew Mac for an OM body guitar. My current plan is to laminate the sides and use domestic woods to keep the costs down until I get some experience.

And i'm currently just upgrading my shop for such a complicated project with plans to start in the spring when the garage warms up.

Anywho, looking forward to reading the rest of your uke posts!

Steve


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Bending the Sides*

I took the advice of Bob from his comment on my previous post and soaked the sides overnight. They were still too stiff to bend without tearing out and they did, in fact, tear out some more. So I smashed them between a couple of pieces of flat shelving I had laying around and let them dry that way overnight to get them flat so I could plane them a bit thinner.

The next day I did plane them thinner and sanded and tried to get as much of the tear-out planed/sanded out to hopefully restore a little integrity to the area that will get the waist bend. Then I put the sides back into the water with the intent of giving them another go the next day. But life got in the way and I didn't get around to it until the day after and it was 114 degrees in my shop. Which was uncomfortable.

They still were too stiff so I worked as best I could trying hard to prevent more tear-out. I failed at that spectacularly, and ultimately wound up forcing the sides into the mold and clamped the sides of the uke between the mold itself and the waste from the mold, that I haven't yet thrown away for exactly this kind of contingency.










By this point the sides were scorched, torn, cracked and generally looked more like a used paper-towel than uke sides. But I forged ahead using C-Clamps and glue to try to smash the tears/cracks back together and hope to salvage the sides. If not, I'll go get some quarter-sawn oak at the lumber yard and just use that. The bulk of my time has been spent in prep rather than on dealing with the construction, so not a huge loss if I have to scrap these sides and go with something easier to bend. Again, the point of this build was to get these mistakes and learn these lessons before undergoing a guitar build. So as frustrating as this process has been, I have learned from it and will take these lessons with me going forward.

On the upside, I did let the sides sit all week (I did the bending/breaking on Sunday) and was expecting a lot of spring-back on the sides when I take them out of the molds. I unclamped everything today and the sides stayed put inside the mold with little or no spring-back. However some of this could be just from friction having them jammed in there so tightly and part of it is due to some glue spillage on the repairs I did that has glued bits of the sides to the mold.

I jointed/joined the top today. Glue is drying on that. I attempted to joint the back, but it kept shifting while I was planing the sides and so I decided it best to do it another day.

I didn't take any photos of today's work, so will update with photos of the scorched and gnarly sides as well as the top in the next post (along with whatever else I get done between now and then).


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## Texcaster (Oct 26, 2013)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Bending the Sides*
> 
> I took the advice of Bob from his comment on my previous post and soaked the sides overnight. They were still too stiff to bend without tearing out and they did, in fact, tear out some more. So I smashed them between a couple of pieces of flat shelving I had laying around and let them dry that way overnight to get them flat so I could plane them a bit thinner.
> 
> ...


Not only should all luthiery be quartersawn, it also can't have any runout. Bends will crack with/ at runout. Some timber, soaked overnight will dry with rippled grain. I soak 5 min. prior to bending and have a spray bottle ready to mist the bend as soon as it looks dry.

The more runout a top or back has, the more night and day a book match appears.

The Robbie O'Brian tips du jour are very good.

http://www.obrienguitars.com/luthier-tips-du-jour-videos/


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Bending the Sides*
> 
> I took the advice of Bob from his comment on my previous post and soaked the sides overnight. They were still too stiff to bend without tearing out and they did, in fact, tear out some more. So I smashed them between a couple of pieces of flat shelving I had laying around and let them dry that way overnight to get them flat so I could plane them a bit thinner.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the input, Bill. I kept a spray bottle handy too. I think the Padauk was a poor choice for a first try. I'll check out the link too, looks like good stuff.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Thicknessing, Jointing and Joining the Top*

I'm very late with posting this. It was 114 degrees in the shop, so didn't spend much time taking photos. This all took place on Father's Day 2016.

For the top, I picked up a couple of 6' planks of cedar fencing from the Orange Store. No idea what kind of cedar, but the wood was cheap enough and I managed to find two pieces that were straight grained and had good stretches that were clean and knot-free. They've been sitting in the garage for several months, so they are nice and dry. I picked out the cleanest section of about 15" long that I could find and cut that area out of one of these fencing boards. Then resawed it into two, bookmatched pieces.

These pieces I thicknessed with hand planes and joined by hinging them with tape.

I didn't do a great job of thicknessing them evenly. Areas along the edges are much thinner than the areas nearer the middle. My intent is to center the template a bit to avoid these thinner areas. Also, my understanding is that the edges should be slightly thinner than the middle anyway, so I've chosen not to worry about it too much.

I jointed the edges using a Rogers Miter Planer that I picked up at an auction. It did a great job. I attempted to joint the back pieces as well, but had less success. The pieces kept slipping as I ran the plane across the edges. I'll need a better system for gripping the work to the miter planer before getting the back pieces jointed.



















I sanded some areas where there was a bit of tear-out from planing and generally cleaned the top up a bit.

Below is a view of the sides in the mould with the newly joined top behind them.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Cleaning up the sides*

The real drama in this build so far is in the sides. They split and splintered and were generally a bit of a disaster when attempting to bend. The two biggest factors in this were that 1.) I used Padauk without really checking to see how easy it bends. With the benefit of hindsight, I would've chosen a different wood. 2.) I didn't use any kind of metal backing strap to support the wood from the top while bending on the iron. I have since picked up a roll of aluminum roofing sheathing that I'll use going forward.

Below is a photo of both sides. I spent some time cleaning up one side, just to see if these would be salvagable or if I should just toss them and get some new wood. After cleaning up the first side a bit, I've decided (like a dummy) to forge ahead with these.



















Can you guess which side has been cleaned up?

The glue came up fairly well. The splits/cracks/splinters also faired ok, though are still visible. Here is a closer view of the "cleaned up" side:










I've decided that it looks good enough for a practice instrument, so am forging ahead still. Here is both sides after cleaning the other one up a bit:



















Unfortunately the vigorous sanding was too much for the worst area of damage and I wound up snapping a bit of wood off. This particular crack just didn't smash back together when I tried to glue/clamp it up. So I just had an open crack with a lot of glue caked on it. Cleaning this out was just not going to go well. I suppose I'm fortunate that it wasn't worse, but there is a big hole in it now. This is on the top edge and a bit too big to attempt to cover with some kind of edge binding. So will attempt to patch it prior to assembling the box.










I also glued up and carved out a neck blank. This is from a chunk of nice quarter sawn douglas fir I had that I took from my last house after doing a bit of a demolition project there.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Joining Back, Gluing Neck Block, Adding Rosette*

In the last few weeks I've managed to steal a few hours to work on the uke and make a little progress. The weather is cooling a bit so that makes it easier to be in the garage for longer periods of time.

I jointed the back using the miter planer and glued it up. I started to make my own wood inlay for the back stripe, but it was just going to be too labor intensive so I went to Rockler and just bought some inlay strip for about $15. I bought a Veritas Mini Router to route out the channel for the back stripe. I believe it will be a handy tool for other delicate routing jobs on this build as well.










I also carved and glued-in the end block and a neck block. The end block is just leftover scrap from the neck blank I cut. It is straight-grained doug fir, which is probably not the best choice for splitting, but at least it won't move much. The neck block is some scrap, I think it may be ash. A uke normally would have a neckblock as part of the neck itself with the sides glued into slots on either side of it. While this seems an easier way to do this, I have chosen to make a separate neck block where I will cut a dovetail joint to fit the neck. This is how a lot of steel string guitars are made, and I want to practice this joint before attempting it on a guitar. The neckblock looks way too beefy for this little uke, but I wanted it to be big enough to be stable after cutting the dovetail. I will likely pare away some of the extra heft after fitting the neck.










Also, I had planned to do some amount of gluing using hide glue. The neck block was my first foray into using hide glue. I tried gluing the block in yesterday but it kept sliding around due to the curvature of the neck block. I flattened it a bit and tried a different approach to clamping and got it to work today. I decided to use hide glue on the neck block because I'm fairly confident I will completely botch my first try at the dovetail joint for the neck. I should be able to heat-up/moisten this neck block and get it out of there for a do-over if needed. If I had used tite-bond or some other adhesive, this wouldn't be an option. For those interested in hide-glue, I picked it up from Old World Tonewood for $5 for a jar of the stuff. I also bought some guitar tops and a back and side set to use for the upcoming guitar build.

I have been trying to figure out the best way to do the rosette around the soundhole. I didn't want to do anything fancy, but wanted something to put there. Someone here on LJ's recently posted a video of a guitar builder (Greenfield Guitars) where he used some spalted maple or something like that with interesting grain color and stuff going on. I decided to use some olive wood from an olive tree I cut down a couple of years ago. It has been sitting in my garage all this time waiting for a use.










So I found this log with a small branch bit on it. I sliced off a piece of this. I had forgotten how amazing olive wood smells when cutting it.










I cut this slice even thinner with the really fantastic saw I got from Bob Summerfield a few weeks ago. It did a bang-up job slicing off this real thin wafer of olive endgrain.

Then tried to find the most interesting "disc" of grain within the wafer I cut and using a compass, drew a circle around it to represent the outer edge of the rosette. I started cutting this circle out with a coping saw, but it was too brittle, so I broke down and used the band saw with a backer board for support.

I outlined the new rosette disc onto the uke top and cut a knife wall to the inside of that line. Then using the mini router, routed out a recess for the olive disc.










Then using CA glue I glued the disc into place. It cracked into two pieces while I was trying to sand some rough spots out of the edges of this disc. I decided it would go back together ok once in the recess and even if it didn't the crack would add more character… or not.










Once this sets up, I'll sand or plane the olive to be flush with the surface of the uke top. THen will bore out the soundhole out of the olive. I will likely still pick up some kind of plastic strip to glue around the inside and outside edges of the rosette to give it a little more definition and protect it from breaking apart.

Now that it is cooling off, I'd like to get a lot more done. I've started working on making some radius dishes and a go-bar deck as well, but it's pretty boring stuff. I also had some fir 2×4 that I picked up a long time ago that I've split to make brace wood. I'll start planing down these split bits of fir and get them cut/planed to size to make the top and back braces soon as well.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Cutting Soundhole Making Radius Dishes*

Today's update is a bit incomplete. I cut out the soundhole and sanded down the olive wood rosette to be a little more level with the top. I bought a drum sander in the interim as I just don't trust myself to flatten and thickness the top with any accuracy. I'll send the top through the drum sander sometime soon to get the finished thickness/flatness for the rosette and top.










I put the back behind it for contrast in the photo.

I also have started trying to figure out how to do the radius dishes to radius the top and back. I'm planning to do the guitars with 20' radius backs and 28' radius tops, so am just going to use these radii for the uke build as well so I only have to make one set of radius dishes.

I could just buy some, but I hate to do it, would rather beat my head on the wall trying to figure out the best way to do it. There are some very clever solutions out there. One that I tried (and failed at) was to use 3/4" plywood and glue thin wooden "risers" that get progressively taller as they radiate from the center of the dish. Then attach a piece of melamine to the top allowing the risers to elevate the melamine from the center out, mimicking the radius needed. This proved to be pretty inaccurate, and difficult to get consistency all the way around. So am working on some other ideas at the moment.

The current plan is that I went into Microsoft Excel and opened a blank workbook. I inserted a shape (a circle) which defaults to a 1" by 1" circle. By choosing the properties of the circle, I was able to make the circle 480" tall (which would be 40 feet or a 20' radius circle).










Through trial and error I found that to get a length of about 24" is about 34 cell widths from the defaulted width when you open a fresh workbook. So I added a column count from 18 back to 1 and up to 17 again.

The apex of the circle is shown in the screen capture below with the little rotate icon.










By selecting a section of the circle and choosing the "print selection" option in the print menu, I was able to print a 24" segment of the circle which (when printing landscape orientation on legal size paper) gets me a nice 24" segment of a 20' radius circle.

Below are the left and right halves of the segment which when combined give me my 24" length to use as a template for my 20' radius.



















After printing, I aligned the left and right sides and taped them together.










Will probably paste these to some 3/4" baltic birch plywood and sand or plane them to the line. Then Either use them as a sled to rout out the radius dish or make a few of these to use to just shape the braces, etc. Haven't figured that out yet.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Tail detail/Kerfed Lining/Top Braces*

I haven't posted in quite some time, but haven't had time to do much in the last few months. I have managed to get some shop time the last two weeks.

I was prepared to abandon the project, at least for now, to focus on the start of a guitar build. Most of the time I've been spending on this has been cleaning up mistakes I've made, but having made them on the Uke, I feel better about starting on the guitar build. But instead I am forging ahead and just planning to not clean up the mess I've made very well. The main focus is on going through the steps and learning from the process. So I am hoping not to make these mistakes, and therefore not have a need to know how best to fix them with a guitar build.

I had previously cut a little wedge shaped detail to glue into the tail, which I did about a week ago. I chipped out a little of one side clearing out the channel to install this wedge and didn't bother to glue the bits back in because I'm lazy and just want to get this done.










I also roughed out the top braces. They aren't glued in below, just placed generally where they'll go. The top has been thickness sanded and I believe is a bit too thin, so am planning to put a soundhole reinforcement as well as a bridge plate to give the top a litte more rigidity. Also while thickness sanding the top, I sanded through the olive wood rosette I made. I have decided this will be the inside of the top now. Not sure what I'll do for a rosette at this point (if anything). The backstrip is still in good shape fortunately.










Today I installed the kerfed lining. I had planned to use hide glue for most joints, but my first effort at using hide glue on the kerfed lining was a failure. I think the glue temp was a little too cold and the shop temp was too, so I didn't get a very good glue joint. I abandoned hot hide glue after cleaning it off the kerfed lining and went with Titebond Original.

Here was everything set up and ready to go with hide glue. Clamps/clothes pins ready to go.










After the hide glue issues, I went with Titebond and everything went much better. I used a mix of clothes pins and mini clamps. The mini clamps seemed better at pinching down low while clothes pins did a better job of gripping up high, so in areas where it seemed appropriate, I alternated between them. I was expecting a lot of trouble with the kerfed lining creeping up from the clamping pressure, but it only did it a little bit at the tail. I used a couple of C-clamps to prevent the slippage.










Here is top and back kerfed lining installed. There are a few gaps, but nothing I'm going to worry about.










I have a few days off this week for the holidays so hoping to at least finish the box and possibly shape the neck by the end of the week.


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## Texcaster (Oct 26, 2013)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Tail detail/Kerfed Lining/Top Braces*
> 
> I haven't posted in quite some time, but haven't had time to do much in the last few months. I have managed to get some shop time the last two weeks.
> 
> ...


It's good to see you're sticking with it Matt. My first acoustic instrument was a battle in places but I was a wiser builder after.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Tail detail/Kerfed Lining/Top Braces*
> 
> I haven't posted in quite some time, but haven't had time to do much in the last few months. I have managed to get some shop time the last two weeks.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your encouragement, Texcaster! I enjoy your input here on LJs. Especially the pics of your shop with the birds hanging around.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Gluing Top Bracing, Roughing Back Braces*

Another vacation day today and so another day in the shop.

Today I made a bridge plate. The only stock I had on hand that was already thin enough and hard enough to do the job was some cut-off wood from the uke sides (padauk). So I just cut it to size and routed a channel to accomodate the center brace (I also cut a notch in the center brace to overlap).










I split the above brace accidentally while carving the notch, so I made a new brace and notched/used it.

Then i glued up the top braces and bridge plate. Fortunately the Uke is small enough that I could use clamps for glue-up rather than needing a go-bar deck or other jig to glue the braces in place. I had originally planned to radius the top and back of the uke, but since I am trying to expedite the build, I am doing a flat top and radiused back. I glued the center brace last. I glued bridge plate and other braces first, then when the glue dried on those, I glued in the center brace over the bridge. (I made the cam clamp pictured a few months ago with the intent of making a bunch of various sizes but time got away from me and this is the only one that got finished).










I notched out the kerfed lining where the top braces will intersect the sides. I also rough cut the shape for the top and back today (previously the top and back were still big, book-matched panels. Today they are vaguely ukulele shaped.

Here is the top with the braces glued in and rim placed on top.










I also shaped the back braces today. For brace wood I had an old 2×3 in the shop that was pretty straight-grained. It looks like some kind of spruce (it is very light colored). I split the 2×3 to get very rough stock.










After splitting, I planed smooth, then cut to length and planed to thickness, etc. until I had a brace blank. Then cut the blanks to the right shape. I have a radius dish I made for the back, so sanded the braces on the dish to get the proper radius.










Here the braces are taped into place. I had planned on gluing these today, but since these are radiused I couldn't come up with a simple way of doing this on the dish without a go-bar deck. I have all the pieces to make one, just haven't done it yet. So that'll be on the to-do list for tomorrow.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Not summer anymore but still a uke build*

So summer has become winter and I'm still not even close to finished with this. But I nibble away at it when I can.

I had a couple of vacation days late last week that were intercepted by a sick toddler, so progress was slowed. I got a couple of hours in today and was able to get the top glued on and trimmed flush with the sides. I had been eyeballing trim routers and even suggested my wife get me one from HF for $20 for Christmas, but she instead came through with a new BBQ Grill, so went with a sharp 3/4" chisel and trimmed the sides then hit them with the spindle sander attachment on the drill press to clean up the edges a bit.










I had planned to build a go-bar deck to use in conjunction with the radius dish to get the back braces glued on. But instead, used the radius dish to shape the back braces to the appropriate radius and have gone with clamps instead. Since the uke is so small, and the bracing pattern so simple, these hand clamps were pretty easy to use. The braces slipped around a bit (using titebond) and smeared glue around a bit, but overall it went pretty well. And i got to use my lone, home-made cam clamp to boot (also pictured in the previous post clamping the top bracing).










This should get the back set up to the correct radius and ready to attach to the rim. I have sanded the back side of the rim on the radius dish, so the radiused back should align pretty closely with the edge of the rim.

One other thing I did over this past weekend was to glue a soundhole reinforcement into the underside of the top. The top just seemed too thin and with the rosette inlay being sanded off, decided it needed a little extra support. This is some scrap ash I think, I had a small piece laying around so I resawed it with a hand saw and planed it fairly smooth on the non-glue side. The glue side was planed smooth prior to resawing.










Hoping to get the back glued on in the next few days, then on to shaping the neck and figuring out what to do for a fingerboard.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Gluing the back... or not.*

Last night I picked up a bunch of #64 rubber bands from Office Max and decided to use them to glue the back on the uke.

The back was radiused using the radius dish I made, so I thought I'd screw some 1" drywall screws part-way through the back side perimeter of the radius dish to use as anchors for the rubber bands.










I tied rubber bands together to get them long enough. I decided 4 in a row was a good number, allowing enough length span the 2' radius of the dish and if I wanted to use 3 rubber band lengths, I could just hook the third rubber band in a chain of 4 instead of using all 4. I covered the top with part of an old T-shirt to protect it from the rubber bands and stretched a few accross connecting each end to opposing screws on the underside of the dish.










After gluing up and adding a lot of rubber bands, there were still two small areas that didn't appear to be getting enough pressure to make proper contact between the back and sides. I kept adding more and more rubber bands, but it didn't seem to help. The clock was ticking on the glue setting, so decided to take the rubber bands off and pull the back off and clean up and try another approach. It seems the 2' radius dish (I built to use for guitar building) is just too wide for the Uke to sit on and get adequate downard pressure. The rubber bands were stretching too much across the width of the dish and not pulling straight down at all. So I decided to abandon the rubber band approach and use a go-bar deck instead. I was planning to build the go-bar deck anyway, but was able to get away with bracing the radiused back using clamps and thought I could do this rubber band business for gluing the back to the sides. But since it didn't work out and I was planning to do the go-bar deck anyway, I decided to do that instead.

I used some repurposed (from an old project) baltic birch plywood, 4 pieces of 36" long threaded rod (7/16" diameter was the only diamter they had 4 pieces of in stock, otherwise I would've used 1/2"), washers, nuts, 1/2" PVC pipe and some rubber shelf liner. Using the 3M spray adhesive, I attached the rubber shelf liner to one of the pieces of plywood (Plywood is 24"x24").










I drilled holes in all four corners of both pieces of plywood. I stacked the two pieces on top of each other to ensure the holes were alligned for both pieces of plywood. Then threaded a nut and washer onto the threaded rod, dropped the rod into one hole, and put a washer and nut on the underside to hold it in place. Put a piece of 1/2" PVC over the top of that and you have this:










The top of the PVC will provide additional support to the top sheet of plywood and adds rigidity to the whole structure.

I bought a bunch of 4' long fiberglass reflector rods from Home Depot to use as the go-bars. After measuring, it seemed around 29" length was about what I'd need to maximize the overhead space to work in with the go-bar deck, but decided on 24" just to be sure and also because I can cut the rods in half and get twice as many go-bars. I bundled them up with tape and used a hack-saw to cut them while wearing a respirator and safety glasses to avoid exposure to the fiberglass dust.

The end result was a bunch of 2' long rods. I bought some wire-shelf rubber nib thingys to go on the ends of the bars to give them a little more staying power.










I wound up with a bunch of 1/2" nuts instead of 7/16" nuts (someone must have hung them on the wrong rack at the store!) so I couldn't complete the construction of the deck today. Will hopefully get the go-bar deck done tonight or tomorrow and will try to use it to glue the back in place over the weekend.


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## robscastle (May 13, 2012)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Gluing the back... or not.*
> 
> Last night I picked up a bunch of #64 rubber bands from Office Max and decided to use them to glue the back on the uke.
> 
> ...


Go to a hardware store again and buy some good quality sandbags partialy fill them with sand and use some to he flex to form the contour you want then pile the rest them on!

otherwise raid the linen cupboard and use old pillow cases, (get permission firist, or you may hear an odd noise then see stars)


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Gluing the back... or not.*
> 
> Last night I picked up a bunch of #64 rubber bands from Office Max and decided to use them to glue the back on the uke.
> 
> ...


Ha. Yeah. I wonder how well the top will hold up to the stress of that kind of downward pressure. I did finish up the go-bar deck last night and am hoping to get out there for an hour or so today and try to glue-up the back. If I can have the box finished before 2017, that'll be a small win. Still a long way to go with the neck, fretboard, frets, tuners, bridge, nut, saddle, and on and on. But finishing the box feels good.

Thanks for reading/commenting, Robert!


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## Smitty_Cabinetshop (Mar 26, 2011)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Gluing the back... or not.*
> 
> Last night I picked up a bunch of #64 rubber bands from Office Max and decided to use them to glue the back on the uke.
> 
> ...


That sandbags suggestion is a solid one. There are three of them in my shop currently, and it's when I forget to use them that things don't go well. Especially for non-standard glue-up situations like uke building (? what am I saying, I've never built a uke..)

Anyway, I've enjoyed following along Matt!


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Gluing the back... or not.*
> 
> Last night I picked up a bunch of #64 rubber bands from Office Max and decided to use them to glue the back on the uke.
> 
> ...


Thanks Smitty! I do like the sandbag idea, but is likely better suited to clamping things that require a little less finesse.

Thanks for your input and encouragement!


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Glue the back / go-bar deck*

*Update from yesterday's post #10*
The shelf lining that I used on the top sheet of plywood in the go-bar deck came loose overnight. There seems to be some kind of chemical reaction between the 3M spray adhesive and the material this shelf liner is made from. I noticed a bit of an oily residue forming on the shelf-liner after applying it to the plywood and thought there was a chance this might happen. So for anyone planning to use shelf-liner to provide friction on a go-bar deck, use wood glue, CA glue or I'm considering just stapling this in place.
*End Update*

I was able to run out to Home Depot yesterday and grab the nuts I needed to finish up the go-bar deck. So today I went out to try to get the back glued up. Since I glued the top on first (which was a bad idea because it is now getting exposed to all sorts of hazards and is getting unnecessarily banged up), I was concerned about the pressure from the go-bars denting the top. I used the cutoffs from the top's edge as a shield to take the brunt of the pressure from the go-bars and protect the top.










I just used blue tape to hold these bits in place. I later traced a rough outline of where the actual side edges of the uke are to better be able to place the go-bars along the outer-most edge.

I'm glad I used these pieces to protect the top. I did a dry-run of the glue up and after removing the go-bars from the dry-run, you can see some dimples/dents in the protective layer.










One other benefit of the dry-run was finding that as more go-bars were added, the increased the pressure from the go-bars caused previously placed go-bars to become loose. So when removing go-bars from the dry-run, several of them basically fell out, meaning they weren't really applying any pressure any longer. When I did the actual glue-up, I went back frequently to check the tension on all of the go bars to ensure they weren't going to fall out. Many of them did fall out, so I replaced them and tightened them up.










When I was all done adding go-bars, I re-checked all of them for good tension and re-fitted any loose ones.

I tapped the sides of the uke all around to see if anything sounded hollow or not firmly planted down. It all sounded/felt really good. I then went around the perimeter applying hand pressure around the edge to see if there was any visible movement at the glue-seam. Everything looked nice and tight.

You can see a small amount of squeeze-out here. The neck block had a pretty sizeable amount of squeeze-out, but all-in all, I think it went pretty well. Much better than the last attempt.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*The body is complete (except maybe binding)*

I pulled the go-bars off this morning. Using a chisel, I trimmed the excess wood from the back to be flush with the sides. It turned out pretty well. There's a nice radius to the back and the seam appears to be snug and tight.

I think there's going to be a bit of a hiatus on this build, as the next step will be the neck and I don't have a fingerboard figured out yet. I'm thinking of some local mesquite but still have to find it and get it ready. I have a doug fir neck blank cut but am considering maple instead (which I also don't have on hand). So hopefully will get that figured out in the next few weeks. I may start on the guitars now, getting top and back plates thicknessed and joined and maybe get sides thicknessed and bent.

For now, here's a couple of photos of the uke body with top and back attached. I may try to find some kind of binding to put around the top and back as well prior to going to work on the neck.


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## Texcaster (Oct 26, 2013)

onoitsmatt said:


> *The body is complete (except maybe binding)*
> 
> I pulled the go-bars off this morning. Using a chisel, I trimmed the excess wood from the back to be flush with the sides. It turned out pretty well. There's a nice radius to the back and the seam appears to be snug and tight.
> 
> ...


Nice work, always a nice feeling after closing the box.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

onoitsmatt said:


> *The body is complete (except maybe binding)*
> 
> I pulled the go-bars off this morning. Using a chisel, I trimmed the excess wood from the back to be flush with the sides. It turned out pretty well. There's a nice radius to the back and the seam appears to be snug and tight.
> 
> ...


Thanks again, Texcaster! It really is a good feeling to get the box closed up. Though I have been dreading cutting the neck joint since the beginning. But given the complexity of everything else in this build so far, I am much more confident now than when I started.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Neck Scarf Joint*

Today I was able to get the scarf joint for the neck done and I went to Rockler to see if they had any wood that would make a good fingerboard. I had a $5 off coupon and got a $6 piece of mahogany, but in reading up on it, sounds like hog may be too soft to hold frets. So may have to dig up something else. I will likely resaw some mystery wood I have in the stash and hope it works.

The angle is 15 degrees. I marked that and used a great little saw I bought from Bob Summerfield a few months ago to cut the scarf joint (the photo was taken after I had cut the joint and sanded the faces flat, so there's sandpaper/sawdust in the background):










Flip one piece over and it will fit like so:










It wanted to slide around when gluing this up. I tried using wedges, but it didn't work. Ultimately I wound up holding a block of wood down on the workbench with a holdfast and pushed the tip of the headstock against this to hold it still, then once the joint was in place, used a holdfast on the neck block to hold it firmly in place.

Here's finished/glued up scarf joint:










And full neck:










The neck block will need to be trimmed back a fair bit, but after I get it accurately measured and figure out what kind of joint will be used to connect it to the body.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Fingerboard Blank*

I've been trying to figure out how to get a fingerboard blank. I have been reading up on woods that are appropriate for the purpose and only very hard woods will work. Ebony is most common with rosewood and maple being suitable substitutes. I didn't want to spend any money on the fingerboard primarily because Mesquite is hard enough (harder than rosewood and maple) and is a very good alternative for me here in Arizona. I see it in heaps around town with some regularity.

Yesterday I went to a place to get some firewood and bought a wheelbarrow full of mesquite. I picked this log as it isn't twisted as most mesquite twists as it grows, making good, straight-grained mesquite somewhat difficult to find.










I planed/chiseled to get a flat surface to run this through the band saw. Then sliced off a few fingerboard blanks that are the right size for a uke.










The top one has a knot in it that looks like it is going to be too intrusive. The middle one looks the best but is about 1/16th too narrow to use. So will go with the bottom one which has some traces of the knot from the top board, but I believe I can plane/sand down past the remnants of that and still have enough material to use for the fingerboard.

I've planed the edges and sides a bit on these just to get a good look at them. All have minor flaws, but the bottom one will be good enough for the fingerboard and the others have enough clean material to use as bridge blanks for the uke and probably good for guitar bridges as well.

That's all I've got for today.


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## Praki (Jun 17, 2007)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Fingerboard Blank*
> 
> I've been trying to figure out how to get a fingerboard blank. I have been reading up on woods that are appropriate for the purpose and only very hard woods will work. Ebony is most common with rosewood and maple being suitable substitutes. I didn't want to spend any money on the fingerboard primarily because Mesquite is hard enough (harder than rosewood and maple) and is a very good alternative for me here in Arizona. I see it in heaps around town with some regularity.
> 
> ...


Wow! I wish I could get my hands on some that firewood!


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Fingerboard Blank*
> 
> I've been trying to figure out how to get a fingerboard blank. I have been reading up on woods that are appropriate for the purpose and only very hard woods will work. Ebony is most common with rosewood and maple being suitable substitutes. I didn't want to spend any money on the fingerboard primarily because Mesquite is hard enough (harder than rosewood and maple) and is a very good alternative for me here in Arizona. I see it in heaps around town with some regularity.
> 
> ...


Ha yeah. Most of this wood had termites. I'll be burning it (very soon). But this one looked good and I've seen no sign of them in any of the cuts. But I'll be grabbing any of it I see around town from now on. This stuff is hard as nails and very nice looking.

For anyone interested. This mesquite works similar to Jatoba. Similar hardness and grain.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Fingerboard and Fret Slotting Miter Box*

After having cut a few fingerboard blanks from a chunk of mesquite, I need to choose one and get it thicknessed and ready for use.

I picked the best one and flattened it, squared up one side and thicknessed in on the drum sander to about 0.15" which is slightly thicker than it probably should be, but wanted to ensure I could cut the fret slots adequately deep and in case I cut them too deep, I can always sand a little surface of but I can't add any surface if I start too thin in the first place.

After getting the fingerboard ready, I need to cut the fret slots. This requires a pretty significant amount of precision, so the best method is to use some kind of miter box designed to do the job. You can buy special ones from the luthier supply houses but they are kind of expensive considering the amount of use mine would get, so I chose to make one. I am borrowing (stealing) this plan from Westfarthing Woodworks

Which looks simple and very accurate.

It requires a fingerboard blank with slots already cut so you can replicate the slots. So I'm planning to make a guitar blank and find the place on the guitar fingerboard that matches the fret spacing that the uke will use, then use that section of the guitar fingerboard to create the fret slots for the uke. Hope that makes sense.

Basically the uke frets are close together, much closer than guitar frets. But the upper registers of the guitar fingerboard have frets that are very closely spaced. My intent is to use the upper register fret spacing of a guitar fingerboard to make the uke fingerboard fret slots.

Here is the fingerboard ready for fret slot cutting:









Here's the profile at 0.15" 









I cut the pieces of the miterbox. This is just some scrap I have. I flattened and put good, straight edges on it. Here it is ready for glue-up. I've brought this inside as it is a little chilly out and wanted to ensure the glue temp is a little warmer than the garage temp today. Plus granite countertops make a nice flat surface to ensure the parts are glued-up flat.



















After gluing the sides to the base. I glued the top into place. The original design shows the grain running parallel to the saw kerf/guide. I started to do mine this way, but then decided that with changes in humidity, this would expand and contract making the kerf/guide wider or narrower. I need this to be constant and with minimal play. So I decided to rotate it and put this piece in with the grain running perpendicular to the kerf/guide. This will minimize the expansion/contraction of the kerf/guide and hopefully give me more consistent results. Here in Arizona this is typically not a huge deal as it is so dry. But we've had a lot of rain the last few weeks, so I started thinking, "This thing is going to shrink when it dries and the kerf is going to have too much play in it." Hence the change to the design.

Here is the finished box. After putting it together and attempting to cut fret slots in a template, I found that I really needed to be able to see in there better. I should've used a smaller board for the top surface/guide but decided to just drill a peep hole instead which seems to work well enough.










Here it is with a fingerboard in place and a small backsaw to cut fret slots.










I attempted to cut some templates, but kept misaligning the cuts, and without being able to see, there's no way to know if I'm missing the mark until I pull the template out and see that I've cut the slot a fraction of an inch off the line. Will keep at it. May modify this with some clear plastic for the top for complete visibility. Should've thought of that sooner.


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## FatherHooligan (Mar 27, 2008)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Fingerboard and Fret Slotting Miter Box*
> 
> After having cut a few fingerboard blanks from a chunk of mesquite, I need to choose one and get it thicknessed and ready for use.
> 
> ...


Could you mark off lines on the side of the gauge that would line up with where the slots should be and where the saw blade is? Looking at the edge you could line up the marks with the blade and that would give you a better idea of where you were cutting?


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

onoitsmatt said:


> *Fingerboard and Fret Slotting Miter Box*
> 
> After having cut a few fingerboard blanks from a chunk of mesquite, I need to choose one and get it thicknessed and ready for use.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the input Mark. I managed to get most of this worked out in my next post (#16).


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Cutting Fret Slots*

With my last entry, I had been attempting to make a template to accurately space the frets. After several failed attempts, I decided to just correct the template with the fewest issues. I had been somehow missing my mark by just a fraction of an inch. You can see below the lines and the cuts. Bear in mind, with the little miter box I made, I couldn't see what I was doing when cutting, so was relying on feel. I marked each fret on the template and cut a little score on the edge of the template at each mark. Then as I fed the template through the miter box, I would use the saw to feel for those marks. When the saw would catch on a mark. I would cut. Unfortunately I was apparently feeling some marks that weren't there, or was shifting the template a tiny bit between finding the mark and making the cut. In any case, the result is below:










I decided to just clean up one of the templates that only had 2 slots out of alignment. I filled the bad cuts with CA Glue and decided it would have to do. You can see the CA Glue smeared in a couple of places.










Having had so much trouble with seeing what was going on, I decided to modify the miter box and replace the wood on top with some clear plastic. After cutting the top off, I found that just the front and rear supports with the kerf in them were adequate to guide the saw. So I decided to leave the top off and just use the miter box like this:










You can see the little bit of razor blade (dulled with a file) sticking up to allow the slots in the template to drop in place.

Next it was time to cut the slots. I used two-sided tape to adhere the fingerboard blank to the template. One edge of the fingerboard blank was planed perfectly straight/flat as a reference edge to ensure the frets all aligned parallel to each other. I had read that Harbor Freight has a cheap ($8) japanese pull saw that is exactly the right kerf for the width of a fret slot. So I picked up one of those the other day. The blade is extremely flimsy, which I had also read.

When finished with the first try at all 18 fret slots, they looked good. However they were too shallow to allow the "tang" of the fret to go all the way down. This means the fret itself will stick up too far and won't seat properly. So I went back to deepen the slots. But in doing this, the kerfs widened as well. So a few of the slots were too wide to allow the fret to grab.

Here you can see the fret wire. The top is the surface that sits above the fretboard. The lower portion is the tang. The tang has little barbs on it. The barbs grab the wood to hold the fret in place. The tang width is 20/1000ths of an inch. With the barbs it is about 32/1000ths of an inch. So the goal is to get the fret slot as close to 20/1000ths of an inch as possible to allow the tang to go in and allow the barbs to grab. If the slot is close to or greater than 32/1000ths of an inch, the fret will just be loose in the slot which does no good.










Since I had essentially made this fingerboard unusable, I decided to use it as a practice board to figure out how to ensure consistently deep cuts that were deep enough to allow the depth of the tang but not so deep as to cut through the fingerboard entirely. The fingerboard is only marginally thicker than the depth of the tang.

Ultimately, I decided to add a spine to the japanese pull saw. I cut the blade off the stock handle and had a small Freud gents saw that I picked up at a yard sale a couple of years ago that I never liked/used. The spine on it was just about the exact length of the blad of the pull saw, so I pulled the blade out of the gents saw spine and shoved the pull saw blade in instead.










This helped with the rigidity of the blade and also gave me a reference for depth. As luck would have it, when cutting slots with the template in place, the spine hits the guides at pretty much exactly the depth I need. Got lucky here.

Here is the wrecked fingerboard after having cut all the slots too shallow, then doing a lot of practice cuts to ensure the depth and width of the slot is just right for holding fret wire securely.










After being satisfied that I can get consistent cuts with the saw and template, I made a few more fingerboard blanks from the mesquite log I salvaged from the firewood pile. I got two decent blanks out of what was left, but both have knots in them that may or may not wind up being a bit of a blemish. I'll put the knots face-down and hope for the best.

Here is the finished fret board slotted and ready to go.










There are two or three slots that are a shade wider than I would like. All the slots seem a bit wider than my practice board. I'll likely drop some CA glue in each of the slots to ensure the frets hold ok. Next time I'll probably run a sharpening stone along both sides of the saw blade to get the kerf width a shade narrower.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Neck Mortise*

The last several days of shop time have been pretty much dedicated to building a neck mortise jig. This jig is designed to hold the uke body firmly while routing the neck mortise.

The neck mortise has to be perfectly centered and perfectly perpendicular to the top. I built the front face with cams on both sides to fine-tune the left/right orientation. This ensures the rout runs perpendicular to the top.










When cams are engaged, it flexes a thin piece of particle board that has leather glued to the face.










The back of the clamping mechanism is also faced with leather and has bolts that allow it to slide in and out to clamp the uke body in place.



















The top surface has rails on the sides that allow only the width of the router to fit. There is a stop added between the rails that is attached to the rear clamping face (on the underside) to ensure the router stops about 1/2" shy of the back of the uke.










The router sits on the top between the rails with the uke body clamped into place. I took about 3 passes, increasing the depth of the router bit with each pass.










The end result is a decent (not sure yet how decent) mortise to house the neck tenon. Like most things with the first instrument build, you spend about 10 or 15 hours building a jig to spend a minute or two on instrument building. The good news is that this is adjustable enough to do the neck mortise for a guitar as well, so this jig will get reused a few times.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Fitting the neck*

My initial attempt to fit the neck was a utter failure. The mortise and tenon fit pretty well, though the shoulders of the tenon were not flush with the body. So I tweaked and tweaked the shoulders some more trying to get a good fit. This resulted in breaking the heel of the neck, regluing, then cleaning up too much on one side, then cleaning the other to match, which invariably lead to more difficulties. After all of this, I wound up nibbling down the joint to where I really needed a new neck in the end. I also noticed that the mortise is just slightly angled from top right to bottom left which makes the neck sit slightly twisted (one side sits higher than the other) where it meets the body.

Ultimately I took a mediocre neck and decent though not great mortise and tenon and made it significantly worse. Here's the end result in all its gappy glory:










Anyway, I wasn't crazy about the doug fir neck anyway and was able top pick up some S4S mahogany that is 3/4 and 24" long, which is plenty to make a new neck blank.

I also decided to make a jig to rout the tenon on the new neck. All of my practice runs on with the new jig yielded substandard results so I went with free-hand sawing the tenon like I had done on the previous neck.

The results were promising:




























Though this looked nice, there was still the matter of the "twist" so I glued some additional material to the tenon so I could carve the tenon to match the angle of the mortise. This worked out well, but when all was said and done, the neck/body joint developed a bit of a wobble. So once Again I began removing material to correct for the wobble. The more I removed, the worse things got So am back to this business again. Fortunately, I made this neck blank with plenty of room for tweaking. I should be able to lop off the tenon and start over three times before running out of room to re-do it. In the meantime, I am going to keep nibbling at it to get it to work (hopefully without having to recut the tenon.

At the moment I am taking a break while some glue dries from some tear-out I have going on from all the nibbling at this endgrain. I should probably hone a new edge on my favorite chisel while I'm waiting.

===EDIT===
Glue is dry, tear-out continued, but all in places that will be covered by the fingerboard, so not going to worry about it.

The neck fits well enough, so decided to go ahead and get the dry fit going and will fret the fingerboard and attach it and shape the neck next.

I'm using a barrel nut to secure the neck to the body. I drilled a hole in the body first fairly well centered on the neck block. Then I put the bolt through the hole and colored the tip of it with a pencil to use as a means of marking the exact spot on the neck where the hole needs to be drilled.










Then I drilled the hole in the neck through the tenon.










And then the hole for the barrel nut. I wanted the hole to be hidden from view, so drilled it down through the top of the neck where it will be covered by the fingerboard. The only issue is that I'll need to glue the fingerboard down after installing the neck because I'll need access to the barrel nut when attaching the neck to ensure I get the bolt secured easily. If the fingerboard is already glued down, I won't have access to the barrel nut anymore. The tear-out is clearly visible here too.










And here is the neck fitted with the bolt tightened a bit. There's still some slop in one side:










The heel looks pretty snug, though my "center seam" in the back isn't actually centered, which is a little more obvious with the neck in place.










And here's the bolt (fairly easily tightened) through the soundhole.










Next will be figuring out the best order for installing frets in the fingerboard (before or after gluing to the neck). Will also need to redo the scarf joint for the headstock, since this neck hasn't had that done yet (like the old doug fir neck). And then shaping the neck to look more like a neck.

Feeling like i'm on the home stretch, though the fretwork will be tedious and still need to get the bridge placement figured out, glued-up. And lots of other finishing touches like trim, nut, saddle, headstock veneer, finishing and final setup.


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

*Rough Shaping Neck and Aligning Fingerboard*

Over the last few days I've been rough shaping the neck. I'll spare the details of the scarf joint that puts the headstock at a 15 degree angle as I covered that on the previous neck blank I made.

Here is the new neck with the scarf joint:










Also vaguely visible in that photo is the headstock veneer I glued on. It is just some leftover Padauk that was used for the back and sides. It had already been resawn thin and will match the back and sides so makes a good choice for the headstock veneer.

I also rough tapered the sides of the neck. I will final shape this taper once the fingerboard is installed.










The headstock veneer is a little thick, so will sand it down. But I wanted to drill the tuning peg holes first so if there's any blow-out from that, I can sand it out. Also the back of the headstock will need to be thinned quite a bit as well, so will do that after drilling the tuning peg holes for the same reason (blow-out).

I drilled holes in the fingerboard for some "dot" inlays to mark fret positions. These will be made from olive wood (I had originally made the soundhole rosette out of this olive wood, but that wound up getting sanded off accidentally). So I will be doing these inlays and a headstock inlay out of olive also will put a little cap on the heel of the neck from the same wood.










I used bradpoint bits for these holes to slice the edges cleanly. After aligning/centering the fingerboard exactly where it will be glued into place, I took advantage of the the tiny holes the brad-point bits made through the back of the fingerboard in the 5th and 12th frets to tap small nails into the neck.

I clipped the heads of the nails off then removed the fingerboard and clipped the nails even shorter so they barely go through the back of the fingerboard.










These will be used to align the fingerboard correctly at glue-up. They will also prevent the fingerboard from sliding around at this critical time.

I rough shaped the headstock and trimmed the bone nut as well and a few other odds and ends.

Here it is in its current state:










Next up (hopefully) will be finishing up the shaping of the neck, cutting and installing the 1/4" inlay dots and then fretting the fingerboard and gluing it on.

**Edited to add**
I have decided to put the Uke build on hold. The intent here was to do a dry run for a guitar build, making my mistakes on cheaper materials and just learning the process and where the mistakes are likely to be made. At this point, I still have a fair amount to do, tapping in the frets, gluing fingerboard to neck, gluing bridge, finishing, dressing the frets, setting it up shaping nut and saddle, etc. etc. But these all seem to be things that would be best done as a practice right before doing them on a guitar build rather than do it today and not do it again for 6 months when the guitars are ready for these same processes. So I'm taking a break and will start on guitars and will be finishing up the uke when the guitars are at this same stage of build. Thanks for reading!


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