Scalloping and tapering the soundboard braces is a balance between weight and strength. Take off too much and you may end up with a cracked soundboard over time. Too little and the ukulele might feel heavy in [...]
Today I created holes. By far the most challenging hole was the sound port. After making a number of sound port sizes via powerpoint, I had to decide how to make it. I tried using [...]
Another productive day in the shop. Pulled the soundboard out of the go-bar deck and scalloped the tone bars. It's a balance between strength and sound quality. I like to taper the ends till they [...]
Nice full day in the shop!. Focused on finishing the soundboard. First, thickness sanded the top to about 0.070" (1.75mm) and added a registration dowel to make top to body alignment easier. I made a [...]
Adding the rosette to an instrument marks, to me, the beginning of putting the raw components together to make an ukulele. Top and bottom joined and thicknessed, sides bent with kerfing added, and the neck [...]
See the Morning Post The afternoon was cutting and glueing on what will become the headstock. I built YAJ (yet another jig) to precisly cut a 15deg angle off the last 5" of the neck piece. [...]
See the Afternoon Post Today I added kerfing to the ukulele. Kerfing adds surface area to the side/soundboard and side/bottom glue joints. The kerfing I have is about 3/4" high. Multiple by 2 and I'd [...]
Today was a day of a lot of work and so little to show for it. :-? The neck has been on hold while waiting for a new saw blade with a Flat Top Grind (FTG) [...]
Finally back in the shop! Between having family over for the Holidays and then immediately getting the flu, it's been a long time. First up, prepping the body for kerfing. Flatting the top is straight [...]
Just wanted to share how the final neck laminate turned out. Usually a laminate like this is added after the neck scarf joint is cut, flipped over and glued (this will make more sense later). By [...]
