Ready to attach top and back!!! And Completion

At this point I am itching to complete this thing. I made a plywood mold and used it and some adjustable cauls to do the work. I ordered this crazy bag of rubber bands to us as clamps.

Mold and Caul


Top and back


Glue up:





I removed the Mold... Now I attached the lining... could of done a better job in some parts. first time I used this type of lining.



Time to glue up the perfling on the top. I routed the channel using a el cheapo laminate trimmer.




Now the back is glued on, and so is the maple binding:
hey give that back...






Here the neck and fret board is attached and ready for finishing:





And I am finished:


Notes:
I set the action at the 12th fret to about .1". When doinf this I had a Capo on the fist fret.

Fox Style bender

So I got a watlow silicon heat blanket and started wiring up a temperature controller, then said screw this and took my thermo couple on my DM and used a power strip to turn on and off the blanket. I am the controller! I soaked the wood, covered it in tin foil and it worked great!!




You can see the temperature starting to rise on the DMM.

From Ukulele

Back bracing

Finished the back bracing on the tenor Ukulele. Cut and shaped the braces from a billet of spruce. The spline was made from the excess soundboard material.






Now on to finishing the Fox style side bender.

Tenor Ukulele

Cut out the rough shape for my Ukulele using a template I made from plywood and adding an extra bit of material around the outline. i also marked out my bracing and bridge plate.

Here is the top:


here is the back:


I also shaped the sides tapering from 3" to 2.5". I measure about 18" per side, so I added an extra 0.5".

Got distracted..... Now time for a Ukulele

So I decided I would start building a tenor Ukulele from scratch....
I picked up imbuia for the backs and sides:

http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/features/woods/images/imbuia_back.jpg

I picked up wood from RCTONEWOODS.com, and have begun work. The fretboard is fretted, and I finished jointing the back and top. I created a plexiglass template as well.

RCTonewoods.com





Here is my back made from imbuia, after jointing and gluing, in the jig I made to join them.



I found the build manual for a Uke kit from www.stewmac.com and am using the plans from that, with some modifications of my own.

Bridge mounting time

Tonight I installed the bridge. I used PVA glue, a Stewmac Bridgematic jig and a DIY bridge clamp.

First you measure the distance from the 12th fret to the nut:


Now flip the jig, and the little pointers at the end lineup with the front end of the saddle slot:



bridge located and end 2 holes drilled:



DIY clamp for the bridge:


Under the clamp

Frets, Dressing, leveling and crowning

The frets are all hammered in.... so it's now up tp me to make them nice.
First I flush cut the fret ends.

I then took a bastard fie and filed flush the fret end nubs that were still sticking out. The file cut the fret ends great, and did not even scratch the fingerboard. Awesome.

Next I created a 20" radius sanding block, and cut a 30 degree angle into it. I slid the bastard file into the block and used that to create a 30 degree angle on the fret ends. came out super. Also of note, I had to hacksaw off the handle for this file.

From Acoustic Guitar

I improved the tool:




Next I put 220 grit sand paper on the 20" radius block and started leveling the frets.

I am still waiting for my fret crowning file to coe in. It is on 2 week backorder. I will also need to get a fret dressing file to nicely dress the fret ends.

I will update this post with photos next week.