Hooray! an entire day to play in the workshop. I got the necks refined, sanded, and ready to install.
 |  |
But first I got out my old wood burner from the days of making duck decoys. I now burn into the ukulele neck, year, name and the instrument number. You can't see it on the finished uke without peering through the sound hole or the side sound port but it is going to be there forever. Do you suppose one of my ukes will last 100 years?
 |  |
I fitted the soundboards to the necks and got them glued on straight and true. Here they rest in their clamps as the glue sets.
Then I decided to bend the sides. I was worried, as this is wildly figured wood and I thought it might be difficult to bend and easy to break.
I set up the hot pipe and plugged in the soldering iron seating element and when it got to 250 degrees I started the bend.
To my delight and surprise I was able to bend the four sides successfully . 'the first bend was put into the tenor mold to dry and set up, but I had no place to do the same for the second pair of sides. Aha, an idea. See below, I simply clamped the wet sides to this half mold from the bending machine. I will leave the sides clamped to shape for a day or two to dry well and set their shape. Then The assembly will begin.
