I couldn't get into the workshop until after lunch today, but I still got a lot done. I have learned a good lesson, when you are set up to make parts for the ukes you are building, make a bunch of extras. That will save you a lot of time some later day. I have benefited on this build from having a stock of parts already roughed out, necks, butt plates, under sound hole braces, three sets of sides all cut and thinned, backs sawn to shape and with one side sanded flat, bridges cut and grooved. This stockpile of pre-made parts is going to make this build incredibly faster. I am already to the point where I am preparing to bend and install the sides. Can't quite believe how fast things are moving.
Before attaching the neck to the soundboard you want to rough shape it. I draw a line up the centerline of the back and begin to shape the neck 
Now the neck is as far as I want to take it until the fretboard is attached and the uke is boxed up. This rough work would be difficult to do at a later stage. 
Now the necks are attached to the soundboard and it is time to glue the transverse braces on the soundboard. | 
The shape is roughed out with a coarse rasp and then followed with a very fine rasp which cleans up the scars. Now I reposition the neck in the Parrot Vice and begin to work up the neck. 
With the necks shaped I can now glue the necks to the soundboards. Here you see them glued, clamped and drying. 
These are the only tone bar braces in the uke. The back is not braced because it is a strong concave piece of maple. tomorrow I hope to get these tops outfitted with butt plate, hole brace and bridge brace- then they will be ready for their bent sides. |
