I have not made a Pinecone for months but I currently have three in the works. Today I installed the bridge on Lindsey's instrument and will string it up tomorrow. It has gold frets and gold Gotah tuners, Gonna be pretty. Flanking it are Concert Pinecones under construction and a completed concave maple back for one of them.
This morning this was the status. one uke ready for its back, one back yet to be made, and one uke getting its final section of tentalones glued on.
The first project was to carve the back. Here is how it was done. It began with marking off guide marks for contouring the back.
The heavy duty work is done with a "smooth" woodworkers rasp. This hogs off wood very aggressively and I wear leather gloves when using it. A wonderful tool! It also gives you some pretty good exercise.
Clamped to a support in the Parrot vise, the rasp puts the curve in the first contour.
And then we flatten the rasp angle and attack the second contour. that is the rough outline we want.
Now we move to the drill press, using a Forstner drill bit to hog out the interior of the top. The drill press is set to stop at the desired depth, so it will not go all the way through the top. A great way to hollow things out.
Before you know it most of the wood is removed, Now to refine it with the disc sander and 36 grit paper.
This gets pretty messy. I recommend that you get your shop vac in place to remove the dust, and wear a respirator. Sand it down until you can no longer see the center hole left by the 'forstn er bit. That will tell you that you are at the desired depth/thickness.
'so here we are, both backs ready to glue on tommorow,