It is always stressful to take a router bit to a just boxed up ukulele. Today it all went well and all four Ukuleles got the grooves for the bindings cut and also the much smaller groove for the purfling.
Here is the cut for the binding. This is the big one.
Here is the small router called a laminate cutter. You can see the down spiral bitt. The adjustment wheel in the background rides on the side of the instrument and regulates the depth of its cut.
Here is how it rides on the top and makes the cut. This is a hand held operation and one must be careful to make each cut to its full depth.
You set up your router by trial and error. I put a piece of scrap wood in this vice and fiddle with the router adjustments until it is right. Can't imagine another way to do it.
This is purfling. A little decorative strip that adds a lot to the looks of a Ukulele I think. I have cut the groove to accept purfling with a width of .30. pretty small, but I will have the choice of black/white/black, or white /black/white. not sure which I will use, maybe both. The photo above shows White/black/white. Which do you think you would prefer. Remember that the wood of the binder will show outside of this purfling.
I am trying to show you the two cuts made on both sides of each instrument. It is a bit difficult to see these two cuts but it is essential to building a nice ukulele. Now the challenge is to get the bender heated up and bend each binding to the necessary shape.