mistermikev Posted August 23, 2022 Report Share Posted August 23, 2022 12 hours ago, Nicco said: The box is closed!! Whoo! Big milestone there, very happy. The bottom binding channel has been cut now, I've got the neck fitting and being aligned to centre line but I'm going to need some creative clamping while I'm gluing it, the joint could be tighter. The fret board has been pinned in place on the neck with a pair of 1mm drill bits so now I can start final shaping of the neck. I got the fret board sides and tail end all shaped up last night, and then put in the 6mm MOP dots... taking care to do the ukulele specific dot not on fret 9 but 10; I almost got that rather wrong. Next up, final sand the fret board top surface then bring the back down to final thickness. coming together nicely. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted August 30, 2022 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2022 Quick mock up. I threw a little finish on the top and sides to see a bit closer to how they'll look at the end (impatient! Ha ha) and I'm thinking I'm going to change the binding. The binding currently is an offcut from the neck, but in my head the honey coloured qld maple would contrast against the pinkish myrtle sides. It doesn't really, and I'm not a fan. Plus there are a couple of little gaps where I could have got it tighter, so going to cut it off and do that step again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted August 31, 2022 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2022 Old binding is off. I tested some black abs bonding on the back and it looked sensational - it really made the tiger stripes in the myrtle pop. Buuuut, it made the front look really cheap. Hrmm. I played around with different bits and pieces from the off cuts bin and eventually came back to the qld maple but now with 0.5mm black veneer glued to the bottom edge and the back to be kind of a faux purfling. Also, the tail inlay got a little chewed up by the router. I was going to do some tricky repairs, but now I'm just going to pull it out and go again to match the new binding scheme 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted August 31, 2022 Report Share Posted August 31, 2022 Sometimes all you need is a thin black stripe... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted September 3, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2022 Yeah, thanks Biz. Definitely agreed that the black strip is all it needs. Having said that, now having 3 piece binding strips I'm finding them an absolutely pig to bend. I don't have a particularly good set up... soldering iron clamped to the bench. Ha ha. I'm going to need to revisit how I'm going about it, because it's just leading to frustration at the moment. I might just bite the bullet and get one of the proper side bending irons. To save getting too frustrated on the soprano binding, I moved back to the tenor. I've finally got it out of the form and it's looking lovely. I've started laminating the back together and I've glued the soundboard up. Glue is still drying on that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted September 3, 2022 Report Share Posted September 3, 2022 2 hours ago, Nicco said: I might just bite the bullet and get one of the proper side bending irons. Take a foot or two long iron tube, clamp it to a vice at a slight angle and put a torch blowing at the lower end. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted September 5, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 Thanks Biz. Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to have to do in the short term to get the soprano finished. I've got a little blow torch from back when I did a bit of silver casting back in the day, so hopefully that'll get me out of trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted September 5, 2022 Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 At first I thought about soldering instead of casting which made me think of a pocket size torch with a needle tip blue flame! But if your torch has a flame that's thick as a finger and about four inches long you should do fine. Use a sewer pipe that is about 2" in diameter with thick walls for both rigidity and heat spreading. That's what Jerry Rosa used for bending mandolin sides until he built his bending iron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted September 5, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 Also... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted September 5, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2022 16 hours ago, Bizman62 said: At first I thought about soldering instead of casting which made me think of a pocket size torch with a needle tip blue flame! But if your torch has a flame that's thick as a finger and about four inches long you should do fine. Use a sewer pipe that is about 2" in diameter with thick walls for both rigidity and heat spreading. That's what Jerry Rosa used for bending mandolin sides until he built his bending iron. Sorry mate, I missed this response before. Yeah, it's bigger than a pocket lighter thingy, but no oxy-acetylene torch either. Hardest bit is finding the pipe. I don't have anything that size lying around. I could grab some from the steel shop but then I'm making a... shall we say... significant... investment into it. I've got some 1" pipe that I'll try out. If that doesn't work I think I'd be best to just put the money spent on pipe towards an electric bender. Electric strikes me as safer and less temperamental for this kind of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted September 6, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2022 So in response to my last post... good and bad news with the trial of the blow torch and the 1" aluminium pipe... On the good side: - The flame is definitely hot enough - The bindings bent like an absolute treat, it was about 1000 times easier than doing it on a soldering iron. So much more progressive in the bend. Lurvely On the down side: - I only got about 40 seconds of heat on the darn pipe before it failed under it's own weight, broke where the flame was impinging on the pipe and the long end fell to the ground shattering the into little 5 cent coin (maybe penny size for you overseas lot) burning hot shards all over the floor. - I decided at this point to take another approach... The other good side: - Good reminder about correct PPE when using equipment like that. The shorts and thongs I was wearing probably wouldn't have done much to keep my feet and legs safe. - I got lucky and didn't get burned. I've ordered a proper bending iron (I know I can make one, but at this point, just do it properly - it's going to get used enough to make it worth while in the end). It'll take a few weeks to get here, so I'll just focus on the other parts of the project between now and then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted September 6, 2022 Report Share Posted September 6, 2022 7 hours ago, Nicco said: I could grab some from the steel shop but then I'm making a... shall we say... significant... investment into it. Rather than a steel shop, pay a visit to a recycling center or a demolition site. A piece of sewer pipe shouldn't be too expensive. That said, a proper bending iron is much safer and easier to adjust the temperature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted September 12, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2022 Had a bit of a detour weekend this weekend. The wife and the boy headed up to the nearest capital city (2hrs drive away) so she could go to a work meeting, get her car serviced and spend time with her folks. My dad jumped on the opportunity and got me to help him build a cajon of sorts (sit it on your lap and slap the top of it) plus we've been wanting to do some vege gardens for ages but the ground where we want them isn't level, so we need a small retaining wall. The ukuleles, templates and every other identifying feature had to get packed away and hidden in the house for the weekend so dad wouldn't find them. The poor little Subie got loaded up with the box trailer, 23 sleepers and 300kg of concrete and we were away. Well, the cajon is all done (no finished pictures, but I do have this pic of it before we flush trimmed the sides and the qld walnut plywood top dad wanted... little does he know it'll match his new ukulele soon. Ha ha. Bottom level of the retaining wall is all done and concreted in. The second level will go up quick smart when I next get a chance to work on it, probably in a few weeks. So much for my quiet, kidless and wifeless weekend relaxing at home. Back at work now and I'm buggered. Ha ha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted September 16, 2022 Report Share Posted September 16, 2022 That was a productive weekend! Love the logo inlay. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted September 22, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2022 Yeah, thanks Scott. It was good to get that stuff done, we'd been taking about it for ages. In exiting news, my side bending iron turned up the other day all the way from the UK. I'm actually amazed how quickly it got here; it takes longer to get things posted from 2 hours up the road. Anyway, I needed to try it out. I grabbed a piece of scrap qld maple that was 3.5mm thick and 8mm tall (so roughly 1/8th inch thick) and bent it into an s shape! Whoa! This thing is game changing! I got all four binding pieces bent up and 3 of them fitted last night 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted September 25, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2022 Last section of binding is on. Very, very glad that I went back and re did it, the pop from the black purfling strip looks great. Also went back and did the tail graft again. It's just got to be sanded flush now. Because I'm me and I like over complicating things () I wanted the qld maple side strips to meet the binding without any black pin stripe but also for the mulga to be enclosed with black strips. Far out! I ended up doing binding first, then trimming the black bit off where it clashed, then fitting the tail graft. Awkward trying to work around the output jack, but got it all together. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted September 26, 2022 Report Share Posted September 26, 2022 Dammit boy! (That's a Texas phrase) (Means wow!) That's going to be serious business when you sand it all flush! SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted November 3, 2022 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2022 I've been pretty quiet lately on this one, busy with family stuff and work then hit a bit of a snag with bringing the soprano fretboard down to thickness; one corner got away from me and ended up too thin to be able to salvage. Very frustrating. So with that in mind I decided to take a few days off work this week so I could, A) get some momentum back up, and just generally not go to work, which is always nice. I did also decide to buy a thicknesser. It's always frustrated me not having one, and I'm too time constrained to frig around without the right tools. With my new sidekick I got stuck back in. Soprano now is neck glued in; fretboard cut, thicknessed, and mostly fretted; neck heel shaped; body sanded to 400 grit and first coat of finish on. I have a little bit of clear filler to go in the open pores of the myrtle, plus a couple of little binding gaps to fill, but otherwise making good progress. The soundboard for the tenor has a rosette now and has been thicknessed (pre-machine and I almost had to bin it too! Grr) plus the first couple of braces are on. I think, if I really knuckle down, I should be able to hand them over for Christmas... hopefully... maybe 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted January 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 Hi everyone, merry Christmas and happy new year to all. It's been a busy few months, I ended up taking a new job which I started this week, finished up my last one just before Christmas. Everything was hectic doing hand overs and trying to get projects done before I left. Needless to say, I missed my Christmas deadline. It's mum's birthday next week, so thrashing now to get her's finished; dad's can wait, he's not playing as much at the moment anyway, he's preferring to play his cajon instead. I'll just let the pictures show where I'm at; tuner holes drilled, face plate trimmed, fretboard fitted and the frets all done, neck finished shading and sanding, clear filler put on the sides and back to fill the open grain (and my shitty work. Ha ha), first coats of finish are on sides and back as well. Last tricky step is to fit the bridge. Having only done electrics before where the bridge has adjustment, I'm concerned about getting this one just right. You'll have to excuse the messy bench. Cleaning is low on the priority list at the moment. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted January 17, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2023 Well, the soprano is all done! Mum's birthday was yesterday, so I got to give it to her for that, which was really nice. She absolutely loved it and was blown away. Good result! It plays nicely (for a uke, anyway ) The biggest hurdle I had was to fit the bridge; I tried clamps through the sound hole which didn't work, putting chocks in there so I could clamp around the outside. In the end I gave up and went full backyard and just pulled it tight with as much blue tape as I could! Ha ha. Seems to have worked. In the end, I've learned a lot; there's some finishing stuff I'd do differently next time, it was very hard to get the surface as flat as I wanted with wipe on poly. The sound board is probably a bit rigid too; it could definitely be louder, although it does have a lovely mellow sound. I'll take proper photos later, but for now, I'm very pleased with how it came out, plus relieved it's done. I'll slowly get the tenor done from here, but need to get a few other things done around the house first. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted January 17, 2023 Report Share Posted January 17, 2023 A belated happy birthday to your mother who has raised a son who could make her such a pretty present! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted January 18, 2023 Report Share Posted January 18, 2023 Looks pretty stunning to me! SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 Congrats on GOTM! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicco Posted February 9, 2023 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 Thanks Biz! I feel pretty chuffed that the group thought my little uke was worthy of being compared with @mattharris75 gorgeous guitar! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattharris75 Posted February 11, 2023 Report Share Posted February 11, 2023 Congrats! Now I want to build a Uke! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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