Nicco

Biz, it's the sustainability part that's the issue, they don't plantation grow jarrah, so it's forest timber. There's a logging ban kicking in, in a couple of years in our state which will make it much harder to come by. And Mike, yeah, good points. Maybe it'll be worth an experiment one day. For now I've cut up the parts to make the necks for both. They'll both be the same; sexy figured qld maple for the two outer laminations, with a 5mm tasmanian blackwood centre u strip flanked by an 0.5mm black veneer strip on either side. The decision to do the laminated neck was driven by practical considerations as well as aesthetic; if I laminated them I could make both necks from a single guitar neck blank I already had. Ha ha. Each layer was located with the two dowel holes, so the cut outs are pretty tight in a couple of spots. They've just been glued up, so hopefully I'll get a chance to look at them tomorrow and see how they turned out.

Thanks Mike. Yeah, jarrah is a funny one. It's the main native forestry timber around this part of the world. Dense and heavy and a lot of old bits being used as furniture and buildings. From what I've read it sounds as though it doesn't really get that ring to it as a tone wood, which is a shame cause it's the easiest thing for us to get here. Obviously most of it isn't birdseye like that piece, but, somewhat scarily, it's used a lot as firewood. I'm still not sure how I feel about using it for firewood, but I still use it cause it's what's available.

It's worth adding that the tenor bridge is birdseye jarrah, and it really doesn't photograph well under the led lights in the shed; it looks more brown and less orange in real life. It goes with the fretboard rather nicely.

Congrats Mike

So I resisted the urge to dodgy my way through the bridge build with veneer and set to fixing the mill; the fella I'd bought it from had jammed the collet chuck in so hard it wouldn't come out and was bending everything to try and get it loose. Given the collet wasn't concentric (defeats the purpose of a collet chuck, but anyway) I needed to get it out and fit the drill type chuck that also came with the mill. I ended up fairly disassembling the head to get enough purchase to get a bearing puller on it. Eventually I got it out and the drill chuck in. The bits are running straight and true now. Phew! I ended up doing a third prototype of the soprano bridge before finally getting it right on number 4. All the hard work paid off though, because the tenor bridge came together on the first go. All that's left on the bridges now is to final sand and break the edges on the soprano one, and final contour shaping of the tenor one. Excited to get these done. It was fun doing some "machining" but I'm ready to get the mill off my bench and get back to the woodwork now

Ha ha true, maybe I was being a little harsh for the sake of the joke, but the point roughly still stands, a good acoustic guitar sounds like honey to me, but ukuleles are always a bit clacky. But, no doubt, in the right hands they can sound amazing

So, at the risk of using veneer to fix everything; it occurred to me that the 0.5mm black maple veneer would bring the saddle slot back to dimension. I might give it a whirl cause this one is cactus anyway

Thanks Scott. And Bizman, I never responded to your comment directly either. I see where you're coming from re the sound and the inlay, but to my ears, ukelele's sound shit... so maybe that's what I need to inlay. Frustrating progress on the ukes. I got inspired by Dave Higham using a mini mill for machining parts and remembered that I have one in the corner of the shed. I got another bridge blank all ready to go and machined the saddle slot with a 3.125mm straight bit for the 3.33mm saddle. Unfortunately it turns out the collet had some weird run out and the slot came out at 4mm. ☹ Unfortunately that's the only collet I've got for the mill, so I'll need to use a router for take 3.

Righto, so the artistic director (my other half) and I agreed that the wren inlay is just detail for detail's sake, which neither of us are massively keen on. It's too cramped up, so it's not adding to the instrument. I like it, but maybe next time. I had a first crack at trying to make a bridge. It's not bad, but I'll do another better. Also, the rims are together now for the tenor as well. Very exciting!

I'm toying with the idea of doing an inlay on the soundboard of the soprano as well, using one of my designs for timber brooches we sell. I'm still not sure if it's just adding detail for details sake at this stage; it would work on a bigger instrument, but I think it might end up looking cramped next to the bridge

Well, the rosette is in, and I'm very happy with the effect of the black veneer trims. I'm really glad that it worked out this way. The light trim on the ID is bunya pine, same as the soundboard. Once it's all sanded and finished it'll be nicely round and flushed with the sound hole. The rosette is still just a hair proud as well, which is why it's got the glue marks around it still.

Yeah, agreed, I reckon it neatens it up nicely.

A standard veneer is between 0.5mm up to about 0.8mm (as far as my collection goes anyway) The OD of the rosette was actually a little smaller again once I'd cleaned it up, works well as it's meant I can use a black veneer as a trim piece (0.5mm thick but needs a 1mm diameter difference obviously) I'll put a black trim on the inside diameter as well to even up the look. I've cleaned out all the inner diameter of the rosette now to make space. Should be apple's now. In other news, I've bent up the first tenor side and the second one is in the forms. It's going to be a much bigger instrument than the soprano (but still much smaller than a guitar)

Meticulous work as always!

I also got to working on the soundboard for the soprano last night. First I made a mistake with the sound hole, I did it first but should have done it after the rosette, so it chipped out when I cut the rosette channel. I'll have to go in and sort that out later. Also, my circle cutting jig didn't quite work as planned, the rosette channel came out to an outside diameter of 60mm which is where I wanted it, but the rosette came out at 59.5mm, so there's a little gap there. Annoying, cause it should have been perfect. I'll see what I can do, I might just have to suck it up and do another rosette.

Yeah thanks, Mike. The book recommended this method. I thought either this or @Dave Higham's method looked like the easiest. The router options are more solid and consistent, but I shudder at the thought of how much dust they'd make. Ha ha

Back from the family visit now, had a quick run at it today before I have to disappear for a few days again tomorrow. I've managed to get the radius dish done; I used the method from the book I purchased, 50mm wide pine strips cut to the right radius on the bandsaw, then a 3mm mdf panel glued down on the top. The underside of the bench doubles as a handy go bar deck

Yep, awesome suggestions thanks Biz. I think the angle blocks to hold the work piece would definitely help me, the more I think about it the more I wonder if my issue was letting the downstream end of the piece wander around; it was the last 20% where the cut really went wonky, which means 80% was flapping in the breeze behind the blade. Then it's just a simple matter of leverage; a little bit of wander at the far end is hard to overcome at the short end with sideways force. I've made some more progress on the ukes; tenor forms are almost done now, just need to finish sand the inside of the second half. It's going to be a much bigger instrument than the soprano, that's for sure! I've also cut the side taper on the soprano and fitted the kerfing for the back. I'm off to visit family for the next week, so that will be all for progress for a while

Thanks fellas. That's a handy guide, Charlie, thanks for that. My blade always seems to drift the same direction, I wonder if perhaps my tracking and tension are a bit out. Hrmm. And wow, Biz, that's quite a set up going on there. I think you're overestimating my saw using abilities though, very much capable of operating error! I originally cut two blanks of mulga, one with and one without sap wood. This must have been the guitar building God's suggesting I needed to use the sap wood one all along. Ha ha. My kerfing strips turned up the other day, so I got the top of the soprano kerfing on. I've sanded it all flat and ready to plane the taper into three back face now; it's about 5 or 10mm deeper at the tail than the neck. I've also started on the forms for the tenor.

Holy shit! I thought you were making covers to go over the pickups, not that they were going to become the body of a custom pickup!

Had a bit of a fail last night, ran the soprano fret board blank through the band saw to roughly bring it to thickness but the blade wandered. Too thin now. ☹ Unfortunately it's scrap now. Does anyone have any idea on what would be causing wandering? I think I've got it set up well, but... i dunno. Also possibly operator error is a factor. I didn't take a photo of the ruined fretboard, but I did get one of the replacement blank. You can see the curvature on the top left of the blank, that was the blade pulling towards the fence as I entered the cut.

I feel like you're doing yourself a disservice there! Ha ha. Lovely work as always. Looking forward to the next chapter.

Yep, it's tidgy tiny!

The binding really brings it together, looks really good.

Fret slots finished for the soprano, just need to bring the blank down to thickness. The blank for the tenor has been brought down to thickness and is ready to get some slots. I gave them both a sand up to 400 grit last night and a hit of wax to protect them, they look gorgeous in person, but hard to photo in a way that does it any justice.