In retrospect, we managed to do a lot today. But at the time it certainly seemed like I did very little today. It was a good start to the day as coming into the shop I knew without being told what was to happen next. Off with the clothespins and on to the 12′ dish to sand the linings flush. Sanding was approached similarly to Day 3, but took much less time. Then the body gets clamped to a workboard with a sound hole clamp built in and the back is centered and glued on, much the same way as the top.
Ahhhh, the neck. The neck was the one thing I feared probably more than anything else. How was I with no skill with a file or rasp going to ever be able to shape a proper neck. Have you looked at a uke or guitar neck? Compound radii does not give proper expression of what goes into neck shaping. But I am getting ahead of myself…
The first thing to do is actually get a rough shape cut into it. To that end, Mike has an acrylic template he uses for neck/headstock profiling. Then with a marking gauge (I always wondered what they were for) we marked the center line, then filled it in with a pencil line to make it more visible. The headstock thickness gets cut on the scarf joint jig to keep the line straight. After that it is pulled off the jig and freehanded on the bandsaw. That takes care of the “thumb” side of the neck. Mike has a 1/2″ thick neck template he screws to the fingerboard of the neck blank and uses it to cut the rough taper and headstock shape of the neck. Then the neck is placed fretboard side down onto the router table and the remaining wood is removed with a flush cut bit to give the neck it’s proper taper. Then Back to the bandsaw to cut a rough approximate angle for the heel.
Now for the fun part. Neck shaping was broken down into three relatively discrete steps. One, shape the profile and taper of the neck. Two, shape the transition from the neck to the headstock. Three, shape the heel.
To start, visualise (or as I did) draw a centerline down the back of the neck. Symmetry is obviously key here. (unless you’re going for an asym shape, but that’s your problem) The idea is to get the rough shape across just an inch or so in the middle of the neck and then push it out to the edges and then bring it down to thin out the neck when you have a proper profile carved. Carving (in a way) was similar to the braces. Start with a 45 degree angle and then facet again and again. Work one side, then work the other to keep things symmetrical. The rasp was odd to get used to. I really have no experience with a rasp or much with files either. Well, other than using them in ways I am sure would make most knowledgeable woodworkers cringe in anxiety. That aside, I think I can get my next neck down to half the time this one took. This one seemed to go on and on forever, but I digress…
After the profile and taper is pretty much defined, Mike had me draw in a sort of rough transition shape from the neck to the headstock. I was pretty bloody sure I’d fornicate this up in a major way, but somehow didn’t. Really, it was all about keeping off the taper line and carving down to the transition line, then just morphing it together. It felt like I was taking for bloody ever to get the neck shaped and in the end it is probably a little thick, but still a nice feeling neck. Certainly not the thickest I’ve played by a long shot, though…
In the meantime, body work continues as it’s ready while I shape the neck. We removed the clamps from the body and sanded the edges smooth. The sides tend to facet aroundthe “flame” of the koa instead of bending nice and smooth like plastic would. A little sanding with the random orbital sander takes care of that. If it is left, the faceting telescopes into the binding/purfling and you end up with a very wonky line.
The binding/purfling ledge is routed with a laminate trimmer and a 1″ rabbeting bit with a properly sized bearing to get the depth of cut required. As I was looking for a simpler, cleaner look with this uke, I decided to forgo any purfling. If purfling is used, it is routed first then the binding ledge is cut. Mike has a little router carriage set up and a cradle for the uke. The uke sits in the carriage and you essentially spin the uke around to cut the ledge. All in all, a fairly simple process.
I decided on a Bloodwood binding only on the soundboard side, so we took the Bloodwood pieces and stuck them in the bender and bent them much like the sides were bent. We bent two sets in order to have a backup and picked the best ones to use. The binding pieces were taped together flush, then inserted into the bender.
To install the binding we clamped the first piece tight at the waist, then added another clamp the depth of the uke. From there we worked toward each end of the uke spot tacking with cyanoacrylate as we went along, using the accelerant to speed things up. After the side was trimmed into place, we saturated the binding with the glue and sprayed it with accelerant. The butt joint is important to get clean, but the neck side joint is less so as the neck will (obviously) hide it. Repeat for the other side.
We nailed the thickness of the binding pretty damn well, so it was only minimum sanding to get it flush to the body. I then rounded the edges by hand with 220 paper on a block. If you look at Mike’s Gallery, you will notice he uses the faux tortoise shell binding a lot. Having seen too many bloody ugly pick guards on guitars made from faux tortoise shell, I have an extreme distaste for tortoise shell. However, Mike uses it to great effect as a binding and part of it I feel is because is the binding is just slightly smaller than a guitar’s binding so that it’s not as obnoxious. Mike tells me it’s because he rounds it over enough that the light shines through it giving it a very nice look. Nevertheless, I never thought I would admit to liking faux tortoise shell. Not that I about to use it on this uke, mind you…
Dovetail time! The uke is placed in the router table sled and lined up with the centerline in the acrylic fence. Once it is lined up, it is clamped to the fence and the dovetail mortise is cut. Using the hand router, a 1/2″ plate aluminum jig is taped to the neck with double-sided tape and the 10″ radius is cut into the heel to match the body profile. 60 grit sandpaper is then taped with double-sided tape to the body and the neck is clamped into a vise and then sanded to fit using the body as a template. The neck is centered and clamped to the router table sled and a stepped mortise is cut into the heel block to accept the dovetailed tenon blank. The tenon block is cut to fit with the bandsaw, then shaped with a chisel.
We also slotted the fretboard today. First thing to do is to use the jointer to create a reference edge to assure the slots are perpendicular to the fretboard’s length. Slotting is done on the table saw with a pinned slotting template. The saw blade appeared to be a Stew-Mac slotting blade, although I didn’t actually ask. The acrylic template is attached to the back of the fretboard with double-sided tape and a pin is inserted in the template at the first hole and a cut is made using a sled. Each successive cut is made by lifting the clamp off the fretboard, moving one pin hole over and making another cut. Slotting was almost
anti-climactic in its ease.
I decided on a tulipwood headplate. It looks great with the bloodwood binding!
P.S. As long time listeners will have undoubtedly noticed, I have finally spent 30 seconds and worked out how to attach pictures to posts, so that should be more common as I finish posting Days 5-7. In other news, I bought my first uke building tool the other day. A dead table saw. Exciting, no!? I’ll use it to build myself a router table like Mike’s. It was cheap, how could I say no?
