Best selling wood projects - Building a Ukulele Part 1 Timber Selection Layout

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My first Ukulele - here goes ..................

Ive been ruminating on this for weeks now, and its time to make a start.  After much research, and not a little searching for appropriate timber, Im actually in the starting blocks and ready to go.

Since this is my first Uke, I am going to treat the whole build as a learning experience.  Join with me and watch the progress and the mistakes as we travel this luthiered road together.


Timber Selection

I have acquired some very nice timber for the project(s) but have decided to keep the better pieces for later builds, in case I stuff up badly on the first attempt. 
Some tonewoods that I have acquired for the tops and the body includes:

• Huon Pine
• King Billy Pine
• Tasmanian Myrtle
• Tasmanian Blackwood
• Black Heart Sassafras

Heres what Im going to be using this time around:

The soundboard will be western red cedar.  These pieces have been ripped down from some ship-lap boards from my brother in laws kitchen - left over after his recent renovation.  They are very old and nicely quarter sawn.

The fretboard, headstock and bridge will be made of Australian rosewood.  As this is my first ukulele, I am bound to make some mistakes in the build.  Better to do that with less exotic timbers, and save the good stuff for later ukeuleles.

Just to refresh your memory on uke nomenclature here is a quick revision:

The back and sides will be ripped from some figured sassafras, and the neck will be made up of some laminated straight grained sassafras as well.

The linings will be made from paulonia - because I found a piece in the woodpile - and it is light and should prove quite satisfactory.

Making The Linings

Linings are the curved strips that adhere to the sides and assist the gluing of the soundboard and the back of the ukulele.  These can be purchased from music suppliers, but I decided to make my own.

Ill use the table saw, and this is what I will end up with before cutting into strips:

To get to this point, I made up a little jig which is screwed to the mitre gauge.  It is simply a pin hammered into the face of the mitre gauge - 5mm from the cut line.

The cuts are made in the surface of the piece of paulonia so that they leave about 1/8 of the thickness remaining.  These multiple kerfs allow the linings to be bent, to follow the curves of the sides of the ukulele.

After each cut, the kerf that has just been made is placed over the pin, and the cut repeated 5mm away.  This continues until the board is mostly kerfed.  There will be a small amount at the end that wont be done, as it is too small to be supported by the mitre gauge - and too dangerous to attempt without it.

Once the kerfing is complete, I cut this kerfed board into thin strips on my bandsaw.

Here are the finished linings:

The linings are easy to bend, and will be put aside until the body assembly stage of construction.

Next step will be to rip the pieces of sassafras for the sides and back.  That will have to wait until next time.

This is going to be fun ...... cant wait ........

...... and happy woodworking to all ....................
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Best selling wood projects - Building a Ukulele Part 3 Making A Rosette Cutter For Soundboards

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I dont have one, I need one, I have no idea where to buy one - so Ill make one.

After the soundboard is assembled, and before I fit it to the body, I will have to cut the inlay for the rosette, as well as the sound hole itself.  So I need a circle cutter.

I found a couple of scraps of jarrah which will serve nicely, as well as a sliver of tool steel that has been kicking around the bottom of my tool box for decades.  I cant remember where this originally came from, but it will make an ideal knife. 
Other blade materials could be an old jigsaw blade, or a piece of hack saw blade or bandsaw blade - ground to shape.

I ground a skew before establishing a bevel, then sharpened on my oilstone and honed on white arkansas.

My first step was to cut a piece from the side of the scrap - the same width as the knife blade.  This will be used for the wedge to hold the blade in place, as well as the sides of the body.

The knife will be positioned towards the end of an arm that slides within the body, and is held in place by a second wedge.  More on this later.

I start with the housing for the blade and its wedge, and make sure that this is finished before shaping the arm that carries it.  This is important, as it gives a solid block to work with while cutting the housing.

The housing is cut just like a through mortise.  After marking it out, I drill out some of the waste - from both sides toward the middle (to stop tearout at the bottom), which would happen if drilled all the way through from the one side.
The knife side is that end of the housing closest to the body, so this has to be vertical.  The outside end of the mortice is sloped to take the wedge.  Dont reverse these, as this puts the knife too far away from the centre point, and limits the size of the minimum circle that can be cut.

I use a Narex morticing chisel and one of my bench chisels to clean up the inside walls.  The Narex is made in the Czech Republic, and while cheap to buy, is well up to the task of handling this hard old jarrah.  The bench chisel is a Pexto - nee Peck, Stowe and Wilcox -  one of the best from the golden age of US tool manufacturing, and up there with Swan and Witherby.

Once the housing is finished, the sliding arm can be shaped.  I keep the offcuts to be used in the body and the wedge, as they are exactly the same width as the sliding arm.  Two pieces from the first ripping and the offcuts make up the body - glued and screwed.

Here are the assembled parts before gluing into place.  The shape will be refined after the glue dries.

Cut the wedge for the knife, and glue and clamp.

Insert the centre pin, (a broken drill bit) and - voila - all done!

So ............... how does it cut ................?

Not too shabby at all .....................

Love life and live .......................


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Best selling wood projects - An Elegant Jelly Cabinet Construction Part 2 Making Mouldings

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Artisans Expo on Friday, Camden Haven Show yesterday, Sunday chores and family time .......
So where am I up to?
Components need to be cut and sized - and if not square, made so.

Several parts - the sides, top, bottom and back panel are all wider than the stock that I have available, so some edge jointing and gluing are called for.  Ill use biscuits again, as they are convenient, strong and quick.

While the glued up panels are drying, Ill get the remainder cut out, and make a start on the mouldings for the crown and the base.  I am going to make my own mouldings from the offcuts of the New Guinea Rosewood.  Should be fun.

Here is the moulding plane that I have chosen for cutting this particular moulding.

It was made of beech by J Creagh in Cincinati, Ohio - probably in the late 1800s or perhaps the early 1900s.

It is boxed and sprung.
It has an inlaid boxwood wear strip down the left - as seen here - hence boxed.

As a sprung plane, it has two spring lines scribed on the front. These indicate that the plane has to be tilted to its left as it is used, to give the correct orientation to the cutter as it is presented to the timber.

The squared section on the right side of the sole as seen in this picture, is the fence that abuts the edge of the timber.  Keep all these things in mind when using moulding planes like this.

Look closely at this front shot of the plane and you will see the faint spring lines - parallel to the red arrows that I have drawn to show the orientation of the springing.
The fence abutting the edge of the timber can also be clearly seen on the right.  I have just started this, and already a groove is beginning to appear.

The plane will stop cutting when the built in depth stop reaches the level of the surface.  As can be seen here, there is a long way to go yet.

 As I cut deeper, the boxwood strip starts to contact the surface and the second groove begins to take shape.

It usually starts at the far end of the workpiece, and slowly extends along the full length.

Special care must be taken to even out the cutting depth as soon as the groove is the full length.  If left too long, there will be too much to remove at the start end of the board, and it will be awkward to adjust afterwards.

Best results in cutting mouldings like this are in straight grained timber.  There are a couple of curly bits in the timber I am using, and these will require remediation later.

Mouldings like this can be cut with a router, but will require a router table and multiple passes of the machine.

This creates mountains of dust and chips, and if not done carefully, runs the risk of burning the timber from the speed of the router bit.

With a moulding plane, there are mounds of shavings, but no dust.

They save on power and give a workout at the same time - win, win!

The finished mouldings fit the profile of the plane perfectly.  Ill trim them to width later when I decide what looks best on the finished cupboard.

I have been trying to discover the correct term for this profile.

Two possibilities are a quirked cyma reversa  and a grecian ogee with fillet.
Perhaps even a quirked grecian ogee.

If you know, please leave a comment.













Did someone mention shavings!

OK, the pieces are coming together.

Wont be long before there will be some serious joinery.

I have noticed that my reference lines are becoming faint, so I will re-mark those before going any further.

I am going to start with the sides, top and bottom, and then build the back panel to suit the size of the carcass.

The front will have a face frame to house the door, which will be of frame and panel construction.

Ill make the door last so that it will be a snug fit.
Not sure how far Ill get this week, as there are a few other items needing attention around the place.
Well see ...........


Happy woodworking to all ...........
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Best selling wood projects - An Elegant Jelly Cabinet Construction Part 1 Layout

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Traditionally, this style of cupboard would have been made with pine, as it was designed to be useful, and not necessarily beautiful.  Id like mine to be a little bit special, so I have chosen to build it from New Guinea Rosewood - with a feature door panel made from Australian Rosewood - sometimes called Australian Rose Mahogany.

I am lucky enough to know where each of these originated.  The New Guinea Rosewood came from the Solomon Islands, and the Australian Rosewood from around Killarney in Queensland.

It is important to lay out the timber so that grain direction can be studied, and any defects noted.

I use sidewalk chalk for my initial layout, as it is easy to see, is easily removed if I change my mind, and it doesnt leave permanent marks or indentations in the timber.

None of these boards is quite wide enough for a panel without gluing an extra strip of timber, so that has to be planned for.   Trying to match the grain in the glued pieces can be an exercise in concentration and frustration.

The Australian Rosewood door panel is the only one that will be able to be done in one piece.

These boards are quite long - between 2.4 and 3 metres, so will need to be cut down to a manageable length before jointing.  Ideally, the longer the better in jointing the edges, but I will be too cramped for space if I leave them as is.  So a little surgery is called for.

A panel saw is the usual tool for this procedure.  Mine is a Disston number 7 with 6-1/2 TPI filed cross cut.  It is an oldie - still has its front nib on the upside of the toe.  Cuts like a dream.

Once the boards have been roughly dimensioned, it is time to create the reference edge and face.  These boards have already been surfaced but the edges are a bit how-ya-goin.
I usually joint any concave edges first, and use these as the reference edge on each board for dimensioning.  This edge needs labelling - as in the following picture.

 The edge jointing can be done with a jointer plane.  This one is a Union X-8 - thick blade and fixed frog make this ideal for quick wood removal.

When hand jointing, the edge needs to be checked for square.  Once square, the edge becomes the reference edge - and is so marked.

Of course, hand planing all those edges can be time consuming.  If you have access to a powered jointer, it will make short work of the task.  The reference edge still needs to be marked.  All work on each board will now take place from these reference edges.

In Part 2, Ill use these reference edges in cutting the parts to length and ensuring that the edges are not only square but parallel.

Cant wait.






















Happy woodworking to all............





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