Tom's Ukulele part 2.

Today I slept all day, and decided I wasn't gonna waste the whole night doing nothing sitting on the computer.  I cut all the braces out of some 3/8 and 1/2" poplar dowels, and got the ones for the back glued in.  While I had those all setting in my clamping jig, I cut out the sound hole on the top so it would help me place the braces on that side.

I used a hole saw in my drill press to do the soundhole.  It slipped a couple millimeters while pressing it in, so its slightly off center.  I'm gonna use hand files to clean that up so its more centered.

After that I figured out where I needed the braces for the top, I'm using the bigger braces for this side, since it'll be under string tension.  Those will get glued in after the back comes out of my jig, and then I can get to shaping them.

Stay tuned.

Tom's Ukulele

About 4-5 weeks ago I had posted up some pics of some nice bookmatched walnut veneers I had gotten in asking if anyone was interested in a soprano ukulele.  My long time friend Tom stepped up almost immediately wanting one of my originals.  I told him I'd get started after I finished up the repair jobs I already had on reserve.  After I finished Lou's Regal, Ted's Gibson, and another of Lou's guitars, I started making a rig to joint the veneers.  I forgot to hook my shopvac up to the jointer and made a giant mess when I put some 1x8's through it for the jig.

After I sanded them to where I was satisfied, I taped em up and set em aside so I could join together a backing.  I felt the veneers were a little too thin to stand on their own, so I laminated the top to a piece of joined maple, and the back to a piece of mahogany I had.  That brought the overall thickness to about 1/8. 

After fumbling around with trying to print out a 6 page blueprint I had downloaded and tweaked a little, I finally got the body section to print and cut it out to use as a template.  Placed it where I thought the grain looked best, and I cut both sides out with a coping saw. 

I cut them both out slightly oversized.  Once I glue em onto the sides, I plan on using a flush/trim router bit to size it up perfectly.  Gonna assemble my bending iron this weekend, and hopefully get my mold made monday.  Keep an eye out for updates.

Gibson Southern Jumbo complete

Last night I got the last 2 braces in.  I had initially been worried that I would need to do some touch up work because it was really hard to set them in line with the old glue lines, but they're solid as a rock.  I took off the clamps and jacks this morning, and polished and strung it up, and fuck does she sound pretty.  I didn't have any acoustic strings in stock, so I put some 12 gauge steels on there and it has some amazing sustain.  Played a couple songs to make sure she'd stay in tune, and I think its ready to go.  The crack on top is still noticeable, but its solid.  I don't want to risk touching up the finish and potentially ruin it, so I left it as is.  Hoping the owner is happy when he picks it up.

Gibson Southern Jumbo Update

I apologize for the lack of updates this week.  The saddle blank I had ordered arrived earlier in the week, but had a crack in it, so I had to order another one.  The seller I bought the original from was in China (yeah, i know, big mistake, but the color matched the camel bone nut, so i grabbed it), and I wasn't about to pay to send it back and wait for a new one, which could take up to a month, so I ordered one semi-locally and it got here in 2 days.  Spent a few hours shaping it both to the correct height/radius, and also to the contour of the bridge.  It still needs some minor tweaking, but i think it came out pretty well.

I also finished the internal back bracing, and the strip down the middle to add support where there was a minor crack forming from the old stuff falling out, and tonight I tackled the top crack.  I massaged some titebond into the crack, then levelled it out, and wiped it clean.  After that, I added another strip underneath to support the crack so it won't split again, and will be notching the top braces to accomodate it when I put them in on monday.  Snapped a few pics, and attempted to get a usable one from the inside.  It'll be better when I get an inspection cam.

Used my magnets once again, the brace in back is new.  The original had a nasty split in it, so I whipped up a new one out of a blank I had sitting around.  More to come Monday.

Braces part 1

So I decided to go with hide glue for doing the braces instead of my usual Titebond.  Instead of buying an expensive gluepot, I just got a hotplate and used a soup pan and a pyrex measuring cup.  One thing I learned, is that this stuff smells awful.  I also learned that i need an inspection camera.  These mirrors are a pain to work with.  Plus my pictures this time around suck.  Anyways, I glued up 1 brace, using thumbscrew jacks and my magnet clamps to hold em down.  It worked pretty well, I just need to add a couple drops under one end to secure it down.  Hoping to get the 2nd bottom brace done later today.

1952 Gibson Southern Jumbo - Progress

So I got a little sleep after making my magnetic clamping cauls, and after cutting a license plate off of my sister's car and putting the new one on, I got back to work.  I had shown in a previous update the mahogany strips I had cut to replace the brittle balsa strips that fell out, and glued 3/5 of them in place using my new clamps.  They ended up working pretty damn well, and even better, the color and grain of my new strips matched up really well with the mahogany back of the guitar.  Waiting until I feel comfortable taking the last clamp off, and then I'll reglue the 2 back braces, and add the last 2 strips.

Stay tuned...

New DIY tool

Awhile back I had read about magnetic clamping on frets.com, and decided this gibson would be perfect to try it out on.  I bought 50 1/2"x1/8" Neomydmium/rare earth magnets on ebay for about 20 bucks.  These little fuckers are pretty ridiculous.  Just one is enough to hold up a steel hammer. 

Instead of wasting precious time casting liquid acrylic into molds for this, I just bought an 18" 1x1.25" scrap of plexiglass and cut and drilled it myself.  Took about an hour total to make 3 pairs with 6-8 magnets per caul, and since these are permanent magnets and don't wear out like Alnico, these will surely be used in many jobs in the future.