bindings alert

Timbuck

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Due to old age, fumbling fingers, stress, nervous breakdowns,and general frustration, and phinxter twitching,and feeling pissed off.. I've decided that when i've completed these two Koa sopranos I'm currently working on..I will give up with bindings on my ukes all together .. From now on just plain "style "O" sopranos" No more bindings if I charged for hours of work? these two would be worth £5000 :eek:ld::eek:ld: I've had a bad day.:mad:
 
Bindings only go two ways. Nice and easy or a total horror show :wallbash:
 
When you put them on ebay try putting the buy it now price at £5k... You never know......
 
When I build Tenors and Concerts I have less problems...But! with my Sopranos with an ultra arched back and 1 inch waist rad it's not easy :mad::uhoh:
But sometimes they go right ;) This one I made yonks ago.
 
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I hear you Ken. Hopefully you'll start a trend that will be the acceptable norm amongst the uke buying public. This week I'm binding 4 ukes, bodies, headstocks and fretboards, all with ebony, two with arm bevels and two with paua abalone purling. None of which I look forward to. :(
 
I feel your pain Ken. Sometimes I approach this step like a world war I soldier going over the top: There is a possibility we are all going to die here! My heart rate goes up. My breathing becomes short and quick. Obviously this is not how to approach wood working things. Best to take a deep breath and proceed. Everything is gonna be fine. Just fine. I'm not an expert binding cutter, but I have learned you don't have to be perfect. A really sharp file with a safe edge will even out those spots that are not deep enough because your sides were not perfectly square. Onward! Through the saw dust!
 
I create the binding channel by gluing the linings to the ribs with an overstep. You need to know the final shape of the rib and of course you still need to trim back the top/back to the lining. Given that I don't like using routers I find it both quicker and neater.
 
Before I go any further I'm going to take Chuck's advice from a few years back, and make a clamp with cauls to fit the waist area and see if I can take some mental stress out of the job.
 
Damnit..... I recognize that little beauty. Was sold to me/mine until it perished in a shop fire a little over a year ago:(


When I build Tenors and Concerts I have less problems...But! with my Sopranos with an ultra arched back and 1 inch waist rad it's not easy
But sometimes they go right ;) This one I made yonks ago.
 
Anyway a bit of thinking and a rummage thro' the scrap bin, a bit of drilling and milling......And I came up with this device .. Next job "see if it actually works" ??.
 
Hope you'll allow a member of the plebeian public to weight in...I LOVE ukuleles without binding. In fact, they remind me of the planes of an infinity pool vs. that pool at Hearst Castle... I also like Copeland's "Simple Gifts" ...I hear that song in my mind when I look at that wonderful Kawika soprano on ebay now. That's my ideal ukulele (just not my ideal price range:). Have a great day and thank you for all your hard work making beautiful ukuleles for us to play.
 
From now on just plain "style "O" sopranos"

There is something quite lovely about a nice style 0 instrument, made cleanly and elegantly. The true craft can shine in its simplicity.
 
Anyway a bit of thinking and a rummage thro' the scrap bin, a bit of drilling and milling......And I came up with this device .. Next job "see if it actually works" ??.

Last weekend I showed someone Timbuck's kerf-making machine. I think this is further evidence that his primary interest in uke building is really to let him build shop accoutrements.
 
As a non-luthier, I find this conversation fascinating. (Dave Sigman is building my next uke for me, my first custom, and the journey has expanded my obsession beyond playing and acquiring ukes, to the art and craft behind them. I'm not about to try building myself, but wow, I love the world you folks occupy.)

Since some of you expressed the hope that bindings would fall out of popular favor, let me ask you: Do they make a difference?

Full disclosure: The uke Dave is making will be first one I've had with binding. That's probably the main draw for me, actually, since I haven't really missed having binding on my other ukes. I appreciate simplicity as well as bling, and while I've heard bindings offer protection, my other ukes seem to have handled the occasional table-tap on a edge quite well...
 
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