What's happening in your shed?

The beginnings of a new uke project resawn from a large spalted Silver Maple tree I found cut up and dumped in a ravine along an old farm road not far from my home. I was able to cut and retrieve several nice log segments, which have yielded numerous wood projects, including the large dough bowl shown in the image. There were several even larger pieces of the tree in the ravine, but they were situated in such a way that I felt trying to retrieve more wood could pose a severe risk to my well being, so I left them for nature to take its course.

spalted uke start.jpg
 
tonyturley said:
The beginnings of a new uke project resawn from a large spalted Silver Maple tree I found cut up and dumped in a ravine along an old farm road not far from my home. I was able to cut and retrieve several nice log segments, which have yielded numerous wood projects, including the large dough bowl shown in the image. There were several even larger pieces of the tree in the ravine, but they were situated in such a way that I felt trying to retrieve more wood could pose a severe risk to my well being, so I left them for nature to take its course.
Click to expand...
Lovely stuff. I'm a big sucker for spalted wood. Question: Do you stabilize it with something? Epoxy maybe? CA?
 
sequoia said:
Lovely stuff. I'm a big sucker for spalted wood. Question: Do you stabilize it with something? Epoxy maybe? CA?
Click to expand...
I do stabilize spalted wood when I'm using it to make a pen. Even then I've had a spalted pen blank blow up on the lathe. I have been debating whether this wood needs extra stiffening. It carved easily without any tear-out when I was making the big dough bowl. It also sands much nicer than any other spalted wood I've worked. I took a thin piece of the wood and applied a couple coats of shellac. The piece seemed to be stiffer when the shellac cured. That's promising, as I almost always use shellac as a base coat for any finish.
 
tonyturley said:
I do stabilize spalted wood when I'm using it to make a pen. Even then I've had a spalted pen blank blow up on the lathe. I have been debating whether this wood needs extra stiffening. It carved easily without any tear-out when I was making the big dough bowl. It also sands much nicer than any other spalted wood I've worked. I took a thin piece of the wood and applied a couple coats of shellac. The piece seemed to be stiffer when the shellac cured. That's promising, as I almost always use shellac as a base coat for any finish.
Click to expand...
If it were me I would give that Uke a good soaking in thin ÇA. Beautiful wood.
 
Michael Smith said:
If it were me I would give that Uke a good soaking in thin ÇA. Beautiful wood.
Click to expand...
I have been considering applying Z-poxy thinned with acetone once the body is fully built and sanded. That would also help seal the bindings. I don't want to apply anything before the box is closed.
 
I used my LMI hot pipe to bend the first of the spalted Maple sides this morning. Most difficult to bend wood I've ever worked. I thought Black Cherry was tough. A few months ago I cut a binding size sample of the spalted Maple and it bent easily; the full side was a nightmare, requiring max heat from the bender before it would finally hold a bend. Even using a StewMac metal bending strap and a wood block as backers, and taking it very slowly, I was anticipating a split at any moment. The first side is now securely clamped in my mold for the next 24 hours.
 
Timbuck said:
Would that be before bending the sides or after ? Michael.
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That's a good question Ken. I would do it after if that wood would bend well. I have been unable to bend some spalted wood. Haven't tried CA first but maybe that is the fix.
 
Yep, definitely the most difficult to bend wood that I've worked. But side 2 is cooling in the mold and there has been no springback from side 1. Now for the blocks, and I need to make some more reverse kerf linings.

bent spalted.jpg
 
Timbuck said:
Looking ok from here ....what thickness are the sides ?
Click to expand...
About 2.3mm. I know that also made the bending more difficult, but being spalted wood, I wanted to give myself a bit more thickness in the sides,
 
2.3mm is for those of you metricphobes like me that would be 3/32 inch or 0.094 inch in decimals. Very thick to me but I understand why the OP did it at that thickness. I bend at ~ 0.065 inches or 1.65 mm. Tenors.
 
Thar she blows! Whale whale whale, what do we have here then? Shiver me timbers of Monterey pine for the body and Tasmanian oak for the fretboard. The bridge is Tasmanian blackwood with a melamine (chopstick) saddle and the fret dots in abalone kitchen leftovers. Terry Pratchet fans among you may recognise the artwork from the title page of Nation.

1689479418810.png

1689479561376.png
 
Beau Hannam straight saddle slotting jig.

That is currently cutting saddle slots 1cm longer than intended, whoops. Glued in a piece of plywood to narrow the gap on that top layer and will get the saddle length dialed in tomorrow. Coincidentally the rectangular base of my router has sides that differ in length by 1cm as well, so I'm pretty sure I know where I went wrong 🤔

Other than my measuring mistake this worked great on my test plywood bridge.

Thank you to Beau for sharing!
 

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