Ordering first soprano wood sizes

78er · Jan 14, 2015

Hi guys, I'm ordering some cherry and walnut today from local luthier supplies, and as I don't have a bandsaw or thickness sander yet they will cut and thickness it to my desired size.
I plan to build a couple of sopranos and was going to ask for all of the pieces to be at 4mm.
I could ask for thinner I suppose but just wanted to check with you guys if 4mm should be ok, obviously I'll hand sand to final thickness. Cheers!

Sven · Jan 14, 2015

Hand sanding from 4 mm will be a lot of work. Depending on the grain, a hand plane could take you there in a fraction of the time. (Also of course depending on the plane and your experience.)

orangeena · Jan 14, 2015

Or make a thicknesser as per Ken Timms (timbuck) instructions. Mine works a treat.

78er · Jan 14, 2015

Sven said:
Hand sanding from 4 mm will be a lot of work. Depending on the grain, a hand plane could take you there in a fraction of the time. (Also of course depending on the plane and your experience.)

Thanks Sven. I'm certainly in the 'beginner' category when it comes to planes but I'll be doing a lot of practice on cheap wood before I touch the good stuff. The supplier will, as far as I know supply at any thickness I require so would you suggest asking for 3mm for top back and side pieces?

Timbuck · Jan 14, 2015

78er said:
Thanks Sven. I'm certainly in the 'beginner' category when it comes to planes but I'll be doing a lot of practice on cheap wood before I touch the good stuff. The supplier will, as far as I know supply at any thickness I require so would you suggest asking for 3mm for top back and side pieces?

More like 2mm - 2.5mm

ld:

78er · Jan 14, 2015

Thanks guys. I guess I planned to ask for it a bit thicker than needed so that I had to do some of the work myself. Kinda feels like I'm cheating if the top, back and sides are at the correct thickness from the start. Suppose until I have the correct equipment I'll have to keep doing it that way

Moore Bettah Ukuleles · Jan 14, 2015

It depends how good the sawyers equipment is. If he's getting a smooth cut I'd ask for something between 2.5 and 3.0 mm.

78er · Jan 14, 2015

Moore Bettah Ukuleles said:
It depends how good the sawyers equipment is. If he's getting a smooth cut I'd ask for something between 2.5 and 3.0 mm.

Thank you. I think I'll go for 3mm. Its all a learning curve for me anyway so whatever doesn't work this time I can always change later. The supplier is David Dyke in the UK, I've read a lot of good stuff online and they've been really helpful in my emails. They even stock side bending irons and a load of other stuff I was planning to order from Stewmac so I've saved myself a few quid in import charges &#55357;&#56842;

tangimango · Jan 15, 2015

If its soprano ukulele build, make top and back 2mm and sides 1.7mm.

78er said:
Thank you. I think I'll go for 3mm. Its all a learning curve for me anyway so whatever doesn't work this time I can always change later. The supplier is David Dyke in the UK, I've read a lot of good stuff online and they've been really helpful in my emails. They even stock side bending irons and a load of other stuff I was planning to order from Stewmac so I've saved myself a few quid in import charges ��

78er · Jan 15, 2015

tangimango said:
If its soprano ukulele build, make top and back 2mm and sides 1.7mm.

Will do, thank you. Just wasn't sure whether to order my wood a little thicker from the supplier, so that I could then get it down a mm or so

Timbuck · Jan 15, 2015

If the wood is supplied by Mr Dyke then the finish will be good...it was when I got mine

Ordering first soprano wood sizes

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