Rainbow Goodness

First scratch build. Mineral stained poplar (rainbow) sides and back, Honduras rosewood
fretboard and bridge plate, honduras mahogany lining, mahogany neck block, engelman spruce braces,
laminated poplar tail block, old growth redwood one piece top, stained poplar and brazilian rosewood
neck with walnut bridge and clubs headstock veneer. Decided to wait till later on the zebra wood
soundhole ring... going with maple and ebony zipper. Paduak/maple/ebony binding.

I think I know why peeps dont' do poplar... when you cut it it starts smoking like it's on fire.. it doesn't want to be cut at all. When you're shaping it it might try to take on its on shape instead... heh... it doesn't like to be directed. I love this species.

Oh yeah, here is a shot of my first CBU... the tone is sweet and the intonation isn't too far off but it's not very loud. Next CBU I'll do different. These items come from a smoke filled home.

They both look great--and you've successfully bent your first sides (those are your first, yes?). Super cool.

Very nice!

Sweet! Can't wait to see it all completed!

the poplar is gorgeous!

Zebra Wood

I was just looking at some scrape zebra wood this morning that I have and thinking it would look good laid out radially as a rosette. Yours confirms it! Your build looks great so far.

-darrel

mattclara said:

They both look great--and you've successfully bent your first sides (those are your first, yes?). Super cool.

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Actually the first set I bent was some really yellow and brown zebra wood. I read that zebra wood is hard to bend but it was really pretty easy. I'm going to put a mahogany top on it... the color scheme kinda makes me think banana nut muffin lol.

Papa Dave said:

Very nice!

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Thanks Dave! I hope it's as nice when it's finished (crossing fingers).

mcnilly said:

the poplar is gorgeous!

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I think so too. A lot of people don't like poplar, even hate it lol, different strokes...

Darrel said:

I was just looking at some scrape zebra wood this morning that I have and thinking it would look good laid out radially as a rosette. Yours confirms it! Your build looks great so far.

-darrel

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Thanks Darrel. I picked up a triangular piece of the zebra wood off the floor and a small bulb flickered and popped.

Thanks Flyfish57, haven't been fly fishing in a long long time. Getting closer on the uke. Got the back glued on last night. Today I'll do the binding if nothing goes wrong. Finish the neck. Decided to go with a spruce top, goes better with the rainbow poplar I think. I have much better looking spruce but I was picking them up and tapping them and this one rang like a bell, I said "this is the one". One day down the road that spruce will go yellow amber, if there are humans still around to see it I think it'll look really nice with the poplar.

Pretty! That looks so cool.

You have some good stuff going there...Nice...!!!

I'm ascared to... this stuff is harder than it looks!

Hah! Yep, that's got to be the scariest procedure of all.

Here's a couple of precautions I take.

ALWAYS practice your cuts first on a block of wood the same height as the uke you'll be working on.
I brush a couple of coats of finish just on the corners. maybe 1/2" all around the body where I'll be routing. I don't know if this really helps to prevent any tearing out or splitting but I read this tip somewhere and it works and I'm not going to stop doing it.
Make four climb cuts as your first cuts. make sure you are going on the right direction. If you bought the Stew mac bearing kit, the directions come with a handy little drawing on where to start the climb cuts and the directions to rout. Take this little drawing and tape it to your router fixture.
Go slow, but not too slow. Go slower as you approach the end graft. That's a good spot for blow out.
You're likely to get a line on the sides from the spinning bearing. (Or is it just me?) This can be caused from going too slow and/or exerting too much pressure toward the router. No worries, just brush a little water on the groove and it'll go away.
I like just the right amount of downward pressure from my router. I can't explain exactly what this is, but it's enough weight to make sure you have good contact with the uke and the router base but not so much weight that you need to force your work. I have a light spring on the top of my router to relieve a little of the weight.
Use the bathroom before you begin, turn off the cell phone, tell your wife/kids/dogs what you're doing, and take a deep breath and hold it until your done. The first time is the worst, the rest aren't so bad but it ALWAYS demands focus.
Good luck, you'll do fine.

Dang, Vic, even your jig is pretty...all that contrasting wood and such. I also like how the colors in the neck match the colors on the back. Nicely done.

Chuck, I had the router directions open on my desktop, I'm gonna do like you say and print it out. It's funny, just about everything you mentioned I was prepaired for because I've read this stuff over and over till it sinks in but... I'm always wondering if I missed something and sometimes I do... but not this time.
I did get a very faint line from the bearing, thanks for the water tip. I have a few very small dings here and there I'll need use the wet paper towel/ soldering iron trick on.
I'm not sure what happened but this went flawless. I don't know if it's my jig (which works beyond my expectations ) or the stewmac bit and bearing or the poplar but it's an absolute perfect fit, maybe a human hair proud on top, absolutely no tear out.
Thanks so much everyone for your kinds words and support!

I'll be keeping this jig a long time I think.

PS: I read about putting some finish on the edge of like spruce and stuff, I think i read to put sealer?

two dogs plucking said:

Dang, Vic, even your jig is pretty...all that contrasting wood and such. I also like how the colors in the neck match the colors on the back. Nicely done.

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Thanks Two Dogs. I have to admit when I start doing jigs n such and having all the cool wood scraps around I kinda get carried away sometimes. The better half asked me the other day when I was doing this jig " Do you have to use your good wood?". It's just some yellow pine and poplar and some oak from a broken piece of trim from this old house. she said "that's fine then" and I said "yes mam".

WOW Coming along very nicely Vic, can't wait to see and hear the finished product.