a question of thicknessing

Hope this question is welcome….! As a complete newbie to uke building, I’d appreciate some advice from those more experience than I…

Having built one and a half cigar box ukes, I’d like 2010 to be the year of the hourglass… I spent the last few months working the wood by hand for my prototype uke, I’d like to try and find amore effective way for thicknessing my next ukes. I’ve got a set of black walnut for one, and a tiger myrtle/spruce combo for the other that I’d like to build this year.

I’ve got a joiner friend who’s going to help with the practical side, but do any of you have any advice for the best way for a hobby builder to proceed? I’d rather avoid building a thickness sander proper, and was wondering if using a Wagner Safe T Planer might be a better way to go… or is getting the thickness with handtools (and a bit of tutorial from professional) achievable?

The first wood was thinned using a combination of a handheld electric sander, a belt sander, and many hours a cabinet scraper... I also have a Scrub plane, a Stanley Nr 5 too in terms of hand tools, and access to a drill press amongst other tools.

I have asked in a couple of local woodworking shops, but they don’t have the facilities to thickness to 2mm other than doing it by hand, which would obviously end up being expensive. If there’s a service to be had in London, or accessible in the UK, a tip off would be greatly appreciated.

So, any advice on how to proceed?

Hillfield, you've brought up the perennial question we novices face, to our frustration and chagrin. For those of us not wanting or willing to invest 600 to 1200 dollars in a thickness sander, there aren't many options aside from doing it by hand. Some use hand held belt sanders but it's very difficult to achieve even thickness using such a tool. Achieving the proper thickness using hand planes and scrapers is possible, but it takes a lot of practice. I would offer, not much help I'm afraid, that unless you invest in a thickness sander, you really have no choice but to proceed with hand tools. I take it down as far as I dare with a 6 inch stationary belt sander, then proceed with a Stanley 112 scraper plane and hand scrapers, measuring with a machinist's caliper and marking high spots with white crayon or similar, then scraping some more. I'm very curious to see if any of the pros will weigh in on this one. Good luck.
Cateye

I've lost intrest in making ukes (again) it must be the time of year ...so "Hillfield" if you want to make your own ? I'm going to spend a few days designing and building a new Thickness sander..my old one is not quite big enough to do Tenor tops..I've not planned on making any Tenors but you never know.
Any way I'll try and show a few pic's as I progress....If anyone else wants to build one like it let me know...maybe I can help with some of the parts...I'm running this project on Cosmos forum as well.
Right now I made a start.. like I always do with a few rough sketches on paper.

Timbuck,

I am also in the planning stages. My drum will be 5" in diameter with a 1 hp motor at 1700 rpm. Do you know how to figure what size pulleys I should be using for optimal F.P.M.?

Thanks,

George

luvzmocha said:

Timbuck,

I am also in the planning stages. My drum will be 5" in diameter with a 1 hp motor at 1700 rpm. Do you know how to figure what size pulleys I should be using for optimal F.P.M.?

Thanks,

George

Click to expand...

I've had a look at a few pro machines..and with a 6.5" drum the speeds are about 1600 rpm..So I would imagine that with a 5" drum 1700 rpm would be ok..so 2 pullies of equal size should do the job....I think it best I start a new thread on this one.

Orbital sander? That's what I used until I picked up a used drum sander.

What is the thickness of your pieces at the start? How much material you need to remove determines what methods are practical.

I have used a Wagner Safety Planer in my drill press with great results. It is a relatively inexpensive purchase and works fine on inexpensive bench top drill presses. I was convinced after watching the video at the link below. It leaves mill marks that you still have to work out with a scraper or sandpaper, but it is an easy way to thickness with positive results.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=OBrienGuitars#p/u/38/hfaLmBGKjJY

I used the wagner for my first 10 ukes It works ok, better than hand planing, it helps if you build a fixture to keep it from throwing the piece out if lose your grip on it.
I bought a drum sander and it is great and very accurate.