rough view of my project....first scratchbuilt neck

starting a new box uke project, and today roughed out my first neck from scratch. I think it came out pretty nice...the heel and headstock are very rough and still need alot of shaping and finishing, but the neck section itself is right about where I want it. Im not even positive what the wood is....it was just a 1 3/4 x 1 3/4 block from home depot marked "hardwood" I thought it was poplar at first, but it may be maple...Im taking it to work tommorow where I have access to a nice drum/belt sander, and I ll get it shaped out....

Nice job. You might want to try a rasp instead of a belt sander. You have way more control. And make yourself a couple of neck profile templates so you can better gauge the symetry of your neck as your working it down. Looking good.

I did use a rasp to do all the shaping on the neck, its in my tool bag to take along today...As for the profile I used the pic above left, and tweaked/confirmed it a little with measurements off of the Kamalae neck I put on my other box. The sanders I have at work are actually air powered gun-like belt sanders. The belts can be as wide as an inch to about 1/4 of inch with varying degrees of grit. I use them to shape and polish glass. They are fairly controllable, but Im going easy on them so I dont ruin what I started.....do you have a pic for what youd use as a template? I used calipers and my picture to stay as close to size as I could. As far as roundness of the neck though I just winged it until I had something that was comfy and looked good to the eye. Obviously there must be a more proper way...