My first tenor ukulele build

kkmm

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I bought a kit, it came with the sides already bent and the fretboard slotted for 22 frets (with provision for fret zero if that's what I want).
Everything else comes in raw wood, fret wires, black plastic binding strips (I wish it's white as that is my preference), kerfing strips, a long piece of hard wood, enough wood for the neck, head stock and heel of the neck. Tuning machines and strings are not part of this kit.
Top/back boards are still rectangle with the shape of the body drawn in them (I like this part). A very large drawing is in the kit, showing exact dimensions of every pieces to be cut.
Last Saturday, i spent some times to build the jig as instructured in the manual from StewMac (Tenor Ukulele build instruction).
the frame work.jpg

photo with the sides put in (not cut to length yet, not ready to glued)
sides in framework.jpg
I don't remember what this is called, I just called it the "framework", a computer terminology. I have a long piece of wood (10' x 11" x 2") so it's kind of thick. I am wondering if the thick walls would cause difficulties or problems down the road.
 
kkmm,

Good start man.....as for the thick wood....not an issue as long as your clamps will still work to glue in the neck and tail pieces.

Tom
 
The binding strip is really quite cheap to buy. If you want white or cream then just order up some more from StewMac or others. You'll need to place an order for tuners anyway.
 
I have two long F-clamps, two short F-clamps, 4 C clamps (3"), and 6 spring clamps, three really long elastic cords, one should be enough to wrap around the body when I glue the top and back to the body.

I did not know the kit comes in with black binding strips. I already ordered from Stewmac 2 sets of geared tuners (one for my current concert ukulele that has friction tuners) along with a few other supplies and got them already. Another order is necessary then, the look is important as this ukulele will stay with me for a long long time.
Glueing the neck and the tail pieces to the sides does not seem a difficult job. I think making the neck from bare wood is going to challenge me. I may have to buy a spokeshave (a short of two hand help planer) people use this to place chair/table legs.

I have a few questions and need advises from experienced folks here
1) Do I really need a band saw for instrument building works ? I do plan to build more in the future, ukuleles and mandolins.
2) the head and tail blocks are 1" thick, with flat surfaces. Do I need to sand their outside surface to have a little curvature to match with the contour of the body at head and tail ?
3) is 1" thick enough for the head block ?
 
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kkmm,

I don't have enough experience to say if you can do lutherie work without a bandsaw. I do have a cheap delta tabletop bandsaw that I bought used for about $60 and I have used it in my build lots especially with the rough shaping of the neck.

As for the head and tail blocks (as you know I had the same kit) I did put a curvature in the blocks (you can see it in my build thread). For the neck block, however, I would recommend trying to keep it as flat as possible to make the neck to body joint easier to make. I had lots of sanding to do to make my neck fit the body and the next build I am intending to keep the neck portion as flat as I can. I used a bolt on neck design and inserted a brass insert that the bolt could connect to through the head block. On Ken's post, he showed a jig to drill the holes for neck attachment before shaping the neck and I think I will do that in future.

As for your last question, I used the 1 inch thick head and tail blocks and it worked out fine. In terms of shaping the neck, I cut out the rough shape on the bandsaw and then used, a spokeshave, a rasp and sandpaper to get the final shape.

Tom
 
Tom,
thanks for your answers and advise on the neck join. Look like I must buy a bandsaw (I am going to see one list on CL, listed for 70$ this afternoon) for the neck work. I have table saw, miter saw and two power hand saws. My wife will ask why do I need another saw !!!

I used a bolt on neck design and inserted a brass insert that the bolt could connect to through the head block. On Ken's post, he showed a jig to drill the holes for neck attachment before shaping the neck
I did read about the above in other threads and intend to do the same.
 
KKmm,

When your wife asks why you need a bandsaw, you tell her, "TOM Said I REALLY NEEDED ONE!!!!" :)

After all, you can never have enough tools...right?

Tom
 
Tom,

You are right, I keep buying tools over the years (as a handy man, doing all kinds of home projects, and my wife has been very happy with my works). I have quite a lot of tools but never enough. I went and bought the bandsaw, Craftman 9" for 70$, it still look quite new to me, seldomly used, I also bought a new round face spokeShave and a set of chisels (for around 12$ both).
When I carry the bandsaw in, my wife asks: where did you borrow that ? I reply: I bought it used for 300$.
She feels a bit shocked then I say: I only paid 70$ and she says: "whow, that's cheap". So we are both happy.

Here are photos of my new tools
Craftman-9inch-bandSaw.jpgSpokeShave and chisels.jpg

I plan to spend around 200$ for tools on this project and use them for future instrument builds. Right tools make the job easy and more enjoyable.
I really admire the "dorm built ukulele" with very limited tools and still end up with a very nice ukulele.
 
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Tom, I read your thread very carefully to get as much details as I could. There is one thing you did not mention there: how do you make the head stock joint ?
I know two methods (by reading only, never done it): scarf joint, and Spanish V-joint. Do you use one of these two methods ?

And question for all folks here: which of the two above is a better way for head stock joint ? From the picture, i got the impression scarf joint is easier to achieve, the spanish V-joint requires more precise cutting and harder. But I could be totally wrong here and need advises.
Maybe I will use one method for this one, and the other method for the next build.
 
I have been quiet for a week, busy practicing my wood working skills. I built two necks so far, the first one is a failure, the second looks much better.
Here is the photo showing the heel block glued to the neck.
0317120759a.jpg0317120800.jpg
The clamped area is till wet due to excess glue cleaning with a wet rag.
A third neck is following suit. I will shape the neck with bandsaw and spokeshave.
I have also decided to use a mortise tenon joint for neck-body joint.
By the way, these necks are made from scrap woods just for practice the neck building process.
NOT THE REAL ONE YET ;-)
I build a few jigs to help me cutting wood precisely. And that's very important for the real instrument build.
I see no rush to glue the sides to the head and tail block yet. The hardest part is neck/body alignment and I plan to get the neck with tenon and the head block with mortise to fit and align perfectly first. Once this is done, glueing the sides would be an easy task.
 
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kkmm,

Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I used a scarf joint. I made a jig for the table saw that had a 15 degree angle, cut the board and then flipped the cut board over and glued it together using the jig. That was to stop the creep that happens with titebond glue. I have heard of people drilling the two pieces clamped together before applying glue and inserting bamboo skewers to stop the glue slide. I didn't do this with mine but am going to consider it on future builds. I had to fiddle a bit with gluing because of the glue slide but it worked out ok.

I clamped two pieces of wood onto the neck board to make the heel of the neck. The only thing I did was to reverse the grain of the wood when I glued it.

Good luck with your neck.

Tom
 
For dealing with glue squeezeout, it is best to try to get the proper amount of glue so it is not pouring out everywhere, ideally just barely nipping the edge of the joint, or perhaps a very fine bead poking out. It is best to leave this squeezeout to dry to a 'green' state, as when the glue cures, it shrinks. If it is cleaned to the surface when wet, it may starve the joint when dry. In the case of the neck heel it probably does not matter because you will be cutting well in from there, but, water mixed weth the outer edge of the glue joint can wick water into the joint, and lead to a starved glue joint. A 2" x 5" cabinet scraper is good for removing excess glue after it has dried 'green' but before it is rock hard. When you have it right, the excess glue will clean very easily and not leave a mess. If you are working near finished surface with glue, and you wipe it with a wet rag, you can cause a finishing nightmare by wiping glue into the pores, and surface of the wood, things you might miss until you are finishing. About the only time I use a wet rag to clean glue, is if I spill a lot somewhere, like the floor.

Cheers!
 
I use scarf joint for the head stock, after building a small jig. This afternoon, I practice completing the neck and the head block using mortise-tenon joint.
I also carve the neck close to the final shape. Again this is only practice with scrap wood so I can make jigs, test them out.

0317121721.jpg0317121722.jpg0317121723.jpg

The screws at the head block will provide clamping strenght when connecting the neck and body.
I also sand the surface of this combo on a flat sheet of sanding paper. This is when I ensure proper alignment.
 
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Just thinking ahead. The photo#1 and #2 above show the surface of the neck and the top surface of the head block flushed and I sanded this entire surface to ensure it is truly flush. I made a first mistake there when drilling the two screw holes with this alignment. I can plug the holes and re-drill.
In reality, to make room for the topboard, the surface of the neck will be higher than the head block to be flushed with the topboard once it's glued there.
This means I have to put in a small piece of topboard on the head block for the alignment work.
I have to remember this IMPORTANT detail when building the real neck and head block or else the alignment will be totally off when the fretboard is glued on the neck and the topboard glued to the head block.
 
kkmm,

Good catch my man! I put my neck on with the top on and the back off so I flushed it to the top.

Tom
 
The good part is I am learning my mistake with a practice piece of neck, not the real one.
My plan is to work out the neck joint first (no glueing or drilling), glue on the top board then cut off the part of the top board that lay on top of the mortise cut.
I can drill holes for the small bolt(s) at this time, making sure the neck alignment is good. Then glue the neck joint, tighten the bolt(s), no need to clamp.
The fretboard with fret wires will be glued on the neck at a later phase.
I am quite good at cutting mortise tenon joint by now, using my bandsaw and one simple jig.
Have to travel again, I guess I am ready to build my ukulele next weekend.
My main goal is to develop a process and make a few jigs to ensure my uke building is consistent with good results.
And most of the techniques learned here can be applied to mandolin building as well.
 
Today, I have time to test out my scarf joint jig that I made. First I use a piece of scrap wood, the cut is near perfect except I left the saw blade spinning against the wood a little too long so the wood get burn mark, smokes does come out of the saw blade are.
SampleScarfJoint.jpg

So when I cut the real one, I remove the two pieces away from the saw blade quickly to avoid this black mark.
Neck01.jpg

Glueing the head stock and the neck is tricky, I had to drill two small holes and stick two round toothpicks thru them to so the two pieces do not slip when clamped.

I will upload a youtube video showing my jig. It's quite easy to make this scarf joint jig.

I am going to make some more cut now, to get ready for the next step.
 
I am working on the top and back board, just have a quite stupid question.
Is the thicker board for the back and the thinner one for the top ?
I believe that's the case, but it never hurt to ask someone who has done all this.
 
I made quite good progress today. I glued the sides to the head block (which has the mortise cut), I use the neck (with tenon cut) as the caul.
SidesGlued2HeadBlock2.jpgSidesGluededHeadBlock1.jpg
Once I got the headblock curve to fit with the sides and the neck joint also fit with this curve, glueing the sides is quite straightforward.
I have HHG but found that Titebond (original formula) is much easier to use as it takes a long time to dry. HHG gave me just less than 30secs (even if I heat up the parts to be glued).
After clamping for about 5 hours, I glue the sides to the tail block.
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The neck is connect to the body (mortise tenon joint), no glue yet.
BodyTakingPlace.jpg
 

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Here is the jig I used for planing woods.
MyPlaningJig.jpg
The little thumb planer is bought from Sears for about 6.50$, it helps a lot.
Now that weekend has ended, my progress will be slower.
I will work on the top / back board to complete the body first, then carve the neck afterward.
 
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