Compound dovetail radiused neck blocks

Timbuck

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Just finished them this morning..Having spent most of my working life in engineering toolmaking and inspection I find woodworking to accurate measurement's difficult to achieve due to the nature of the material...but I do my best;)
These are a pain to make..But my stock was getting low, so I had to make a few more... Takes 6 operations ..... Re-sawing, drum sanding, radiusing , dovetail machining, and back chamfers....Jigs help a lot.
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I spent many years as a machinist. Your level of accuracy with wood is a beautiful thing to see. :bowdown:
I eagerly anticipate each one of your new posts. Thanks so much for sharing Ken.
 
Ken-Would be interesting to see the process on the neck and the block. Not asking for that because it would be more work for you. I've done something over 700 dovetails now in the last 35 years. I rout the body after completion and then cut the neck tail by hand with a Japanese saw. I've taken a few runs at routing both, but I do better by hand on the tail Do you have to do a little fudging one way or the other with the router on the neck, or is your process right on enough that all the joints fit the same? Thanks for showing the block assembly line. Inspirational!--Bob
 
It's a really good thing to see how art and technique meet at Ken's work. Thankfully the result comes in an Ukulele shape, which has proved to be fine both in sound and craftmanship (good to listening to and see it). And this is not to please Ken, but to be grateful for having many "Martin Style" like Sopranos; and we love those little classy and vintage styled ukes. It's a fact (Thanks Ken for loving Martin Sopranos as well as we do and for honouring them with your pieces).
¡Saludos, desde Argentina, gente! ¡Aloha!
 
Nice job. Not that it matters that much, but the wood grain direction on these blocks it top to bottom, not side to side like Martin did. Any thoughts?


Just finished them this morning..Having spent most of my working life in engineering toolmaking and inspection I find woodworking to accurate measurement's difficult to achieve due to the nature of the material...but I do my best;)
These are a pain to make..But my stock was getting low, so I had to make a few more... Takes 6 operations ..... Re-sawing, drum sanding, radiusing , dovetail machining, and back chamfers....Jigs help a lot.
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Nice job. Not that it matters that much, but the wood grain direction on these blocks it top to bottom, not side to side like Martin did. Any thoughts?
That's right ...the grain on the blocks run the other way on Martin ukes...the last batch I made were all like that, but I had a problem with the routing, the cutter coming out of the dovetail across the grain was causing the edge of the block to splinter...this way makes a cleaner edge. But! To tell the truth it was a cock up in the early resawing.:rolleyes:
 
Ken-Would be interesting to see the process on the neck and the block. Not asking for that because it would be more work for you. I've done something over 700 dovetails now in the last 35 years. I rout the body after completion and then cut the neck tail by hand with a Japanese saw. I've taken a few runs at routing both, but I do better by hand on the tail Do you have to do a little fudging one way or the other with the router on the neck, or is your process right on enough that all the joints fit the same? Thanks for showing the block assembly line. Inspirational!--Bob
I route the neck with a standard method similar to the method you use on the body. The radius on the cheeks of the joint I do that on the bandsaw with a special jig I designed (see website below)...I try and machine all the parts as near to size as I can and all necks and bodies at this stage are interchangeable "almost" cos I still have to fine tune (fudge) the fit at the assembly stage..and sometimes it go's completely wrong and I end up slicing the neck into small pieces on the bandsaw and throwing it in the bin :mad:
 
That's right ...the grain on the blocks run the other way on Martin ukes...the last batch I made were all like that, but I had a problem with the routing, the cutter coming out of the dovetail across the grain was causing the edge of the block to splinter...this way makes a cleaner edge. But! To tell the truth it was a cock up in the early resawing.:rolleyes:

Oddly enough, I had almost the exact same question as Duane. Besides you're splinter experience, what's your engineer mind say about the cross grain structure if the block was oriented so the end grain is not a glued surface?
 
Y'all must realise by now, Ken does not approach things in a standard way. He has no traditional woodworking experience and is coming at it from an engineering point of view. Which is logical of course because this stuff is 'wood engineering'. What is so brilliant about Ken's solutions is their apparent simplicity that belies a really sharp intellect, math skills and a lifetime of problem solving. They are also put together with parts from the pile labelled - 'this could come in useful one day'...

You don't get this good just by accident. Ken's type of unique thinking is in my opinion something that can be truly called genius. Clever dose not come close to describing how he has solved some of the major construction and design problems inherent in these iconic instruments. Makes the rest of us look like bunch of amateurs with our Stewmac and LMI jigs don't it?

And who in the world makes these sopranos with original boat curve (calculated of course by Ken from measurements of an original) that Ken worked out then made the appropriate sanding dish to create as well as bashing out a bit of oven plate to pre-curve the back before bracing?
 
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Oddly enough, I had almost the exact same question as Duane. Besides you're splinter experience, what's your engineer mind say about the cross grain structure if the block was oriented so the end grain is not a glued surface?
My engineering mind says cross grain is the strongest and less prone to splitting...but! it is still a very stable jiont and the sides of the uke glued cross grain over the vertical grain block form a sort of plywood structure...and I don't intend driving the joint together with pressure , just a nice snug fit. :)
 
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