What's happening in your shed?

I am currently working on a 5 string kiku in a baritone scale. All koa including the neck. Spanish heel construction.
Interesting. I had to Google "kiku", which led me to a video of Jay Lichty playing his custom model. Beautiful sound.

Also, did you assemble your body on a solera? I've been considering a Spanish Heel construction for my next uke, a long-scale tenor, but have never used that build method. I'm curious as to what your sequence was to join the rims and add the kerfings.
 
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"Kirfing" - is that onomatopoeic? Perhaps the noise my Timms uke made as it ricocheted off Ken's vice.

John Colter
 
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Interesting. I had to Google "kiku", which led me to a video of Jay Lichty playing his custom model. Beautiful sound.

Also, did you assemble your body on a solera? I've been considering a Spanish Heel construction for my next uke, a long-scale tenor, but have never used that build method. I'm curious as to what your sequence was to join the rims and add the kirfings.

Yes...I lock everything down with clamps so that it is aligned and level along the neck and soundboard. Then I glue the neck to the soundboard with epoxy so that any gap between the level of the neck and the level of the soundboard will be filled. Epoxy only needs contact and not clamp pressure. The sides already have the kerfing. The sides drop in the slots in the neck, and are clamped to the soundboard.DSCF0036.jpgDSCF0037.jpg
 
I have just started a couple of conventional tenors, the first I've made for 18 months. Today I've completed the rosettes.

The soundboard is 1.8 mm thick Sapele with a reinforcement patch to the rear of the soundhole area.

I made some walnut and maple tiles approx 6x6x1.5 mm and stringers 2x1.5 mm using my Proxxon minature table saw. (I've previously done this with a bandsaw with fine blade).

I used a router to cut a 6 mm channel. I trimmed the edges of the tiles with a stiff-backed razor blade and glued them snugly into the channel. When dry I then routed 3 mm channels over the inner and outer edges of the tiles. The walnut/maple stringers were glued in place to complete the design. I used Titebond 1 but have previously also used CA for this task (only on hardwood soundboards).

Hope you like the result and are able to follow and copy this way of producing a rosette.

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Ukulele building useful tool tip du jour.

I have waxed lyrical about my cyclists bone spanner before. The 1/4 inch sockets in the end fit nicely over tuner shafts making it the perfect tool to re-seat the tuner gromets if they pop out a bit during installation.

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Also- mark the 10mm hole.
Also the ends fit standard 1/4 inch screwdriver bits.
 
This koalalele is heading off tomorrow to the states. I must say this model is a lot more koala like than earlier models and the Australia headstock worked really well. I burnt it in with my soldering iron and trimmed around the top and I almost couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

The person who ordered it wanted a souvenir of his visit to Australia last year and in particular the wildlife park responsible for this
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020...op-bear-during-bushfires/11863942?pfmredir=sm

I was going to add the fangs and venomous spurs but I decided against it.

In the background are some nesting boxes I made for animals displaced and made homeless by the bushfires.
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The customer gets what the customer wants. Orange like the idealised pineapple in the tag not green like the actual pineapple.
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I don't blame her, I blame the man.
 
I completed my tenor uke build today, and will finish the baritone by Monday. Details in the last post of my "Parallel Builds" thread.
 
Love your stuff titch. I wish I could make full necks instead of pirating cheap ukes. I have a bunch of tins I can't wait to use.
What am I going to do with them? Who knows. They're just fun to build with a hand saw, dremel, and chisels sitting in front of the fireplace.
 
Some pretty special Australian Blackwood in this soprano I'm building for a client in France. This is the second pore filling session.

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