What's happening in your shed?

Disc Sander

Not an ukulele but...

Just finished this 12 disc sander. I have a 9" disc/belt combo but I built this larger unit specifically to assist with my neck to body joints. Technically, I guess it isn't complete yet. Next is building the sliding table attachment. The motor is recycled from the drum sander I built in 2004 and the lumber was leftovers from a dining table I built during lockdown.

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Nice setup, Dom.

I had a productive morning in the shop with the table saw and thickness sander, making tone bars and cross-grain center strips from old growth Red Spruce. I also used the CNC mill to make a Kasha ukulele bridge from Osage Orange. I enjoy using hand tools when I can, but I cannot make parts like these with any sort of precision by hand.

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Nice setup, Dom.

I had a productive morning in the shop with the table saw and thickness sander, making tone bars and cross-grain center strips from old growth Red Spruce. I also used the CNC mill to make a Kasha ukulele bridge from Osage Orange. I enjoy using hand tools when I can, but I cannot make parts like these with any sort of precision by hand.

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Very Cool. I have given some thought to making a CNC machine but I think it is a bit too ambitious of a project for me. My old boss just got his up and running and has offered to make templates or whatever if I need him too.
 
Very Cool. I have given some thought to making a CNC machine but I think it is a bit too ambitious of a project for me. My old boss just got his up and running and has offered to make templates or whatever if I need him too.
I bought one of those cheapie Amazon 3018 "Pro" units, hooked up to an old Windows XP laptop. It's good when all the dimensions come out right, but I've burned through a lot of scrap wood tweaking things so they were right. Still, since I just do this as a hobby, the extra time taken is no big deal. For someone actually earning $$ at building ukes, my setup would not be ideal.
 
Very Cool. I have given some thought to making a CNC machine but I think it is a bit too ambitious of a project for me.
Come on Dom Im sure you can build one ..I built 5 from scratch... there are some good designs on the web of timber frame built ones and several aluminium kits on eBay ..I found the best electronics parts were from Hobby CNC https://hobbycnc.com/ The hardest part for me was learning how to operate them. this video of one is similar to one I built for my Son and he was using daily in his workshop for 7 years before he upgraded to an aluminium frame machine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMcblAB_fe0 and another https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjdXpp77MdU
 
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Come on Dom Im sure you can build one ..I built 5 from scratch... there are some good designs on the web of timber frame built ones and several aluminium kits on eBay ..I found the best electronics parts were from Hobby CNC https://hobbycnc.com/ The hardest part for me was learning how to operate them. this video of one is similar to one I built for my Son and he was using daily in his workshop for 7 years before he upgraded to an aluminium frame machine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMcblAB_fe0 and another https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjdXpp77MdU

Ken, thanks for the vote of confidence and the links. I watched a bit of the build video and saved it to watch the rest a little later.
 
Not an ukulele but...

Just finished this 12 disc sander. I have a 9" disc/belt combo but I built this larger unit specifically to assist with my neck to body joints. Technically, I guess it isn't complete yet. Next is building the sliding table attachment. The motor is recycled from the drum sander I built in 2004 and the lumber was leftovers from a dining table I built during lockdown.

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Very nice! I like that curved top. That's a nice-looking motor.
 
Very nice! I like that curved top. That's a nice-looking motor.

Thanks! The motor is one of the older ones from Harbor Freight.

The top was like making a huge kerf lining. A cut every 1/4 inches to within 3" or so of each end. Allowed it to bend fairly easily. I used ratchetting strap clamps to pull it closed but could have used an extra pair of hands for sure.
 
Thanks! The motor is one of the older ones from Harbor Freight.

The top was like making a huge kerf lining. A cut every 1/4 inches to within 3" or so of each end. Allowed it to bend fairly easily. I used ratchetting strap clamps to pull it closed but could have used an extra pair of hands for sure.

The motor on my Craftsman table saw (1967) died. I remember when motors were cheap. I'd pay more for a new motor (or the repair) than I paid for the saw.
 
A morning of turning a slab of American Sycamore into the body pieces for a baritone ukulele. The sides I could resaw on my old band saw, but the top and back plates had to be done the old fashioned way. The photos just don't do this wood justice; the grain figure is striking. They still need to be thinned somewhat before they can be used in the body, but today I wanted to get the hardest parts out of the way. I still have a sizeable piece of the Sycamore slab left over, to be used in a future project.

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A morning of turning a slab of American Sycamore into the body pieces for a baritone ukulele. The sides I could resaw on my old band saw, but the top and back plates had to be done the old fashioned way. The photos just don't do this wood justice; the grain figure is striking. They still need to be thinned somewhat before they can be used in the body, but today I wanted to get the hardest parts out of the way. I still have a sizeable piece of the Sycamore slab left over, to be used in a future project.

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Hope you had a sharp saw. It sure makes you appreciate power tools.
 
Finished the last task on the disc sander build. A couple coats of wipe on poly and built the sliding table for creating the neck to body joint.

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Lovely! What are your thoughts about sinker mahogany?
I found Sinker Mahogany is a bit like Balsa wood with a woolly feel while working with it
..its brittle and you have to be careful with it on the bandsaw when it is in thin plate form...but it makes a great tone wood...It reminds me of some ukes I made some years ago with some timber I was gifted from Pete Howlett we ended up calling it Helium Mahogany because it was so lightweight:)
 
Hope you had a sharp saw. It sure makes you appreciate power tools.
Yes it does. I decided to go ahead and resaw the rest of the Sycamore slab into a tenor-sized back and side set, and the resulting pieces fit my bandsaw. The resaw took about a minute per pass, compared to somewhere around an hour to do a set with the hand saw.
 
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