Build Thread: StewMac Tenor Ukulele Kit

joeguam · May 13, 2014

The top and back linings are all installed.

The next step is to trace the template for the bracing onto the top and back. As you can see in the pictures below, the tracing that shipped with the kit were a quite off. Early in this build thread, I showed a picture of the center line also being drawn inaccurately on the top. The wider lines are the ones I redrew and actually fit the width of the braces.

joeguam as LESSON LEARNED #7! said:
Don't trust the pre-penciled template tracing, there are many signs of carelessness. Just take the time to redraw it yourself.

To retrace the lines, I laid the template over the top/back lining it up with the centerline and the soundhole (for the top). Then, using a good straight edge, I marked the lines on the wood outside the paper template. When all the lines were marked outside the paper template, I removed the template and connected them.

boydellinii · May 13, 2014

.....................

joeguam · May 13, 2014

boydellinii, thank you for sharing this information. I actually came across that radius dish thread and though: "if only I had a bandsaw, I could do many things!"
For this build, I'm going to see how it goes without the radius dish as I'd like to determine how well the kit is put together.
Thanks again!

joeguam · May 13, 2014

Abiding by lesson learned #4, I dry fitted the back bracing with clamps first. I'm so thankful I did not skip this step because I discovered that the back bracing is actually radiused and not flat. This discovery led me to change the type of clamps I initially used.

Looking through an angled light revealed that the center of the brace was not properly clamped.

So I changed the clamps, added one to the center...

...and all looks good and ready to glue.

joeguam · May 13, 2014

The dry fit for the 2nd back brace using the same type of clamps.

You can see some light coming through, that means another clamp is needed.

So we added a third clamp and all looks ready to glue.

The next step will be to glue and clamp the back bracing.

joeguam · May 13, 2014

Glued the back bracing on this evening, dry fitting the clamps made it real easy and quick.

Of course I cleaned up the squeeze out...

I have back-to-back gigs the next two days so it may not be until the weekend for the next update. Hoping to get the the fretboard and rosette inlays completed next.

Beau Hannam Ukuleles · May 13, 2014

looking great- well done so far!

hope your enjoying it

joeguam · May 13, 2014

Beau Hannam Ukuleles said:
looking great- well done so far! hope your enjoying it

Thanks Beau! I'm truly loving this...

joeguam · May 14, 2014

Just a quick update, I let it glue overnight and the back bracing looks real good.

I won't have much progress until the weekend, but I hope to at least get the sides sanded down even with the linings.

joeguam · May 16, 2014

Sneaking in a little update, I've been using a rasp to take of the chunk of material off the sides to get it flush for the gluing of the back. Taking this real slow and steady and going "downhill" with the grain. I thought about using my orbital sander, but didn't want to chance it. The rasp is coming along nicely.

I'll take it down to about 1/16" above the lining then use 100-grit paper stuck with double-sided tape on my granite top to sand it flush.

Alain Lambert · May 16, 2014

A small plane would be quicker for that job.
Your back has an arch, so theoratically you should also sand the lining with an arch. If you do not have a radus dish, you can make a stick with the proper arch (radius) and glue sandpaper to it.

joeguam · May 19, 2014

Alain Lambert said:
A small plane would be quicker for that job.
Your back has an arch, so theoratically you should also sand the lining with an arch. If you do not have a radus dish, you can make a stick with the proper arch (radius) and glue sandpaper to it.

Thanks Alain, sanding to the the arch is just something I'm going to have to live without in this build because I don't have a radius dish nor a band saw to create one. Maybe sometime in the future!

joeguam · May 19, 2014

Despite going camping with the wife and family, I was able to get a significant amount done this weekend. Just wanted to share a picture of our family's private beach here in Guam, we're truly blessed to live in paradise. Unfortunately, I didn't wake up early enough to get a picture of high tide, here's a shot with the tide already on its way out. Normally the shore rocks are covered with water.

Now back to the build...

After rough-shaping the sides with the rasp, I used double-sided tape and 100-grit on my granite workbench to prep the sides for gluing the back. I know there's supposed to be a radius in the back, but I don't have the means to sanding a radius. This is just one of those compensations I'm going to have to make with the lack of tools/materials.

Sanded it just like the instructions suggest. You can also see an example of this in Mya-Moe's "Birth of a Mya-Moe" series.

I didn't have chalk so I just made pencil marks all around the sides to indicate when I've successfully sanded all areas.

joeguam · May 19, 2014

Once I had everything sanded flat and ready for gluing, I decided to trim the back braces to fit. Taken from another tip in the Mya-Moe series, I sanded the neck-edge back about 1/8" from the template line. this is to be used to line up the back to the centerline of the body.

I laid the back on the sides and marked the cuts to fit.

I'm using a StewMac .010" saw here to make these cuts.

Then I clean it up a bit with a chisel.

joeguam · May 19, 2014

Here's the back all trimmed up. You can see how close I sanded the neck-edge of the back to the template line.

..and here's dry fit, all ready to be glued up later in the build process.

I did the same thing to the other end of the sides, to prep for gluing the top.

Just for looks, here's the top dry fitted (but no braces yet).

joeguam · May 19, 2014

The next step was to work on the fretboard, here's the practice run inlaying the sand in a scrap piece of mahogany.

You lay the sand in the cavity, then fill it with thin viscosity super glue until it's proud of the surface.

Then I used 100/220/24/400 grit to level it smooth.

Considering this is my very first time every inlaying anything, I was very happy with the results. I was having so much fun with my StewMac 1/32" downcut router bit, that I decided to do another test with a prototype logo. I think it came out pretty nice.

joeguam · May 19, 2014

So now that I've practiced, time to move onto the fretboard. First step is to lightly sand the cavity surfaces.

Then I masked off the fret slots just to be sure I don't get CA glue in there by accident. Made sure to have all the materials I needed because you gotta work quickly when using CA glue.

I didn't have time to take a picture of the previous step, but I just filled each cavity with CA glue almost to the rim of the cavity. Then, I gently laid sand in and used a chisel to lightly press it down flat.

Dusted off the excess, then used 100/220/24/400 grit to level it smooth. You can see in this picture the consequences of lesson learned #1 where the sand inlay isn't perfectly circular because I damaged the rim of the cavity. Oh well, this will be part of the story to tell for my first build.

joeguam · May 19, 2014

While I had the tools and materials out, I decided to do the inlay of the rosette. I changed the design from the original black/white alternating rings, to black/sand/black.

Here's a shot of me gluing the inner black ring to the inner wall of the rosette channel. I had to glue the two inner/outer black strips in place first before laying down the sand.

Once I had both black strips glued, I followed the same process as the fretboard to inlay the sand proud of the surface.

Then I used 100/120 grit to level the rosette flush with the top. I have to admit, I got a little impatient and used 120-grit with my orbital sander to speed up this process. I only felt comfortable doing this because I saw a YouTube video of a luthier do this successfully. I was sure to be careful.

I did a final leveling with a small sanding block and 220 grit. Once I had it all leveled, I vacuumed the dust, wiped it with naptha, then covered the entire channel with very thin viscosity CA glue as a final sealant. I'll use 220/320 grit to level the CA glue one last time.

joeguam · May 19, 2014

While the rosette was drying, Jackie started installing the frets.

joeguam as LESSON LEARNED #8! said:
This one was learned by an article I read online somewhere suggesting not to pre-cut the fretwire, and instead cut it as you install it. This worked out real well and we had almost one entire stick of fretwire leftover.

Then we used the StewMac cutters to trim the fretwire flush.

Taking another tip from the Mya-Moe series on YouTube, I clamped the fretboard upside down to my granite top overnight to help reverse the bow from installing the frets.

joeguam · May 19, 2014

That's all the updates for the weekend, I also added the completion dates to the respective tasks in the build plan in the first post of this thread.

The next step will be to glue the braces to the top, scallop the back bracing, then finish leveling/dressing/crowing the frets.

Build Thread: StewMac Tenor Ukulele Kit

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