Year: 2013

Ukulele – Coming Together!

Today I got the soundboard glued to the neck, and the sides glued on as well! Once all that is dry I can glue in the kerfing and then add the back. Even though there will still be a long way to go, it will really start to look like an instrument at that point. Can't wait!

Snowmageddon!

Well, we got hit with the snowpocalypse! It worked out perfect, actually. The snow started on Friday night, and we had nowhere to go all weekend. We ended up with about 24 inches of snow. It wasn't so fun to dig out but at least it was powdery and fluffy, instead of wet and heavy. In total, spent about five hours shoveling spread across two days. We all had a lot of fun playing in it. Sean and I played king of the mountain, Sadie went hopping through the snow like a rabbit, Carter whined a whole lot (which is her usual snow behavior) and Lori even helped shovel! Even though we got two feet of snow and ridiculous amounts of wind, we never lost the power. So as far as blizzards go, it was pretty tame.

Ukulele – Shaped Neck

Did some more work on the ukulele neck on Saturday. Got it shaped, and got the heel carved. It's starting to look a more like a neck, and a lot less like just a board.

Ukulele – Sides and Plates

Tried out the new side bender last night. It did a pretty good job bending the sides for the new 'uke, and I didn't burn the house down - so overall I'd call it a win. I think next time I may leave the sides in the bender overnight, to try to reduce how much springback I get. I think I can manage with what I ended up with, though. Also got both the top and back plates thicknessed and braced yesterday. Looks like it's time to start working on the neck!

Ukulele – Side Bender

Since Carter and I have started noodling around on the ukuleles, I've been interested in building one again. This weekend I threw together a soprano-sized side bender. It was a lot easier to make than I expected. I made one side profile, then used a template-cutting router bit to make all the others exactly the same. It went together really quickly, in between steps on another furniture project. Haven't tried to bend any sides with it yet - that'll be next weekend.

Carter’s First Ukulele Song

Carter and I got a pair of ukuleles last weekend, and have been trying to learn how to play them together. She knows three chords now, and has tried to string them together into a little song. She's doing good so far!

Side Table

I just completed a cherry side table to go with the Morris chair I built years ago in Texas. It's all solid quartersawn cherry, with tiles inset into the top. The cherry should darken over time - especially sitting right in the window where it is, where it'll be exposed to UV for hours a day.

Bathroom Mirror

Just finished a mirror I made to match the medicine cabinet I finished late last year. It's made of hickory, with mahogany accents - just like the medicine cabinet. The hickory I used for the body of the medicine cabinet was spalted, but I didn't have any more of it - the hickory I used for the mirror is 'normal' hickory.