Thread: Ukulele Build

lol cuting down the middle with a saw is great isnt it!

in future, if you have a table saw, run each side over that and cut down the middle...

Originally Posted by Andrew_B

lol cuting down the middle with a saw is great isnt it!

in future, if you have a table saw, run each side over that and cut down the middle...

Well a table saw is in the future, I don't have one. I used my 9" circ saw to cut the side bits out tho.

It took about 30mins of sawing to cut the top and another 30 mins to cut the back, I'm not really looking forward to cutting the guitar top out of the 300mm wide piece of cedar, its way harder than the tassie oak

you should find the cedar much easier to cut than tassie oak

you also may find that your saw will bow and/or wander in the cedar lol....

i reckon it would be worth a trip around to local mill or anyone local with a nice big bandsaw to slice it up for you,
offer them a small donation and see how you go....

better to try that than to attempt to saw it and screw up the whole slab

I bought a Safe-T-Planer for those thicknessing tasks, I dont know if the expense is in your planning but it sure saves some time. see http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Pl...-T-Planer.html McJing has a very similar item for $60 in thier rmachine accessories section. I havent seen it so cant comment on the quality.

I stopped the wandering problem by swapping the wood around about every 20mm of cut so the wandering turns into a small waver down the length of timber.

One thing I noticed is that cross cutting the grain is about 5 times faster than ripping it along the grain- is this normal or is there a type of saw that is designed for ripping?

@Fifac

I tried to split a piece of cedar very similar to the one I will use for the guitar top, but around 150mmx18mm. It was very dry and hard, I took about 2 hours to cut about 400mm down the piece( with a brand new Bahco saw) . It carves ok with a chisel, I guess, but planes into dry powdery crumbles, at least the outer weathered bit. I think its just really old and dry. I just hope its not too brittle for a top.

@ AndrewB

I have a couple of possibilities for bandsawing it, there are some recycling places I know of, but I don't know what they would charge, etc. I kind of look forward to the challenge of doing it with arm power, as its in the spirit of the build. After the first one tho, I probably won't mind getting a few time saving (and wood saving) methods.

@ Sebastiaan

That looks like a pretty good tool, only I don't have a drill press yet. I really have only started wood working about 3 month ago, so my tool situation is pretty basic. I looked up the link you gave, if you thicknessed a test bit of wood, and measured that with a gauge, to set the tool up, it would give good results.

Quick question:

You say "red cedar" in your other post. Does that mean Australian red cedar?

If so, I have done quite a bit of work with this, and some boards are always a b*gger to plane, as they are 'stringy', and the fibres clog up the plane blade.

This might be your problem.

Originally Posted by Alastair

Quick question:

You say "red cedar" in your other post. Does that mean Australian red cedar?

If so, I have done quite a bit of work with this, and some boards are always a b*gger to plane, as they are 'stringy', and the fibres clog up the plane blade.

This might be your problem.

Hi Alastair

I don't think its the Australian red cedar, which is a eucalypt i think. The very top pic in this post shows a pale cedar, (European /American?), I found it in hard rubbish. Its a board from a house i guess cause it had many layers of house paint on it. The red cedar is western red cedar, and its the two wide boards I plan to use as t guitar tops. Theres a pic in the thread I linked to i the first post.

cheers

Good on ya Slash! Well done for the go get 'em attitude and the will to do it by hand

I meant no offence earlier either...

Good luck with your woodie endeavours!

No worries FicFac

Its maybe didn't take 2 hours to cut it but is sure felt that way...

Hi all

I have been progreessing a bit on the ukulele.

I set up a piece of structural pine as a flat suface to plane the top back and sides on.



$30 Talco No. 4 Plane- the workhorse. Actually I only own 2 planes, both no.4, one is cheep bummings stanley- I use it for bulk removal of timber. I have been setting the stanley at a coarse cut and the talco at a fine cut.



The the top piece is planed to about 3-4mm, the bottom piece isn't.



The top planed to 4mm vs the unplaned top




The Cat




One side ( tassie oak ) planed to 3mm, one not. I have found a lot of grain runout, and chunking from the plane, I might try to get a different timber for the back and sides.





Attack of the Clamps!







The Top ( pre glueing).



Regards

tassie oak is a pain in the ass to plane....
i got the chunking too....
i thought my planes were playing up... but after some re adjustments and no improvement... it was obvious that the strange grain in the oak was to blame....

cedar is a lil better to plane... but its stringy and you gotta keep an eye on the grrain,,,
unless its the really soft cedar... that doesnt like any blades in my experience


i got scared when i saw that pine.... lol

teach me to look at pics before i read the captions

Hey Andrew

The oak seems quite coarse and long fibered, so to speak., it chunks and rips out even when i plane a very fine cut, with the grain. Also its really quite light and soft, I don't think it will make such a good back/side set anyway. I am making the neck out of it- it seems all right for that with a jarrah fretboard. The cedar I have for the top is really quite dry and hard- it planes very well.

Also I have been wondering what truss rod I should go with. I am aiming at a 18" scale length, joined to the body at the 12th fret. so there will be a 9" neck to support. I guess the options are: none, Strip of hard wood like jarrah, metal or carbon fibre rigid rod, or a conventional adjustable rod.

hmmm truss rod... have a look into how people are making mandolin truss rods...

pretty sure they just use a steel rod with a right angle bend at one end going down into the heel, and a nut on the other end...

im sure there are plenty of other ways to do neck support in small scale iinstruments...