#2, Soprano all scratch Mahogany top/back/sides (from a Stew-Mac dreadnaught guitar set) Mahogany/maple laminate neck (one piece - i.e. no scarf joint - center layer probably bubinga or something.) Rosewood fretboard/bridge MOTS inlay on headstock; MOP dots on fretboard Maple rosette ring and binding Grover Sta-Tite #4B friction tuners Built from Scott Antes 'Early Martin Style 1' plans All glue is Titebond from 2003 unless noted. 31 Dec 2005 Made template of body from 1/4" Masonite. (half-pattern cut from plan and two pieces stack-sawn, then jointed.) Began making outside body mold from 2 layers of 3/4" plywood. 01 Jan 2006 Cut out mold pieces; one is accurate and the rest will use it as a routing template. Laminated neck blank - layers are 3/4" mahog, 1/8" maple, 5/16" bubinga?, 1/8" maple, 3/4" mahog. Cut roughly to shape and glued up with Titebond. 02 Jan 2006 Finished mold. Hinged at neck end, draw-latch at tail end. Held together with screws only; no glue (in case it needs to be reworked). Had to adjust a bit with sander on drill press, but looks pretty symmetrical. Flattened fretboard side of neck blank with 60-grit sandpaper on bench. Top is square to one side, ~89.5 deg to other side (good enough.) 14 Jan 2006 Thinned headstock (some) using Safe-T-Planer. Tried to square body end using miter box & saw; bad idea. 15 Jan 2006 Squared body end of neck using straight bit on router table, chisel to clean up the parts I couldn't get to. Seems okay. Will get sanded to exact fit later anyway. 29-30 Jan 2006 Cut fretboard blank to rough size (almost too small - looked at 12th fret width rather than widest point.) Thin to 3/16" using Safe-T-Planer. 05 Feb 2006 Tried planing fretboard blank; lots of tearout. Sanding too slow. Ran it through the Safe-T-Planer again, then sanded (60 grit) smooth. Thickness about 3/32" (a bit thinner than I'd like, but acceptable.) Probably should have scraped instead. 07 Feb 2006 Squared up fretboard and marked fret positions with X-Acto. Drew center line on fretboard. (note - do not glue on fretboard until after the neck-body joint is sanded to fit, which will require a jig.) 10 Feb 2006 Drilled 5mm holes for position markers. Cut fret slots with Stanley pull saw in homemade miter box. Tapered fretboard - too much, it turns out. Marked with razor knife, rough-cut with scroll saw, then block plane to straighten it. Ended up at 1-5/16", or 1/16" narrower at neck than specified by plans. (Now it matches the banjo-uke fretboard at the neck.) Should still be okay. Marked decorative shape at body end of fretboard, but haven't cut it out yet. 13 Feb 2006 Shaped body end of fretboard with chisel. May need some cleanup with files. Installed MOP dots with Titebond - mostly a pressure fit, as they are very tight. Scraped more or less level. 14 Feb 2006 Finished scraping MOP dots level. Sanded fretboard to 220. Pressed in frets, mostly with drill press, some with C-clamp. Got about 1/16" backbow at center. Clamped to bench overnight to flatten. Fret slots a bit narrow, and not quite vertical - need to check and possibly rebuild miter box. 16 Feb 2006 Began filing fret ends. Do NOT use the bench grinder! It discolors the frets. Board still not flat; leaving it clamped. Gluing it to the neck should fix it. 18 Feb 2006 A bit more fret end filing. Belt sander prob. best bet. 20 Feb 2006 More fret dressing. Belt sander (80 grit, new belt) and small square file. 22 Feb 2006 More fret dressing with file. Sides pretty good for now; top ends not sloped yet. Rough-cut pieces for top & back (both book-matched.) Jointed edges with #3 plane and ad-hoc shooting board; not quite perfect but pretty close. 24 Feb 2006 Final jointing and glue-up of one plate. 25 Feb 2006 Glued up second plate. Cut sides, planed one to thickness 0.060"-0.065". Other side had kind of a blowout during planing; crack at one end. Glued with Titebond and let set up. Not much tearout with the #3 plane. 26 Feb 2006 Planed second side. Some tearout; not bad. Think it's just that piece of wood - began planing one plate to thickness and had tearout about as expected, even with really sharp blade. 02 Mar 2006 Sanded a bit but mostly scraped plate to .080"-.087" thickness. (Plans show 0.090" top & back, which is too thick. I'm aiming for 0.080".) Tearout was pretty bad; this will probably have to be the top so no one can see it. Didn't go thinner because it was getting a bit floppy across the grain and I was afraid that it might lose whatever tap tone it had. 04 Mar 2006 Safe-T-Planed the other plate to about .080". Ran the other plate through just for grins. Cleaned up with scraper. Some spots as thin as .070". Really floppy in spots. Going to leave it for now and add heavier bracing if needed. Cut neck and tail blocks from mahogany. Long break for MIMF recorder class. to 24 Mar 2007 Made spreader clamps for mold (waste blocks and turnbuckles.) Made cardstock template for side profile. Trimmed sides and bent. One has bad cracking at waist; epoxied and clamped but it split out again when I tightened the bend. Got it in the mold. Other side bent okay, but I need to tighten all the bends. Thinned both sides more with 60 grit sandpaper. Bent better after soaking for 30 min. 5 Apr 2007 Cut another side, profiled, thinned to .060" using #3 plane. Planed very nicely, no tearout, both parallel and diagonal to grain. (Sharp plane helps a lot.) Sanded both sides to 100 grit. Actual thickness ranges .050-.065 or so, aiming for .060 as an average. Still have enough mahogany for top, back, & 5 sides. 6 Apr 2007 Rebent side and crammed it in the mold - seems okay. Bent the new side more-or-less, and it bends okay, but all bends need to be tightened, which requires a smaller pipe diameter or a heating blanket and mold. 7-8 Apr 2007 Got a 1-1/2" diameter pipe and rebuilt the bending iron. Stuck some crumpled foil inside; maybe it'll help heat transfer and reduce loss from hot air flowing out. Tightened bends, bent test rosette ring out of 1/8" maple (too thick; cracked) and then the real one out of thinner maple. Soaked, wrapped in foil, bent great. Cut rosette channel with Dremel and glued the ring in. Suspect it may not be mitered properly and you'll see the joint. Have to cut it down to see. Thinned the back plate to .060" pretty consistently, mostly with scraper. Have about 1/16" gap between sides and mold near the waist on both sides. Looks symmetrical, so I'll just leave it. Sides are living in the mold now. 12 Apr 2007 Chiseled and scraped and sanded (100 grit) the rosette ring flush to soundboard over the last couple of evenings. Slight kink at top where the ends join, but no gap so far. The width may be a bit inconsistent also, but I won't know until it's sanded to 300 or so and all the dust blown out of the gaps. 14 Apr 2007 Cut soundhole with Dremel. Scraped top to .060-.065". Sanded inside of top & back to 300 and rounded soundhole edges. Mixed up some 2# blonde shellac and wiped it on. Looks pretty good. Forgot to blow dust out of the pores, but it'll get finish-sanded and pore-filled later anyhow. Cut top & back shapes, with about 1/2" excess around the edges. Cut brace stock to length. 19 Apr 2007 Trimmed ends of sides to length, roughly. Left about 1/8" extra on each. Mold is not square; the tail end has an offset of about 1/4" that I need to fix. Almost no springback of sides after sitting for 2 weeks in the mold. 21-22 Apr 2007 Fixed the mold. The strap hinge at the tail end was removed and I put a Simpson Strong-Tie in its place (and broke a C-clamp trying to get it fully seated.) Sanded the tail block to fit the sides, then shaped to inside a bit with block plane and 100-grit. Cracked a side for about an inch along the grain while messing with it, so I went ahead and glued it in and filled the crack with Titebond. Closed up invisibly. Also did the neck block the same way (only I didn't crack the side) and glued it in. Upper bout spreader was removed to get a good fit of the sides before gluing. 23 Apr 2007 Brought parts inside for humidity control. Some fret dressing with Optivisor and flat needle file. 28-29 Apr 2007 Shaped lower bout back brace to very slight arc. Tried to match with upper back brace, not too well. I think the only way to do this right is a dish form. Glued on top and back braces. Upper top brace about 1/8" closer to neck than shown on plan. 4-6 May 2007 Carved braces to dimensions shown on plan -- 0.25 wide, just under 0.25 tall, parabolic cross-section, scooped/tapered ends. Sanded to 220, need a bit of cleanup in a couple of spots. Also cleaned up excess glue with chisel. One or two ugly spots on braces, but not easy to fix without sanding them down to nothing. 12 May 2007 Sometime previously I'd cut a maple bridge patch to shape. Thicknessed it to .045 (+/- .005) today. Also glued in linings for top. (Pre-cut from Stew-Mac, and they are just right.) 22 May 2007 Glued in one of the back linings. It'll need to be sanded down, since the side profile isn't quite even with the neck and tail blocks. Trimmed lower soundboard brace to fit in between the sides (all braces are a bit long.) Thinned the ends of the bridge patch with sandpaper. 23 May 2007 Glued in last lining. 26 May 2007 Trimmed all braces to length and reshaped as needed. Sanded top side linings flat and notched for braces. Began sanding back linings to arch/taper, but sides seem to be different height. Need to fix. 28 May 2007 Shaped back using block plane to get all the arches evened out. Notched the back linings and glued on the top. Added a couple of hold-down bolts to the existing binding jig, which hopefully will level it and make it usable. Also did a bit more fret end dressing. 29 May 2007 Printed labels. Proper size is 2" wide. I think the lower bouts are uneven. And I know the waist bends are too shallow. As usual. Maybe I should make a waist spreader instead of or in addition to the bout spreaders. Or get a heating blanket. 30 May 2007 Compliance measurements on top. Need better jig that keeps body from rocking when weight is applied. Also need a better way to apply the weight than balancing it on top of the dial indicator. Could also improve the indicator holder (magnetic base?) 31 May 2007 Signed label (name, 2007) with Skyline in Waterman Havana Brown. Glued to back with Uhu glue stick. Ordered Pro-Tec Max MX216 case. (This ended up being used for the BSFS uke.) 01 June 2007 Glued back to sides. 02 June 2007 Began shaping neck. Cut out excess at sides of heel with coping saw; some tapering with scroll saw. Marked headstock rough outlines. Have to either add ears to headstock or go with narrower headstock than originally planned. 03 June 2007 Added ears to headstock from different piece of mahogany. More rough shaping, mostly chisel and some coping saw. Some sanding of headstock face to bring it back to the nut line location. Will be installing faceplate to hide joints. 04 June 2007 Leveled ears to rest of headstock with plane and chisel. More neck shaping with rasp and chisel. 05 June 2007 Trimmed excess at neck end of body to enable neck fitting. Began rough neck fitting with rasp. I'll use the router table miter slot for the fitting jig. 07 June 2007 Made sticks of Masonite to fit in router table miter slot. Taped to neck & body on centerline and began sanding neck to fit (strip of 60 grit pulled between them.) Dremel to grind out center of neck to make sanding easier. Slow and tedious but hopefully safe. Put tape on router table to keep it from getting too scratched up (too late!) 08-10 June 2007 Shaped neck to nearly-final dimensions. Belt sander is best tool for this, rasp second. Cleaned up neck-body joint some more; it's as close as I can reasonably get it. Jointed headstock faceplate. Checked maximum thickness for tuners - only 3/8". 11 June 2007 Evened up faceplate joint and thinned to about 1/16" with scraper. 13 June 2007 Split the nut blank I had lengthwise with scroll saw (worked okay). Width about 1/8", height about the same. Mostly flattened on cut side with sandpaper and file. 15-17 June 2007 Glued faceplate to headstock. Marked rough headstock outline and cut with scroll saw. Thinned headstock with Safe-T-Planer (note - don't take large chunks as the chuck will come off the drill press quill. Also, vacuum nozzle clamped to table helps a lot.) Evened with sandpaper, began smoothing the transition to the neck. Need about 1/16" more thinning for tuners. Also did more fret end filing. 18 June 2007 Finished filing fret ends. Works much better using good Stew-Mac file for heavy work instead of cheap Chinese needle file. 20 June 2007 Thinned headstock to 3/8" with Safe-T-Planer. Smoothed some with 60 grit. Carved a bit more of the transition to neck - need to figure out how this should be shaped. Looks pretty straightforward generally. 21 June Drilled tuner holes, 5/16". Reamed out with round file at face side for bushings, which enabled me to correct the position of the two lower holes. I need to get a better way to lay them out than a paper template. Checked to make sure they all fit, which they do. Also evened up top of headstock. Needs trimming on one side. 22-23 June Glued fretboard to neck. Fretboard presses down on body when neck installed. Top of body is actually domed somewhat. Probably will sand end of fretboard thinner to get it to lay flat. Trimmed headstock shape. Cut inlay recess and glued in the MOTS inlay with epoxy. (Aleene's Tacky Glue used to position inlay to mark outline. Doesn't work all that well; too flexible.) Not leveled yet. Installed brass threaded insert in neck. Broke 'ears' off the insert trying to screw in with screwdriver so I had to drill the hole oversize and epoxy it. Slightly off-center, maybe 1/16" to the side. Think it'll be okay anyhow. Regular hex wrench will reach bolt; no special tool needed. 26 June 2007 Scraped inlay nearly smooth. Scraped sides of neck flush with fretboard. Some neck and headstock shaping. There's a lump at about the 1st fret that needs to be smoothed. 29 June 2007 Smoothed out lump on neck with Dremel and sanding drum. Also a bit of shaping at the headstock transition. Drilled holes for and glued in side markers with epoxy, except for fret 10, which is Titebond (epoxy had set up already.) Cut end graft channel with razor knife and 1/8" chisel. Glued in strip of maple binding. Had to add a couple of plane shavings on one side because the channel was not quite straight. Won't be able to tell how well it worked until I level it. 30 June 2007 Leveled side markers with scraper, Dremel drum sander, and belt sander. Thinned neck overall a bit with belt sander. Final shape; needs only to be cleaned up and smoothed by hand. Also sanded down cheeks of heel with disc sander. Checked headstock shape - it's near enough to symmetrical except at the top. 02 July 2007 Bent binding. Labeled as curly maple from Grizzly, but not really that curly. May look better after finishing. (it did.) Bent pretty much dry, with spritzing in a couple of areas. Some scorching, but looks like it'll sand out. Wrapped pipe in foil to avoid staining. No backing strip. Actually bent quite easily, with just the usual problems of getting it in the shape I want. Clamped into the outside mold to cool. Also dampened the places that looked most out-of-shape. 05 July 2007 Cut binding ledge with jig using 1/4" down spiral. Worked very well; I was pleased. Only tearout was on the end graft (cross-grain maple). Cleaned up just a bit with 1/8" chisel and sanding stick. Touched up bends on one piece of binding and glued it on the back. Left the ends long. I'll have to trim at the neck joint. One side is glued down, the other is loose. Clamped with blue masking tape, mostly, and a cam clamp at the waist. (No caul, but it ought to have one.) Might be a couple of small gaps, but I won't be able to tell until I release it. Body is definitely lopsided. One lower bout sags. Crud. 06 July 2007 Evened up ends on back binding and glued the loose bit down. Had to use cam clamp to get it to fit properly. Easier to cut to length before gluing. Glued down top binding. Left about 1/4" gap at top; it will be hidden by the fretboard. Again had to cam clamp one spot because of bend mismatch. Finished shaping neck to 100 grit, using shoeshine motion with a strip of sandpaper. Lower edge of fretboard has slight ridge where it meets the neck; this needs to be cleaned up later. Evened up headstock decoration at top by eye. Cut a headstock template for future use. 8 July - 17 Aug 2007 Break for Meat 'n Taters uke building and loop check in Coffeyville. 18-21 Aug 2007 Started trimming binding to height (top & back edges) with chisel and scraper. Can get really close to final height with chisel alone. 24 Aug 2007 Scrape & sand binding level with top and back. 22 Sept 2007 Sanded and scraped binding almost level with sides. 50-grit sanding drum in drill press works okay but not good for the quill. Also not quite round. Scraper to get pretty much level. 7 Oct 2007 Sanded binding nearly level with sides, 150 grit on sanding block. Used finger to back paper at waist. 10? Oct 2007 Sanded all binding level to 100 or 150. 13 Oct 2007 Filled gaps between binding and body with glue-sawdust mix. Sanded using 100-grit; will need to resand body and level everything. 14 Oct 2007 Sanded everything to 220. Temporarily attached neck and trimmed heel so that it doesn't extend past the body. 21 Oct 2007 Raised grain with water on a damp cloth, then sanded to 320 and 400. Slight crack in top binding near tail; gooped some glue in there, but can't do much else. Wiped on two coats of approx 1# shellac. 28 Oct 2007 Added another coat of shellac. Pore filled with pumice one time. Fair number of white specks in pores; assume pumice not completely cleared before filling. Wiping on alcohol seems to help some. Break for site survey at Jamalco. 23 Nov 2007 Second pore filling on body, trying to clear white specks. Used very little pumice, but didn't seem to do much other than smooth the surface. Light wet-sanding with 400-grit and mineral spirits. Whitish areas over a large part of the surface. I'll see if they disappear under shellac. If not, have to sand to bare wood and start over. Surface is very smooth, though. Also did one french polish session on neck and headstock. No additional filling; looks okay. 01 Dec 2007 First FP session on body; virtually all of the haze and a good bit of the visible pumice in the pores disappeared. Shellac was mixed in late August and takes a bit longer to dry; good thing it's almost gone. Also did a half-session on neck, so both can be considered to have one session. Did the complete circular twice, then straight, on the body. It has a lot of swirls in it, but looks nice so far. 21 Dec 2007 FP session 23 Dec 2007 FP session. Worked in patio; shellac seems to take longer to set up. Either cold or old. Still lots of swirl marks, but they come out a bit in the straight passes. I'm not using oil at all; it might help if I did. 24 Dec 2007 Light sanding with 600 grit wet-or-dry, then FP session with oil. Only once circular and once straight, less shellac than previous sessions. Looks good; most of the swirls came out along with most of the thick spots near the edges (top of headstock, for example.) I feel good enough about it to go to glazing with 1# cut or straight alcohol now. 26 or 27 Dec 2007 Another FP session like the last. Light cut, once circular, once straight. Ready for Micro-Mesh or whatever I decide to use. 6 Jan 2008 Finish leveling/polishing on neck and back of body. 1000, 1500, Micro-Mesh 8000-10000-12000. Not as glossy as I'd like. May need a light thin-cut final padding session. 11 Jan 2008 Padded on a 1-lb cut, mostly with the grain. Helped but still needs final polishing or something. May use hand; may get some polish. Removed tape from fretboard. 14 Jan 2008 Another 1-lb cut session on back only. Burnished body with palm of hand; doesn't make a lot of difference. I think it's done enough. Still has swirl marks and some small circular scratches on back (probably from hand or cloth.) 15 Jan 2008 Sanded fretboard to 1000 and attached neck to body. Bit of Elmer's under the fretboard extension. Neck angle looks okay; saddle may end up being a bit taller than I'd like. 19 Jan 2008 Cut headstock veneer back for nut. Went a bit too deep and cut into the neck, but still not horrible. Considering it's lopsided anyway. 20 Jan 2008 Sanded nut blank square with 220. Used chisels and file to square off nut slot (more or less) - I could deepen it enough to get rid of the saw cut, but I didn't feel like it. Marked nut blank for length and height (roughly.) Preliminary saddle height check indicates that I need to thin the bridge a fair amount. Nut is too tall as well. 08 Feb 2008 Sanded nut down most of the way with 100 grit. Should be close enough for setting bridge thickness and location. Need to square up slot so the nut sits on the bottom properly. Installed tuners. 10 Feb 2008 Added fret and strung up compensation jig for soprano (13.625") scale, Worth strings. Checked preliminary action height on uke. Desired action about 3/32" (same as Kawika); Stew-Mac kit is 5/32 with 1/16 at first fret. That's awfully high for me. 14 Feb 2008 Preliminary compensation work on jig. Vibration tuners (TuneTech) don't work so well; place jig on file cabinet and use acoustic tuner instead. Need to make sure action is the same on the jig and the uke before doing it for real. 17 Feb 2008 Measured proper saddle location on jig; the difference between the A and C strings is such that it won't fit on the saddle I have (about 1/4" difference.) Will locate with A at front edge and do the best I can. Took about 1/16" off the bottom of the bridge with 60 and 100 grit, smoothed to 220. Marked bridge location on body - stuck on blue masking tape, extended and marked FB edges, marked bridge front edge on tape, found center, traced around bridge. Will cut inside tape and remove finish once bridge is shaped. 23-24 Feb 2005 Discovered I was measuring compensation with strings tuned an octave low. Fixed it; range is narrower now. Re-marked bridge location, removed tape under bridge, scraped finish off with razor blade. Shaped bridge and sanded to 400. Put extra layer of tape at front edge of bridge location. Glued bridge with Titebond, clamped with two cam clamps and a couple of scraps of wood to support back side at edges. (There is a photo.) Removed clamps after about 12 hours, chiseled off glue, removed tape. Some is caught under the edge of the bridge, which tells me to glue the bridge before finishing next time. That worked okay on the BSFS instrument. Marked nut eges for trimming and locations of string slots (with pencil; not super-accurate but acceptable.) 25 Feb 2008 Tapered nut with belt sander to match (sort of) the headstock-fretboard taper. Cut string slots; tip cleaner on G & A strings, small cheapo file on C & E. Cut saddle to length and rounded top corners a bit. Strung up with Worth clears; it didn't explode. Sounds good so far. Need to lower saddle about 1/16". Saddle is 3/8" tall, and 1/4" of that is above the bridge. Tends to tip forward a bit. Didn't really check intonation on upper frets, but sounds okay to the ear. 27 Feb 2008 Lowered saddle by about 1/16", which was a bit too much - now have some fret buzzes and high frets. Two or three frets need to be reseated, and maybe one or two filed down. Action feels good, though. 29 Feb 2008 Re-pressed frets 5, 6, 8, 10, and some hammer work in various spots. All strings buzz-free except 13th fret A string, which is high. (Can't get the high A at all - it comes out Bb.) But a scratch in the finish below the bridge while reinstalling strings. Tried to glaze over it, but sort of made a mess. Now there's a rough spot with bits of fuzz in it. Tiny scratch on back near heel can stay, I think. 8 Mar 2008 I declare it completed. Leveled frets with Stew-Mac file, re-crowned the ones that had material removed. (Used a short flat file; not a great job, but good enough, then 600 grit with the fingers.) Dressed fret ends. All notes play properly now. Also redid the finish below the bridge. Sanded to level it, starting at 400 grit, but went right through the finish. Took it to about 1500, then re-padded a couple layers of shellac. Slight roughness, but okay. Also picked out a few more bits of masking tape from around the bridge. Plays well, but there is a slight buzz on the A string. Sounds like something's vibrating, but I don't know what or where. Happens on all frets. Maybe I'm not holding it down on the fretboard enough. Lowered the nut slot just a hair. Nut could be lowered since the strings are too high at that end.